Honey cake are an essential part of the Jewish High Holidays. They’re served on Rosh Hashanah when we wish for a new year as sweet as honey, and they’re popular for breaking the fast of Yom Kippur.
Honey cake, or lekach in Yiddish, comes from the Ashkenazi cuisine, but for this recipe I withdrew inspiration from a Dutch bread/cake called Ontbijtkoek (no, I have no idea how to pronounce it!) It’s a loaf cake that’s served for breakfast. It’s made with a mix of rye flour and white flour, the classic Northern European spices (ginger, nutmeg, allspice, clove, cinnamon) and with no fat at all.
I started with the Ontbijtkoek recipe and combined it with the Ashkenazi lekach for a rye-chocolate-honey cake that’s incredibly delicious with deep, earthy flavors. A great way to start the new year.
10
servings20
minutes1
hour5
minutes1
hour25
minutesThis is no ordinary honey cake, or lekach. It uses rye flour and earthy spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and clove. Then there’s chocolate, coffee and rum. The results are bold and wonderful.
the cake can be parve by using oil instead of butter. Details in the recipe.
Note: As with most mixed cakes, and especially honey cakes, this cake will ripe and get to its full flavor and the best texture a day or two after you baked it. Take that into consideration!
INGREDIENTS
2 cups rye flour
1½ all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground giner
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon clove
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup soft butter or mild flavor oil
1 cup honey
½ cup date syrup (silan) or more regular honey
1½ cups sugar
3 large eggs
¾ cup prepared coffee
2 tablespoons rum or whiskey, or more coffee
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (use parve or vegan chocolate for a parve cake)
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Grease two 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pans and line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients: rye flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, all the spices and salt. Set aside.
- Put soft butter, honey, silan, sugar and eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until incorporated. Add coffee and rum and mix shortly again. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until smooth.
- Pour about ⅔ of the batter into the two prepared loaf pan (a ⅓ in each.)
- Melt chocolate in the microwave in 20 seconds intervals and mix into the batter that’s left in the bowl. Spoon the chocolate batter on top of the honey batter in the two pans, then use a knife or the handle of a wooden spoon to gently swirl the batters together to create the marble pattern. do not over mix!
- Bake for 65-70 minutes or until a tester inserted to the center of the cake comes out with only crumbs.
- Remove cakes from the oven and put on a cooling rack until they cool completely. Cover with aluminum foil and let stand at room temperature for 1-2 days before serving.
- Keep covered at room temperature up to a week. You can wrap the cake and keep in the fridge up to 10 days, or freeze for longer.