Honey Cake Muffins

I make honey cake every year for Rosh Hashanah, using my Aunt Belle’s family-famous recipe.

Every once in a while I change the recipe — a different honey, an additional spice (or less seasoning), and so on, just to see if we like it better or I should just stick to the original. I’ve even adapted the recipe to make it with date honey.

They’re all delicious. I love honey cake and I look forward to it every year as a special holiday treat.

Last year I decided to make honey cake into muffins. So — breakfast or afternoon snack instead of for dessert. They are sweet — it is honey “cake” after all — but not as sweet as the recipe I use for dessert. The muffins are also mellowed a bit with oats.

During the year I made these muffins again, several times, using several different spice blends. The recipe below is the more traditional Rosh Hashanah flavor, but you could delete the cinnamon and nutmeg and use one teaspoon Hawaij spice instead. They’re a convenient riff on honey cake; freezable too.

Honey Cake Muffins

• 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

• 2/3 cup quick oats

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoon grated fresh orange peel

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

• 3/4 cup honey

• 1/2 cup cold coffee

• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 2 large eggs

• old fashioned oats, optional (or use chopped nuts)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease 10 muffin tins. In a bowl, mix the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, orange peel, cinnamon and nutmeg together until uniform in color. Heat the honey and coffee together over low heat briefly, so that they are easy to blend with a whisk. Add the vegetable oil and eggs and whisk the ingredients until they are uniform in color. Stir in the flour mixture and mix until thoroughly combined. Spoon the batter into the greased muffin tins. Top, if desired, with old fashioned oats or chopped nuts. Bake for about 18 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 10

Date Honey Cake

I’ve fallen in love with Date Honey. Actually it isn’t honey, the kind made by bees, but a syrup made from dates. It’s thick (though not as thick as bee honey) and robust (but not as strong as molasses) and gloriously sweet, (though not overpowering).

I’ve used it on/in so many foods that I’ve had to order a few more jars (there are several brands online; I haven’t seen any in my local supermarkets). I like it best on plain yogurt, though some of the official “tasters” in my life said it was best over ice cream.

Beyond how delicious it tastes, I’ve also learned that in the bible, when it talks of honey, it means date honey, not bee honey (in most cases).

I love learning stuff like this.

All of this means that this year, I am making my Aunt Belle’s family-famous honey cake using date honey. Not that Aunt Belle’s cake isn’t still a big winner; just that Date Honey Cake is something new and I want to share it with my family and friends.

Date Honey Cake is not as heavy as regular honey cake, a fact that might be appealing to those who complain that Honey Cake is too dense.

Here’s the recipe:

Date Honey Cake

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons grated fresh orange peel

1 cup date honey

1/2 cup cold, strong coffee

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

sliced almonds, optional

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 9” x 5” loaf pan. Line the pan with parchment paper, then lightly grease the paper. Set the pan aside. Mix the flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and orange peel together into a bowl. Set aside. Mix the date honey, coffee and vegetable oil together and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Stir in the honey mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Scatter some sliced almonds on top if desired. Bake for about 1 hour or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 servings

Aunt Belle’s Spicy Honey Cake

Next week I have to figure out what to do with leftover Honey Cake crumbs. I baked my usual recipe for Rosh Hashanah and overcooked it, so it came out dry and crumbly.

But I love Honey Cake and always look forward to this time of year to have some, so I baked another using my Aunt Belle’s famous (in our family) recipe. This cake is rich, dense and moist (unless you over cook it), and a little on the spicy side. Flavor varies depending on the kind of honey you use of course. Much darker and heartier with buckwheat honey, lighter and milder with clover, alfalfa or orange blossom honey.

As for those crumbs, maybe as a topping for apple crisp? Streusel for pie? Pudding? Ice cream mix-in?

I’ll keep you posted.

Aunt Belle’s Spicy Honey Cake

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1-1/2 tablespoons grated fresh orange peel

2 teaspoons grated fresh lemon peel

2 cups honey

1 cup strong coffee

1/4 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

sliced almonds, optional

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease two 9” x 5” loaf pans. Line the pans with parchment paper, then lightly grease the paper. Set the pans aside. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg together into a bowl. Stir in the orange peel and lemon peel and set aside. Heat the honey, coffee and vegetable oil together over low-medium heat for a minute or two, just enough to blend them together easily. Set aside to cool. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Stir in the honey mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Spoon the batter into the prepared pans. Scatter some sliced almonds on top. Bake for about 1-1/4 hours or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes 2 cakes