Honey Cake: A Sweet Tradition
In Jewish tradition, New Year is celebrated with sweet foods, symbolising the hope for a sweet and joyful year ahead. Honey plays a particularly important role in the festivities, finding its way into many of the dishes served around the holiday table, from savoury mains to desserts. Apples dipped in honey are perhaps the best-known tradition, but beautifully fragrant honey cakes are a just as loved staple of the season. And my very new favourite is the Honey-Banana cake.
Naturally Sweet & Wonderfully Moist
This honey-banana cake, inspired by that tradition, is a wonderfully moist and tender cake. With a deep yet gentle sweetness from the honey, complemented by the caramel-like, almost molasses notes of ripe bananas, which also keep the crumb exceptionally soft, and a generous handful of nuts adding a welcome crunch.
One of the things I particularly love about this cake is that it isn’t overly sweet. The banana and honey do most of the work, so very little additional sugar is needed. The result is a comforting, flavourful loaf that feels equally at home on a festive table as is alongside a cup of coffee on a quiet afternoon.
A Simple, No-Fuss Bake
It’s also wonderfully simple to make. There is no need for a stand mixer, food processor or any special baking equipment, just a saucepan, a mixing bowl, a spoon and a loaf tin. It is the kind of unfussy recipe that delivers far more than the effort it requires.
Even Better the Next Day
Like many honey cakes, the flavour becomes even better after the cake has had a little time to rest. Once completely cooled, keep it well wrapped or in an airtight container. The crumb remains beautifully moist, while the honey, banana and nutty flavours have time to settle and deepen.
Serve it simply as it is or toasted with smear of butter. Whether baked for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New year) or simply because there are a few ripe bananas waiting to be used, this is a wonderfully fragrant, comforting cake worth returning to throughout the year.
Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter
150g dark honey
50g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 medium ripe bananas
3 tbsp cream fresh
340g plain (all-purpose) flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup roasted walnuts, roughly chopped
Method:
Preheat the oven to 150°C conventional (no fan). Line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Place the butter, honey and brown sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Stir continuously until the butter has melted and the mixture is smooth and well combined. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.
Ensure the mixture is well emulsified, and smooth.
Once cooled, add the eggs one at a time, whisking vigorously after each addition until fully incorporated. Continue whisking until the mixture is smooth and well emulsified.
In a separate bowl, fork together the flour, cinnamon, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Add the roughly chopped walnuts and toss them through the dry ingredients.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and gently fold together with a wooden spoon until slightly combined.
Mash the ripe bananas into a smooth purée, mix in the cream fresh, then gently stir them into the batter, mix just to evenly combined.
Take care not to overmix, as this can make the cake heavier and less tender.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and gently smooth the top.
Bake in the preheated 150°C conventional oven for 50–60 minutes, or until the cake is well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out without any raw batter or wet crumbs attached.
Allow the cake to cool in the tin for around 10–15 minutes before carefully lifting it out and transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recommendation: Coffee Icing
Finish the cake with a simple coffee icing made with icing sugar and freshly brewed espresso. Adjust the amount of coffee to suit your preferred consistency – keep it thick for a rich, generous topping, or loosen it slightly for a glaze that can be drizzled over the cake.
The gentle bitterness and roasted notes of the coffee pair beautifully with the sweetness of the honey, complementing the caramel-like banana and toasted walnuts.
Tips
Use very ripe bananas. The riper the bananas, the better. Softer, sweeter and more intensely flavoured, works better for cake mixture.
Let the honey mixture cool completely. Don’t add the eggs to a warm mixture, the heat might begin to cook them. Once cooled, add the eggs one at a time and whisk well to emulsify.
Mix gently. Once the wet ingredients are added to the flour, be gentle. A few small lumps are perfectly fine. Overmixing might develop gluten in the flour, which can leave the cake with a tougher, less tender crumb.
Keep the baking paper in place. Before lining the loaf tin, lightly butter the inside around the edges. This helps the baking paper cling to the tin and prevents it from folding in as you pour in the batter.
Choose your honey. I have made this cake with both dark and regular honey, and both work beautifully. Personally, I prefer dark honey, as it gives the cake a deeper, more distinctive flavour with subtle molasses notes, as well as a wonderfully rich colour.
Roast the walnuts first. Toasting the walnuts before chopping them makes a noticeable difference. Try roasting them with a pinch of salt.
Give it time to rest. This cake texture and flavour improve as it cools. Even better, wrap the cooled cake and leave it until the following day, the honey and banana flavours deepen, and the crumb becomes beautifully moist.