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