This honey cake is moist, rich in flavor, and full of spices that will make your house smell like autumn. We make this cake every Rosh Hashanah, it's our favorite time of the year.
This cake says moist and delicious for a few days. It even tastes better one or two days later. This cake will become your new favorite tea cake, I can't wait for you to try it!
Check out our honey recipes like our honey cupcakes, and our honey lemon pepper wings!
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Why this recipe works
- Made with simple ingredients.
- Stay moist for 3 days!
- Is really easy to make and takes little time!
- Is so fluffy and moist and takes little effort to make.
Honey cake for Rosh Hashana
In Rosh Hashana in the Jewish culture, it’s a tradition to make lots of foods and desserts to celebrate the Jewish “new year’s” holiday. This cake is one of the desserts that we see every year around the table.
Ingredients
Before you start to make this Jewish honey cake recipe, measure and prepare your ingredients so the cooking process will go smoothly and easily.
Flour– we used all-purpose flour for this recipe. cake flour will work great as well.
Granulated sugar– we like to use granulated sugar, also the most common sugar used in baking. Caster sugar will work great as well.
Oil- we used vegetable oil for this recipe, canola oil can work as well.
Eggs- you will need large eggs for this recipe. Make sure that your eggs are at room temperature.
Tea- make a strong black tea and cool it lightly.
Vanilla extract- for flavor.
Baking powder and baking soda– baking powder and baking soda allow the cake to rise. Make sure that your baking powder and baking soda are not expired.
Salt- we used kosher salt for this recipe, you will need ¼ teaspoon of salt.
Cinnamon- gives this cake an amazing taste.
Nutmeg- you will need ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg.
Instructions
Step 1: Preheat an oven to 160c (320f) and prepare a parchment paper-lined loaf pan.
Step 2: In a separate large mixing bowl, add the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and honey, and mix well with a whisk. Add the hot tea into the wet mixture and mix until combined.
Step 3: In a separate medium mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix with a small whisk until combined.
Step 4: Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients mixture and carefully mix until just combined. (don’t overmix!)
Step 5: our the batter into a parchment paper-lined loaf pan and bake in a 160c (320f) preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Step 6: Drizzle honey on top of the cake right when it comes out of the oven. Smooth it out with a spoon.
Step 7: Let the cake cool for at least 30 minutes and serve!
Expert Tips
- Use room temperature ingredients. It is important that you use room-temperature ingredients like eggs. This step ensures that your mixture mixes into a homogenous mixture and bakes perfectly. you don’t want to place cold batter into the oven.
- Don’t overmix the batter, you don’t want to develop the gluten in the flour. This step ensures you have moist cake and not dense and dry cake.
- Measure your flour correctly! When measuring your flour, avoid scooping it with a measuring cup. Instead, stir the flour with a spoon to create as many air pockets as possible, and spoon it into your measuring cup. Finally, level it with a back of a knife.
- Line your baking pan with parchment paper! This step helps the cake to release easily from the pan.
- Before you start to make this recipe, measure and prepare your ingredients so the baking process will go smoothly and easily.
Faq's
The flavor of this cake is sweet, tender, moist, full of cinnamon flavor, and delicious.
Yes! It's popular to mix and sprinkle nuts in this cake, add chopped walnuts to the batter of the cake, or top the cake with sliced almonds.
Check the middle of the loaf by inserting a toothpick into the loaf. When the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. If not, bake for another 5-10 minutes.
Storing
Store this cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Freezing
This cake is very easy to freeze. After baking, let the cake cool to room temperature, transfer it into a freezer-friendly Ziploc bag, or wrap it tightly with a plastic wrap. Freeze for up to 3 months.
To thaw: place the cake in the refrigerator overnight or place it a room temperature for a few hours.
Substitutions
Honey- you can swap the honey with maple syrup if you want to make this cake and dont have honey available.
Vegan- make this vegan by swapping the eggs with ⅓ cup of applesauce.
Variations
Frosting- you can add frosting and use your favorite frosting for these! We love cream cheese frosting, maple frosting, honey frosting, etc.
Spices- you can add your favorite warm fall-themed spices for these cupcakes like nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin spice, etc.
