Honey Cake and Apple Picking

Shana Tova Umetukah! A Happy and Sweet New Year!

Alex and I went up to Boston to celebrate Rosh Hashana with my family. Some of the traditional foods for the Jewish New Year include apples and honey, as well as other sweet and round foods. This symbolizes the cycle of life and the cycle of the year (round apples or challah) and sweetness for your upcoming year (honey/raisins.)

My mother tried a new recipe for honey cake, which I immediately fell in love with. She used a dark honey and the deep spicy flavor really came through. It's a dense and moist cake, perfect with tea or a glass of milk!

Honey Cake

Beyond Milk and Honey, Israeli Embassy Cookbook
Ingredients:

1.5 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 cup nuts
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
4 tsp oil
2 cups DARK honey
1/2 cup brewed coffee
Optional
1/2 tsp cinn
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger

Instructions:

Preheat to 325. Line 2 loaf pans with foil/parchment paper (or simply grease a bundt/tube pan), butter (or spray to keep it parve).

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Set aside.

Beat the eggs, gradually adding sugar, until it's thick and light yellow in color. Beat in the oil, honey, and coffee. Stir in the dry ingredients and nuts.

Turn the batter into the pan, bake for 50 min, until browned and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool before removing from your pan.

The weather was so perfect that we decided to go apple picking on Sunday with my sister and my 2-year old nephew. It was so much fun! He loved picking the apples off the trees and putting them into the bags. He also loved taking big bites of an apple, putting it down, picking another one, and taking another bite.

Can you see that he's double-fisting two huge apples?

Alex and I flew home with a whole carry-on bag stuffed with freshly picked Macintosh and Honey Crisp apples. There is nothing that says "fall" more that a crisp Mac apple, eaten straight from the tree. So good.

I can't wait to bake something! Any suggestions?