Food from my friend: Honey Cake

When I started this blog a year ago, I put out a request for recipes from my friends. My friend Zoe complied with several and I haven't tried any of them yet! One of them because it called for herring and that's not too easy to find here and this one because I have to time my cake-baking; my guys aren't big cake eaters so unless I know I can share it around, I tend to avoid making them! It's long overdue (and the timing works today--Aiden and Layla are over so I don't have to worry about Luna and I can pass some of the cake onto them!).

Here's the cast! I did forget to include the pecans and orange for zesting...

The flour, salt and baking powder were combined in a separate bowl.

The eggs and sugar got together in the mixing bowl. The recipe didn't say what speed or how long so I did medium high until they were well-combined.

The oil was added gradually.

The honey was added slowly, too.

Whenever I measure sticky liquids like honey, I use the same cup that I measured the oil in--that way it slides right out!

The resulting batter!

The spices were added to the room-temperature coffee.

Then the baking soda was added. The bubbling action, unfortunately, was not captured in this photo. Alas. It was pretty cool.

About a third of the flour mixture was added to the batter.

Half of the coffee mixture was added next, then a third of the flour, the rest of the coffee and the last of the flour.

I roughly chopped some pecans and tossed them with a little flour.

The zest of a cara cara orange. If you haven't tried them, you need to. They're delicious and their flesh is similarly colored to a grapefruit.

The batter was poured into a greased and floured tube pan with a removable bottom. This particular pan is ceramic-coated so the cake shouldn't stick. But you know me. And bundt pans.

The cake went into a 325F oven for almost an hour. It was really beautifully colored.

I cooled the cake for about 20 minutes in the pan and despite the cake having passed the skewer test, there was still a bit of stickiness in the center. It came out easily though.

I cooled it a bit longer before I cut it into distributable chunks. The cake is beautifully moist and there's a slight stickiness from the honey. Despite the amount of sugar and honey, it's not a very sweet cake. It'll be great with coffee or tea.

Zoe and I sang in Na Leo Lani Chorus and in three registered quartets during her time in Hawai'i. Our first quartet together, Symmetry, was a very active performing quartet and we became known for some of our comedy numbers like "'Cause I'm a Blonde", which featured our tenor, Alice; "You've Probably Guessed I've Got PMS", my parody of "Nevertheless" and our most popular, "Diet Riot". We had such a great time and we shared several huge life milestones: during our quartet tenure, Marlyn got married, I had my youngest son, Alice became a CNA and both of Zoe's sons had their Bar Mitzvahs.

Our families were so supportive of our very time-consuming hobby! Zoe's husband, Bob, was a photographer and he took this publicity shot for us not long before Marlyn moved--it's still my favorite of the four of us. Bob recently passed away. This one's for him.

Here's the promised recipe:

Honey Cake

(Courtesy of Zoe Brown)

Ingredients:

2 c. sugar

4 eggs

1 c. oil

1 c. honey

3 c. sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. strong coffee, room temperature

1/2 tsp. each: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice

1 c. nuts, lightly coated in flour

zest from 1 lemon or orange

Instructions:

Beat eggs into sugar; add oil very slowly.

Add honey.

In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Add spices to cooled coffee then add baking soda.

Add flour mixture and coffee to egg mixture, alternating so you end with the flour.

Add the nuts and zest.

Bake in a greased and floured 10" tube pan for approximately 1 hour at 325F.