Honey Cakes come in many sizes, flavors and textures, yet they all have one thing in common: sweetness.
I have tasted many and know that every country interprets what a good honey cake is.
My Grandfather z’l used to love the honey biscuits from Israel, and I can still remember him saying. “Ve Zenen der honig kichlech?” “where are the honey cookies?” These same honey cookies are still available with the same recipe from a long time ago. The first time I saw it in a shop after many years, every memory of my grandfather and grandmother returned.
They lived in Eretz Yisroel in a city called Bat-Yam in a small town called Bobov. Today this town is not what it was when I was growing up. My parents would take us there every summer to be with her parents, and it was a completely different place from what we were used to, very provincial. It was also the place that my parents met each other and got married.
I can remember the kitchen and my grandmother making omelets for us in the morning. The weirdest thing is, as I write this, I can taste the cheese she added to the mixture – all the food memories of a Bubby’s kitchen.
These are what the honey cake recipes are about; they are passed from generation to generation, becoming the staples we always return to even when we find new recipes to try.
I know that in England, most people add ginger, in Europe, the texture is denser, America has a light and fluffy recipe.
The recipe I’m sharing is the one my mother z’l always made; I would say it’s in the American style. Baking this cake is not easy as you separate the eggs, but it does come out beautifully fluffy.
Honey cakes are usually recipes passed down through generations that we have learned to love.
The most important meaning that we give to our honey baking is the sweetness of a new year.
My wish – whatever way you like the honey cake, and some don’t like it at all – is that the year ahead be one in which we can find all the sweetness that Hashem sends our way, in the best of health.
Bubby’s Honey Cake
Ingredients
- 12 eggs Separated
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 lb runny honey
- 3/4 cup Oil (sunflower/canola)
- 1 lemon squeezed
- 1 tsp cinnamon optional
- 3 cups all pupose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder heaped
Instructions
- Mix whites in clean bowl.
- Add 1 cup of sugar slowly until it forms peaks and set aside.
- In separate bowl, mix yolks together with 1 cup sugar, honey, oil, cinnamon and lemon, and beat together.
- Add baking soda and powder to the flour andslowly mix into the yolk mixture
- When this is mixed well slowly Fold whites into yellow mixture
- Place in 10×15 inch tray and bake at 200 (400) for 15 minutes
- Reduce heat to 185 (325) for 1 more hour
- Check with toothck to make sure it’s ready.