Recipe Spotlight: Greek Honey Cake

Honey cakes were a sacred offering for Noumenia, the first day of the lunar calendar or the New Moon of the month, in ancient Greece. This tradition stayed in Greece becoming a way of greeting the beginning of each new month. In addition to the sweetness of honey, herbs and spices were added in abundance to impress the gods with all the best ingredients.

Below, we’ve provided a scrumptious Greek Honey Cake recipe thanks to What Katy Said for you to try before the next full moon on July 5.

Ingredients:

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

¾ cup butter room temp

¾ cup caster Sugar

1 separate cup of caster Sugar for the syrup

3 eggs

¼ cup milk

1 cup honey

¾ cup of water

1 tsp lemon juice

Honey Cake Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 356 degrees, then grease an 8-inch tin with some butter or margarine
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon together in a large bowl and then put aside
3. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and the ¾ cup of sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Beat the eggs, one at a time, until you have a smooth mixture.
5. Fold in part of the flour mixture to create the beginnings of the batter. Then, add some milk, alternating the flour mix and milk until it is all combined in the bowl.
6. Pour the batter mixture into the greased tin and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Once done, allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Honey Syrup:

1. In a saucepan, combine the honey with 1 cup of sugar and water. Bring it to a simmer and keep it on the heat for another 5 minutes.
2. Stir in lemon juice, bring it to a boil and cook for another 2 minutes.

Once both the cake and the syrup are cool, use a skewer to spike holes into the cake. The more holes you have, the more spaces the syrup to seep into.

Drizzle half of the honey syrup mixture over the cake slowly. You don’t want to overwhelm the cake and overflow the syrup.

Allow the cake to soak up the syrup and serve with ice cream!

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