Paleo Honey Cake

Honey Cake, also known as Lebkuchen, is a traditional Jewish dessert eaten during Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year); my family sometimes serves it during Yom Kippur Break Fast as well since it is a warming, comforting food. Traditionally, we eat honey during the High Holidays as this ritual sets the tone for a sweet new year. It is common to dip apples in honey at the Rosh Hashanah meals.
Most honey cake recipes include coffee, I left it out of this one to simplify the recipe and make it a couple of steps easier.
My husband loved this cake –as you can see from the photo above, a large piece has been devoured. And a friend said it was the best honey cake she had ever eaten, gluten free or not; however, I’ll let you all be the judge of that!
Paleo Honey Cake
- 2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ cup honey
- ½ cup vegan shortening
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup raisins
- In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves
- In a separate bowl, combine honey, shortening and eggs
- Mix wet ingredients into dry, then stir in raisins
- Grease and flour an 8-inch cake pan
- Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes
Serves 12
It seems that just about everyone at the synagogue we attend is gluten free and a number of the folks are Paleo as well. Given how many requests I received this past month from our congregation for a Paleo Honey Cake, I thought it made sense to share this recipe.
Here are some additional Paleo Dessert recipes for the festive Jewish caveman in all of us:
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Thank you for being so willing to share your recipes. My husband has gluten intolerance and his diet is rigid to extreme as he celiac ataxia n celiac cardiomyopathy. So when a tested n tried recipe is shared I truly appreciate it.
Sounds wonderful … just wondering though, as we do not eat raisins, could I substitute chopped dates instead? Would this work as well?
Robyn, I have substituted different dried fruits is Elana’s other Honey Cake recipe and they turned out wonderful. The different dried fruits impart a slight difference in flavor to the cake, so just think about weather or not the coffee, cinnamon, and cloves would be something you would pair with that dried fruit and change the spicing to suit the fruit.
Thanks Judy … I’ll try experimenting and see what works for me.
Cheers
Robyn
I was just thinking I needed to find a recipe for honey cake! I meant to make one for this years holiday but got distracted. Next year!
This looks delicious, and I only have one question: why is this coming AFTER the first 2 days of the High Holidays!!
Does anyone know how to make this wonderful recipe with the addition of the coffee? I think it would be well worth the extra steps and time! Thank you, Elana, for another gem!
Yes, I would love to know how to make this *with* the coffee addition, please!
Go to the recipe section and the one with coffee is there.
Hello from the Netherlands,
I am very happy with this website as in Holland we are not so very familiar with paleo recepies.
So please can you tell me what does vegan palm oil shortening do in the backingproces or where does it stand for?
grtz. Suzan
Susan, I believe this is the “fat” part.
I’m in the UK, and wondering what I could put in instead of it, because I don’t know where to get palm oil from, but I *think* you could substitute coconut oil, or maybe even butter..?
I think I will try using coconut oil. I also think I might sub some of the cinnamon for nutmeg and ginger for a really nice rounded spice taste.
I use the same product as Elana, I think, and it’s really just a basic non-hydrogenated vegetable oil shortening. It’s a reasonable substitute for butter for those who don’t eat dairy.
Hello Louise,
Thanks for the answer, I go and try cocnutoil.;-)
Yum! I’ve never had honey cake before, but it sounds delish!
This sounds amazing and so perfect! Another beautiful recipe, as always :) Thanks Elana.
Definitely going to try this one. Thanks.
Thank you Elana! I have been wanting this one!!! :)
I love this cake! I’ve made it several times for various occasions and it’s always a hit! Thank you!!
Hi Tracy, did your cake sink in the middle when you made this? I’m not sure what to do to prevent this; the rest of the cake came out perfect. Thanks!
I want to make this right away! I made your banana chocolate chip cake with vegan chocolate frosting for my daughter’s birthday earlier this month and everyone loved it. Thanks for sharing such easy and delicious recipes.
This looks and sounds amazing! I can’t wait to share it at my next dinner party :-)
Looks very tasty! I might try to make a variation using coocnut flour. One of my all time favorite flours!
Thank you, Elana for the lebkuchen recipe. Could I substitute coconut flower for the almond?
Sorry – should have consulted the FAQ’s on substituting coconut flour for almond. I should be able to make almond flour in the Vita-mixer?
Yes, you can make almond flour in a Vita-mix :-)
its best to use blanched almonds though
I will totally make this for the cake in a pumpkin trifle (Paleo) I am planning on making for Fall gatherings and Thanksgiving. This looks utterly incredible! I have been searching for the perfect gluten free cake for this trifle and my search is over. Thanks Elana!
Liz, can you give me more detail about how you do a Paleo pumpkin trifle? I’d love to see your recipe! Thanks, Karyl
L’shana tova! This looks yum.
