This traditional Rosh ha-Shana dessert was one of my mom’s favorite. She never wrote down the recipe, and every store bought honey cake I tried in Israel was so unimpressive – they were too moist, or too sweet or too heavy, mostly all of the above. As I was leaving Israel my dear friend wrote me his mom’s recipe which I implemented several years later and the result was the closest one or even better than my mom baked (honestly by then I didn’t remember what it was, but I am sure my mom would approve) – it was soft, light, airy, fragrant, full of but not overloaded with walnuts, melting in your mouth. Absolutely fantastic with coffee, and worth documenting. So here it is … I will still keep that small piece of paper with my friend’s handwriting as long as I live.
Ingredients:
- 5 eggs at room temperature
- Sugar – 3/4 cup
- Honey – 1 cup
- Baking soda – 1 tsp
- Sour cream – 1/2 cup
- Milk – 1/2 cup
- Vegetable oil ( I use light olive oil) – 2-3 tbsp
- Flour – 2.5 cups
- Salt – 1/2 tsp
- Ground ginger – 1 tbsp (my addition to the original recipe)
- Walnuts – 1 cup
Directions:
- Separate yolks from white
- In big bowl whisk egg yolks with honey
- Add sour cream and vegetable oil, keep whisking
- Add milk and whisk again
- Gradually mix in flour mixed with soda
- Add walnuts to batter
- In a separate bowl whip egg whites with 1 cup of sugar with hand mixer
- Gently fold whipped whites into the batter
- Pour batter into greased baking form (batter should be liquid)
- Put into preheated to 375 °F oven
- Bake for 55-60 minutes
