The Boss of All Honey Cake פֿאַניאַ לעװאַנדאָס האָניק־לעקעך מיט קאָרענע מעל

 

 

If you have a shuf at the recipe below, and if you are familiar with some of the honey cakes I have made over the last 18 years, you might be able to imagine how difficult it was for me to follow this recipe. No fresh or dried fruit? No citrus zest or juice? No coffee or tea or liquor? No spices save a bit of cloves (cloves of all things?)?  Hardly any fat? All that baking soda? Won't this cake be plain, dry, and unremarkable? No, no, and no.  This is honey cake to which all others aspire.  At first you think it is not sweet or moist, but then, just as you finish your first bite, the dark flavors of the rye and buckwheat sneak up you and you need another bite, and then another. I should have known any recipe from The Vegetarish-Dietishe Kokh Bukh would conquer all.

 

 

Rye and Buckwheat Honey Cake

2 eggs

250g (9 ounces, 1 cup) buckwheat honey

250g (9 ounces, 1 1/4 cup) sugar

1/2 teaspoon cloves 

1/2 teaspoon salt

75g  (3 1/2 ounces) oil (I used sunflower oil)

1 1/2 tablespoons (20g, 3/4 ounce) baking soda

 200g (1 3/4 cups, 7 ounces) rye flour

200g (1 3/4 cups, 7 ounces) all-purpose flour
 

Prepare a quarter-sheet pan, a nine-inch cake pan,  or an eight-inch tube pan, and heat the oven to 350f (mark 4). Beat the eggs and add the sugar and honey.  Continue beating, adding the cloves and oil. Sift together the flours and baking soda, and mix into the batter.  If the mixture is too dry add just a little water.

Scrape into prepared pan and bake 25 minutes for the quarter-sheet or 35 for the cake pan, or until a tester comes out clean.  for best results, allow to rest one day.