Honey Cake
One of my favorite readers, ~M, who keeps me on my toes with her fabulous questions, comments and requests, recently asked for a gluten-free "honey cake" recipe for the High Holidays. A few others did as well, so here it is!
You may notice that my "honey cake" actually has no honey in it. Feel free to experiment and amend the recipe if you miss the honey. Personally, I think this tastes just like the lekach my Bubby made for us back in the day, when I used to visit her on Long Island. She was an amazing cook and business woman and is my favorite family role model.
My Bubby's lekach had chopped nuts in it; I would suggest adding half a cup of walnuts or pecans to this recipe if you are in the mood for that sort of thing. I left the nuts out as my boys prefer their desserts without chopped nuts and usually just pick them out. I thought I'd save them the trouble this time.
½ cup boiling water
2 tablespoons organic decaf ground coffee (not instant)
2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
¼ teaspoon cloves, ground
½ cup agave nectar
¼ cup grapeseed oil
2 eggs
½ cup raisins
- Pour ½ cup boiling water through a filter containing 2 tablespoons organic decaf coffee; discard grounds cool liquid
- In a large bowl combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves
- In a separate bowl, combine agave, oil, eggs and coffee
- Mix wet ingredients into dry, then stir in raisins
- Grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan
- Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes
- Serve
Serves 6-8
This gluten free, pareve lekach is the perfect ending for a Rosh Hashanah dinner. In fact, my younger son thinks it's the perfect ending to any dinner (or snack) at any time. Lately I've been packing it as dessert in his school lunch.
Now, like him, you really can have your gluten free honey cake and eat it too!
What's your favorite High Holiday dessert? Leave a comment and let us know; leave the recipe too --we're all looking for more desserts this time of year!
Posted on September 23, 2008 in desserts by Elana
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25 comments
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YUM! Your lekach looks so moist. Thanks so much, Elana! Again, Shana Tova!
In the past I have substituted kamut for wheat flour, but this is so much better.
I soaked sultanas in freshly squeezed apple juice before adding them, a nice touch.
Toda rabah, L'Shana Tova!!
Aviva
THANK YOU for posting this!! I've been looking all over for a GF honey cake recipe :-). I was going to try making my mother's recipe and just substituting a GF flour blend for the flour.
The only problem I have now is the almond flour. I keep a Kosher home, and the only almond flour I've found so far (I've only been GF since July...) that has a hechsher is Bob's Red Mill, and you don't recommend that brand. Do you know of any other brands that are Kosher certified (by any agency...) and where I might buy them online??
Thanks.
looks great, one small beginning baker/novice question.....
When you say "Pour ½ cup boiling water over 2 tablespoons organic decaf coffee, cool"
Are we pouring water over freshly ground decaf beans or over decaf instant coffee?
Thanks
~M - Shana Tova!
Aviva -That sounds incredible, soaking the raisins in apple juice, YUM! Happy New Year.
Sue - I'm not sure of any other kosher brands of almond flour; I bet this would be a great question for the forums.
Karen - Great question, I have modified the recipe to answer it; thanks for catching this omission for me!
Thank you for this recipe! My daughter and I made it yesterday to take to a housewarming party in the afternoon. What a fragrant ride we had with the warm cake in the car! Everyone loved it. FYI - we substituted molasses for the coffee. I'm sorry to hear about the change in schools, but as others said, you need to do what you feel is right for your kids so to new beginnings. I hope your boys thrive at their new place. Many blessings to you and yours this fall season.
Thank you Elana for this wonderful honey cake recipe! I am not Jewish, but I was asked by my boyfriend's mother to make this dessert for the holiday dinner. Her only request was to make the cake healthy and her husband's only request was for it to be really sweet for the New Year (talk about pressure...). Your recipe was not only healthy, but sweet, moist and delicious :)
Your website is such an inspiration to me. I do not have Celiac disease, but my Aunt does and I try to avoid wheat when I can. Baking is my passion and I thought it was impossible without wheat. Thank you again!
PS
I just moved from Boulder to New York City and I really miss the mountains :) Good luck and Happy New Year!
beautiful... L'Shana Tovu
gp
PS - This is the perfect way to celebrate my passing the bar and my upcoming wedding (11 days!). Thanks again!
Elana - I love this recipe, will try it very soon!!
