A Honey of a Honey Cake

I'm back! After a really long hiatus (insert life-got-in-the-way excuses here), I'm thrilled to present the easiest, most delicious honey cake ever. And just in time for Rosh Hashanah. Honey cake, the traditional holiday dessert to symbolize a sweet new year, has a deservedly bad reputation. It's often dry and dense. Even my grandmother's version was nearly inedible without a gallon of milk to wash it down.  And she was a fabulous baker. 

This recipe, however, is a winner.  It is one of hundreds of recipes gifted to me a few years ago by the legendary Arthur Schwartz, and was sent to him by a listener who wrote: Now this is a honey cake! He'd given me a number of honey cake recipes, but I chose this one for its utter simplicity.




Start by beating the eggs and sugar until very, very light.  Add in the honey and oil, then alternate adding the flour mixture and coffee. Begin and end with the dry ingredients.



The batter is very thin. Pour into a greased loaf pan.  I just sprayed mine with Pam. It released pretty well, except for one small spot which, after I "repaired" it, was unnoticeable.  You could line the greased pan with parchment if you want to ensure a complete release.



Bake for about an hour. The edges will look a bit well done, but test with a skewer to ensure the center is cooked.



Let it cool, then slice and serve. It's even better the second day!



Some of my tasters, Cheryl and Alex. Baby Stellan is too young to enjoy the cake, though he's trying to grab it! Cheryl declared he cake moist and delicious and Alex finished off the loaf. The DH especially enjoyed the caramelized edges.



The recipe, below. I followed it exactly. The nuts I used were blanched slivered almonds, a tribute to my grandmother who always decorated her cake with whole almonds across the top of the loaf, like buttons running the length of the cake.

Apple Dapple (aka Fresh Apple Cake)

Greetings after a rather lengthy blog sabbatical, but A Cake Bakes is back with a lovely fresh apple cake recipe, perfect for your Rosh Hashana dinner or any dinner or teatime, for that matter. It's a vintage recipe, probably from the 1950s, and it gave me a chance to use my personalized baking pan, a thoughtful gift from my boss. (David, I'll bring you a slice on Monday!)

This is a quick and easy recipe which puts your apple picking harvest to excellent use. The caramel glaze heightens the depth and flavor (and sweetness) of this rather simple cake. I have no idea why it's called Apple Dapple, but its unusual title is why I chose it from my vast collection of apple cake recipes.

The most time consuming part of this recipe is peeling and chopping the four large apples. The recipe didn't indicate the size of the apple pieces; you can see what I did below.

Mix the eggs, oil and sugar by hand or machine...

until it looks like this, smooth and glossy.

Add in the dry ingredients, then the apples. The batter is so thick that, fearing the machine would crush the fruit, I mixed them in with a spoon (right after I took this photo).

Place the batter in a greased and floured 12 x 9 inch baking pan.

Use a spatula to spread it to the edges.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Just before the cake is done, make the topping by melting butter, and adding brown sugar and a bit of milk. Let the mixture boil for three minutes.

Pour the topping onto the hot cake.

I followed this recipe exactly, using vegetable oil for the oil, and using one stick of butter for the Oleo. I added a teaspoon of cinnamon but not the nuts, as my son who will be enjoying this cake later, wouldn't touch it if he detected a nut. Always preheat the oven before beginning any recipe.

Grandma Jean's Challah: A Rosh Hashanah Miracle

Yesterday, I spent time with my Grandma Jean, even though she died seven years ago at the age of 100.  How is this possible?

It all began in the morning when, after deciding to bake a challah, I went in search of a vintage recipe in my collection.  I figured my best chance was in one of the recipe collection books I recently took from my mother's kitchen.  After looking through several and finding not one challah recipe, I opened a spiral-bound book of recipes contributed by members the Akron chapter of B'Nai B'Rith Women. Bingo, I found a recipe -- but not just any recipe.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that the contributor was none other than my grandmother, Jean Glauberman.

Grandma Jean was famous in Akron for her baked goods, and queen among those was her challah.  She baked them all the time and for every occasion, to celebrate births, to honor deaths, for holidays and every week for Shabbat.  She didn't let age slow her down -- at age 98 she baked a challah for my son's Bar Mitzvah.  It flew in the overhead compartment on her flight from Akron to New York.  (Below, the challah in action.)

When she died in 2005, I thought her recipe went with her.  That's because she really had no recipe.  When I'd ask, she'd say, well you start with a five-pound bag of flour, at which point (and this was way before I became a fearless baker) my head would start to spin and brain become as cloudy as a flour storm.

So imagine my surprise and delight when the one recipe I found turned out to be hers!  (I luckily took her at her "written" word that all measurements are approximate and they are, I discovered.)

Of course, I set out to make it, and you should too.  Though it is not as rich as many challah recipes (Grandma Jean, pictured below in 2002, was too frugal to use more than two eggs, for example), it's really quite good.  My brother reminded me that she used to add a drop of yellow food coloring to her challah, I realize now, to give the appearance of an egg-ier, richer bread.  She also used this dough as the base for many other breads (onion bread, hardtack, etc.)  -- see the recipe above, which I'm sure she dictated to someone.  I can just hear her say: Or make rolls, or whatever.

Want to give this a go for the Jewish New Year?
Make a well in the middle of ten cups of flour.

Add one package of dry yeast and pour a little warm water over to cover it.  Wait five minutes, until it begins to foam a bit.

Add the rest of the ingredients, as indicated on the recipe -- BUT, the four quarts of water is definitely wrong.  Start with two cups and add more as needed.

Then, knead the dough on a lightly floured surface.  When smooth and elastic, place in a bowl and cover until it doubles in size.

Note to self:  Next time, use a bowl large enough to accommodate the dough.

This recipe makes two large loaves.  For the the first one, I just formed a ball, placed on a baking sheet and brushed with an egg wash (a beaten egg).  I baked it in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

It will look like this, when it's done.

For the second loaf, I decided to get fancy as Grandma Jean did and braid the challah, but in a round shape in the New Year tradition.  For instructions, I turned to Smitten Kitchen, the mother of all food blogs.  Click here to learn how.  You can see illustrations below.