Comments on: majestic and moist honey cake

By: Leah

Leah — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:10:04 +0000

I’m psyched to see a whole web-page dedicated to the decadence that is honey cake. My grandmother had made honey cake (or as we call it in Yiddish, “Lekach”) for many many years and was always really delicious and one of my favorite traditional desserts growing up. Her Lekach always came out tasty, spongy, and oh so sticky on top. Mmm! And there was always just the right amount of burnt edges…
I don’t recall her ever using quite so many ingredients as the ones listed here, but since I don’t know what her recipe is (and doubt I will ever figure it out since her memory has sadly grown fuzzy), I’m excited to try this version. The only difference is that I will be adding chopped walnuts, something my grandmother always used.
I’ll let you know how it goes! Thanks!

By: Marge

Marge — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:33:32 +0000

Great recipe!My cake looked fantastic and smelled devine! I put some raisins in but I have to say that the sugar seems to be way too much…So I only put one cup honey and less than one cup of sugar and it is still sweet!! Thank you very much for sharing!

By: carol

carol — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:44:10 +0000

When I was a young girl, mom bought honey cake at the A&P grocery store, it was my favorite cake, and have never found anything close to the grocery store cake, it was very dark and dense, I can remember the cloves….im 54 yrs old and would love to have that cake again, I’m going to give this a try and see if its close.. thanks Carol

By: athomeinbangalore

athomeinbangalore — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:21:12 +0000

Just Baked this. This is awesome. Never has a cake I baked turned this way! Thank you so much.

By: deb

deb — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:52:06 +0000

I would use any tea that you like. I think I usually use coffee so this hasn’t come up. You can mix them together but they’re all going into the well of dry ingredients just the same so you can save that step.

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 04:30:18 +0000

What kind of tea would you recommend? I have orange tea, mint tea, black tea, orange pekoe, green tea, oolong tea.

Also, would it be okay to mix the honey into the tea before adding it?

By: Anjali

Anjali — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 05:40:12 +0000

Thanks for the recipe. I tried it with the lesser amount of baking powder and the cake perfect. It rose just enough and did not collapse. I tried a little variation in the ingredients: No whiskey but a cup of red wine, added some orange zest and orange essence and added tsf of ground nutmeg and ginger. Tastes great!!

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:43:29 +0000

I just made what is supposed to be Julia Child’s recipe for Pain d’Epices, a similar cake to this one. It has a giant crater in the middle. I wish I’d read your update sooner, because I also concluded that mine had too much leavener, because nothing else was strange or unusual about the recipe other than the 1 TABLESPOON of baking soda (no baking powder) to 3-1/2 cups of flour. I wondered about the amount, but the first time I make a recipe I try to follow it. It rose like crazy shortly after I put it in the oven, spilling out of the pan and all over the oven floor before collapsing in on itself. The recipe mentions that it will “rise beautifully”, but not that a subsequent fall would be equally spectacular. I should have gone with my gut and put 1/3 the amount of baking soda. This baking experience has been a PAIN d’epices indeed!

By: Staci

Staci — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:36:23 +0000

Love! I love honey cake and this is my favorite! Made it this year for Roshashana and tonight for a Bake Sale fundraiser! 3 small loaf pans is perfect for this batter. Used the 1 Tbsp of bp (because I skipped ahead to the recipe and didn’t read the update the first time) and they didn’t sink! I agree with lia and eliabel too, it’s better on day 2 or 3. Thanks!

By: eliabel

eliabel — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:30:41 +0000

I made your cake several times, we really love this cake. Thanks for sharing the recipe and for your wonderful blog.

I usually add walnuts and raisins and I wait to open the cake 48 ours. It is at its best then, I think.