YAY! :)
Sue - Bob's red mill almond flour will pass if you have no choice but to use a kosher sub. But using his almond flour, this cake would likely need to be baked for 45-50 minutes instead or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. I've used his nut flours in a pinch and they pass well enough. Not as perfect as Elana's recommended honeyville brand blanched almond flour, but the texture is still very good, just needs longer bake time and slightly less water/liquid 1/4th-1/3 cup less is usually what I do.
Rich Ann -So glad to hear about your fragrant car ride; many blessings to you and yours this fall.
Kate -Thanks for writing; I'm glad the honey cake pleased everyone. I'll say hi to the mountains for you.
GP -Thanks! Happy New Year.
~M -Very exciting that the wedding is so soon. A big mazel tov to you and your fiance.
Athy -Thanks for the almond flour brand conversion tips! That is great.
Hi Elana, this cake looked so scrumptious I just had to try it! I used honey in place of agave. The flavor was very good, but it was rather mushy after baking it for the maximum amount of time. Seems like there might need to be another egg for more structure and rise. I thought honey was similar to agave but perhaps not!
Hope you had a wonderful holiday!
Hi Lauren,
The cake is great with agave, I would try the recipe as is before making any adjustments.
Of course, you can also feel free to to experiment and make all the necessary adjustments until it comes out right; just be sure to let us know the results of your cooking adventures!
Thanks,
Elana
Athy,
Thanks for the info about using Bob's Red Mill almond flour!! In this recipe, did you cut out any liquid?? There's not too much to begin with.... If so, what did you omit?? Or did you just bake it until it tested done????
Sue
Dear Elana,
VERY belated question about the coffee, and I may be just clueless here, but don't you need to use a filter w/ ground coffee or was that just presumed?? Or do you pour the hot water over the grounds and then pour the whole mixture into the cake???? Thanks for finding time to answer so many questions and posts!!
Sue
Sue,
This is really my error in the instructions and I appreciate your pointing it out to me! Sometimes I assume too much. I will make the change that you indicate in your comment so that the recipe says to use a filter for the coffee.
Thanks,
Elana
Hello Elana :)
Thank you so very much for sharing your talents with us - we are so enjoying your recipes, which I believe have truly saved the holidays for me (gluten-free, dairy-free)!
As we are preparing for the blessings of a revolving door with guests and family in the upcoming months, we would like to prepare things like this honey cake in advance. Does this cake freeze and thaw well?
Thanks! *SherryQ*
Hi SherryQ,
Thanks for your comment.
I haven't tried freezing this so am not sure how it will turn out. If you do so please let us know how it goes.
Thanks,
Elana
Kosher almond flour - I found a web site for nuts but of course I didn't keep it 'cause the flour was sooooo expensive. But if you google almond flour you will find it. The company is located in Brooklyn.
Great honey cakes recipe.
I'm not really a baker. It's all the measuring...oy. Anyway, my husband's birthday was recent, and I wanted to have a cake that was Kosher for Passover but with the added restriction that I don't eat sugar. I made this and was so pleased. First, it was super easy. Second, it tasted ah-maz-ing. Last, the picky folks at the dinner table loved this cake. The picky eaters had seconds. Brava.
I made this cake last night for our Easter diner today. It is amazingly good, thank you so much! We have been GF for quite awhile and have recently gone grain-free. I was sad thinking we'd have no dessert, but this was perfect.
I ended up using 1/2 coconut flour and 1/2 almond flour because I didn't have enough almond flour in the house. [I make my flours at home, buzzing coconut flakes for coconut flour and soaked/sprouted/peeled/dehydrated almonds for almond flour/meal in a food processor.] I used a 1/4 C of raw, unfiltered honey instead of agave. I used currants instead of raisins. Finally, I used 1 duck egg instead of 2 hen eggs.
It was just so good. I share my substitutions in case anyone else has similar dietary restrictions as us. Also, I admit that I have to fuss with recipes; I just can't make them straight off the page. ;)
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your comments!
A friend just refered me to this site as I just cut gluten out of my diet and although it's only June, I can't wait until the high holidays this year- something for everyone to enjoy that even I can eat! I can't wait to keep reading through your recipes and stories. Thank you!
This looks amazing! I just made a "honey" cake, substituting caramel for the honey.
I liked this so much that I made it twice, once for the High Holidays and then for my sister's birthday party. I used honey instead of her sweetner. The first version used all almond flour and it was wonderful. The second cake I used a little almond meal when I ran out of almond flour and it was fine, but I could tell the differnece. The almond flour gave a much better taste and texture.
This recipe convinced me to buy Elana's cookbook.