Perfect for Rosh Hashanah and year round. The tahini makes the cake unbelievably moist and full of mild halva flavor.
As with any pound cake, the flavor deepens and improves over time, so prepare it a day or two in advance and wraps loosely with aluminum foil.
Make sure to use parve chocolate chips to keep the cake parve.
Tahini and honey cake
Course: DessertCuisine: Israeli, ArabDifficulty: Easy1
loaf15
minutes55
minutesTahini and honey cake is very moist, and has a light halva taste.
As with any pound cake, the flavor deepens and improves over time, so prepare it a day or two in advance and wraps loosely with aluminum foil.
Make sure to use parve chocolate chips to keep the cake parve.
INGREDIENTS
1¼ cups flour
1¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon cardamom
Pinch nutmeg
2 eggs at room temperature
½ cup sugar
8 oz. (¾ cup) honey
6 oz. (¾ cup) tahini
¼ cup corn, safflower or very mild olive oil
⅓ cup orange juice
½ cup chocolate or carob chips (use parve chips if you want the cake to be parve)
DIRECTIONS
- Oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Set aside.
- In a standing mixer fitted with balloon whisk mix the eggs for 5 minutes and gradually add the sugar and honey. With the mixer running add tahini and oil.
- Lower the speed of the mixer and add flour mixture and orange juice alternately, starting and finishing with the flour. Pour the batter into the pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a tester inserted to the middle comes out clean. Let rest for a couple of hours, and preferably a day, before serving. Keep covered at room temperature up to 4 days
Does this freeze well?
Hi Melanie, although I’ve never tried, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t freeze well. Just make sure to seal it in a freezer bag or container to prevent it from drying.
I was wondering if you could use gluten free flour for this pound cake, if so which flour would you use t
thank you
I do not have a lot of experience baking with GF flour, but from everything I read, a simple all purpose gluten free flour should work fine in here. There’s not a lot of a flour in the cake to start with, and it should work just fine. I’ll be happy to hear how it turned out, if you do try it. Also, did you see my recipe for tahini bread in this website? It has no flour and is gluten free (Israelis make it for Passover.)
Are the chocolate chips necessary? Should I replace them or just omitting is ok?
I know it sounds weird, but I feel they are necessary. They make this cake better. You can substitute with carob chips, for example. Or chopped dates.
Shalom! Would need to bake always GF as I am celiac. Vered, do you have any gluten-free bread recipes, especially challah?
Can I add apples to the cake?
Interesting! I think it can work well. Just fold in 1-2 peeled and diced apples. I would do it without the chocolate chips then, and maybe use raisins instead, or any other sweet dried fruit. Let me know if you do it, I’m very curious. And shana tova!
Metric measurements would have been amazing for those of us in Israel 🇮🇱😀
I know, you’re right, I’ll take it as a project for the new year. Shana tova!