More fall recipes:
Pecan upside down cake- This pecan upside down cake is made with a moist and simple vanilla cake and topped with an easy caramel pecan topping.
Apple upside-down cake- This apple upside-down cake recipe is a must-have for fall. This apple upside-down cake features an incredibly moist cake that is loaded with cinnamon and nutmeg, topped with a caramelized apple topping.
Easy apple cake- This cake is fluffy, light, airy, moist, soft, and delicious. This apple cake contains only a few simple ingredients to make and takes under 20 minutes to prep.
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📖 Recipe
Moist Honey Cake (Rosh Hashanah)
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups Flour
- ½ cup Sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 Eggs
- ½ cup Honey
- ½ cup Tea
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 160c (320f) and prepare a parchment paper-lined loaf pan.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, add the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and honey, and mix well with a whisk. Add the hot tea into the wet mixture and mix until combined.
- In a separate medium mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix with a small whisk until combined.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients mixture and carefully mix until just combined. (don’t overmix!)
- Pour the batter into a parchment paper-lined loaf pan and bake in a 160c (320f) preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Drizzle honey on top of the cake right when it comes out of the oven. Smooth it out with a spoon.
- let the cake cool for at least 30 minutes and serve!
Debz
The cake has fallen in the middle. I didn’t want to overmix, there were lumps in the batter when I poured it into the pan. Should I have sifted the dry into the wet?
RichandDelish
Hi! You should mix the batter until you do not see lumps of flour visible. And I always recommend sifting the flour. Also, this may happen because you opened the oven door in the middle of it baking or because you didn't measure the flour correctly. I give tips in the notes below for how to get perfect results every time, they can be helpful for you! Hope this helps 🙂
doris
can you mix something with the honey cuz I don't like straight honey
Regina
This is just the best cake, dress up with cream or frosting and/or fruit, or just make your favourite cuppa and enjoy. Love it.
Sofi
Loved it!!! Easy and Delicious!
Teresa. Krijgsman
I made it with GF flour and its perfect. no other changes
Mark
My first attempt baking a Honey Cake and I was thrilled with the results. Next time I probably will add some raisins and some sort of nuts.
Cal
Delicious and moist. I kept spreading more and more layers of honey over the top after baking. My family really loved it.
Inessa
Great recipe! Thank you very much for posting it. Made it in mini loaf pans.
Unfortunately, I didn't get that rich brown color as shown in picture.
Thank you!
Genny Burgess
Can I make this in small individual loaf pans? One pan with multiple small loaf sections?
RichandDelish
Yes!
Maeby
320f was too low for me. I live in Colorado so it could just be the altitude. I did it on 320f for 70 minutes and it was still not cooked through so then I turned it up to 350f and cooked for another 10 minutes, turned out a little crispy on the edges but very good in the center. Not sure if this was a problem with altitude or a problem with the recipe.
Gila
Can I double up this recipe to bake in 20x9 large cake tin or should I rather bake in four loaf tins
RichandDelish
Yes!
Beverly Adler
Recipe doesn’t indicate loaf pan size just says to use standard pan. I would like to know whether the 4x8 or 5”x9” is preferred.
Thank you.
Beverly
RichandDelish
I used a 5x9 inch but both will work!
Fanny
I’m confused about the degree of baking. You note that the oven should be preheated to 320F and then you note that the cake should go into a 350F preheated oven.
Which is it please? Would love to bake it tomorrow.
Thank you and Shanna Tova!
RichandDelish
Hi! I fixed it. You need to bake it in a 160c (320f) preheated oven. Enjoy, Shanna Tova!
Holly
Thank you for this simple yet divine recipe. I used earl grey tea for the batter. This cake was super moist, with just the right amount of sweetness.
NB I used the metric measurements as Australian measuring cups differ from US.
Jonelle
What kind of tea do you use?
RichandDelish
Hi! I used black tea for this.
Nicola
I've heard of this cake before and was intrigued by it and I've finally now been able to try it. I would like to say, this is one of the most moist and light cakes I've ever had. I couldn't wait for it to cool down completely and my first bite just disappeared in my mouth. So light and fluffy! I'm going to be making this over and over again. Would absolutely recommend!
RichandDelish
It is one of the lightest cakes, that's why I love it so much! Thank you for your review!