I know Lebkichen to be a glazed spice cookie, so this cake version is a fun new way to try it! I am going to test it out for New Year’s. It is a family tradition to put a whole almond in the batter of the New Year dessert, and whoever gets the almond gets good luck for the year!
This looks really good! on the topic of special occasions, anyone have some good advice for dealing with food allergies/intolerances at parties? I am highly sensitive to gluten, cow’s dairy and artificial preservatives/sweeteners. Whenever I am in social situations, I struggle to explain to others why I eat the way I do, or feel very awkward asking for meal accommodations or bringing my own food, so many people just assume I’m doing it for my weight, which is FAR from the truth!!
Looks super yummy (as do all your recipes) – think it’s possible to do without eggs? My kids are allergic to them. :-( Thanks, LG
I am making this right now and it smells wonderful! It was a breeze to whip up. However, I used coconut oil because I didn’t have palm shortening, and now I’m thinking that was a mistake. It isn’t cooking through. :( Does anybody know what to use in place of the palm shortening?
I made this yesterday, using melted butter instead of palm oil shortening. It baked in 30mins. It’s delicious. My kids love it, they’ve taken big wedges of it to school in their lunchboxes.
Made this after I got home from work yesterday and OMG… it is so wonderful.. didn’t have palm shortening, so also used coconut oil.. found I needed to bake about 15 minutes longer, but it came out absolutely beautiful!!
Taste & texture is even better than the traditional and it rose so well, you’d never know it wasn’t made with flour..
Will be making again and again.. so easy & good!!
Over-the-top good! I think this may be my favorite treat yet. No one else in the family is aware that I made it- I don’t want to share. :)
I made your older recipe that includes coffee for Rosh Hashanah this year, and it was amazing. I gave some to my mother in law as a gift, baked in a heart shape paper case, along with some sun dried tomato crackers – inspired from your fig crackers. Thanks so much for the wonderful recipes. Shana Tova from Jerusalem x
Shana tova! Thanks for the wonderful healthy honey cake recipe, can’t wait to try it out!
We served your delish paleo honey cakes at our oneg. The raisins were soaked in pomeg/blueberry juice. The leftovers went into the kiddos lunchboxes. Beyond moist and so yummy. Thanks for sharing such sweetness xxx
Delicious hot out of the oven! Not too sweet. I used the vegan shortening recommended and didn’t melt it because the recipe did not say to. I had a hard time getting the shortening to blend in smoothly – I used a handheld electric mixer and still was left with little bits of white shortening…. they blended a little better when I mixed (by hand) the wet to the dry ingredients. At 35 minutes at 350 the center was not at all set. I wrapped foil around the pan to keep the edges from burning and baked for probably another 30 minutes. The center was set but the edges a little dry. Still very good. A keeper recipe for sure. Thanks Elena.
I had the same problem. The cake sank in the middle and did not set. Otherwise, it tastes delicious, and I subbed in mini enjoy life chocolate chips in place of the raisins.
I have just baked the Paleo Honey Cake but with the following changes, as almond flour is quite hard to obtain in Australia I used 2 cups of fine almond meal with 1/2 cup of gluten free SR Flour, 1/4 cup 100% Grapeseed oil in place of the palm oil shortening and egg replacer in place of eggs.
The cake turned out really, really nice and quite moist. Thank you for your recipes I enjoy each posting.
thank you! this was fabulous! and so glad to have a paleo honey cake
Recipe sounds awesome. I’d love to know if anyone has had success using an egg substitute like flax or chia?
Would it be ok to use the butter flavored shortening? I already have that in the house.
oh great, i am hungry now.. :D
i need to eat something.. it looks so delicious..
Just made this cake and it is wonderful!
I have been wanting to try this recipe and this morning I did. but I changed things around a little to accommodate what I had on hand. The biggest change was that I made this into muffins. I REALLY wanted apple muffins! So, I added chopped apples with the raisins. I also used butter instead of shortening, because that is what I have (and to be honest, I LOVE butter) I also used Trader Joe’s Almond Meal even though I know it is no the same thing as blanched almond flour. It’s what I had in my pantry and it’s much less expensive than Honeyville. It worked beautifully! The muffins were fantastic for a lazy Sunday brunch!
This will now be a my go-to muffin recipe – I can see added all manner of fruits and nuts to it. Thanks Elana!
This looks yummy! Do you think this would work using 8 mini loaf pans to make individual loafs?
I made this cake several times, but each time, the cake sank in the middle and did not set properly. Did anyone else have this problem? Next time I am going to cover the edges and cook it a little longer and see how it does.
Would I be able to substitute the eggs with the flaxseed and water mixture for this recipe? I would love to try this honey cake recipe for my son. Thank you!