Honey Applesauce Cake

Chaya

Sep 6

2 min read

This honey applesauce cake is perfect for Rosh Hashanah! It's super soft and moist and full of warm honey flavor.

Slices of iced brown honey loaf cake on a wooden board, close-up on parchment, with a warm blurred kitchen background.

It’s almost Rosh Hashanah! And that means it’s time for honey cake.

I always had in my mind a memory of the perfect honey cake. It was moist, flavorful, almost… sticky from the honey.

But every recipe I found was so… dry. Or lacking in flavor. Or required me to whip yolks and whites separately or *gasp* pour in coffee. (not that I don’t love coffee. But inside a honey cake it does not belong. Alongside it is a totally different story.)

Loaf cake on parchment in a wooden tray beside a honey dipper and bowl of honey on a light stone countertop.

So I succumbed to just eating mediocre bakery cake and left the perfect honey cake as a distant (likely made up) memory.

And then, I stumbled upon a recipe for an applesauce cake. And I realized: that is the secret ingredient honey cake has been missing!

Fortunately, applesauce and honey make for the ideal Rosh Hashanah pairing.

Close-up of a sliced loaf cake with beige glaze on a wooden board, on parchment, with a blurred kitchen background.

So I baked and I tweaked and I baked and tweaked and I baked and adjusted some more.

And the memory of my perfect honey cake finally came into reality.

It is moist, flavorful, and yes, almost sticky. It freezes excellently, and most importantly: makes 2 cakes! (you’re welcome.)

K’Siva V’Chasima Tova!

Two freshly baked loaf cakes in paper-lined pans on a wire rack, golden brown with cracked tops on a light countertop.

Honey Applesauce Loaf Cake

Equipment:

Two 1 lb Loaf Pans

Ingredients:

Honey- Applesauce Cake:

2 ½ cups flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 ½ cups applesauce
¾ cup honey
1 egg+ 2 egg yolks
2/3 cup oil
2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Honey Glaze:

2 cups confectioners sugar
2 tbsp honey
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tbsp pasteurized egg whites (see notes)
1-2 tbsp water

Directions:

Prepare the Honey Applesauce cake:

Preheat oven to 325^{o F}. Line 2 loaf pans with parchment and spray them with baking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.
Add the applesauce, honey, egg, yolks, oil, and apple cider vinegar. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Divide batter evenly between prepared loaf pans. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. (If you see the cake is browning too quickly, you can cover it with foil while its baking)
Allow cake to fully cool before glazing.
Prepare the glaze:
In a small bowl, whisk together the glaze ingredients.
Pour over cooled cakes.

Notes:

Adding the egg whites helps the glaze to harden nicer on top of the cake
Cakes freezes really well!

Smacznego!