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As Hanukkah approaches each year, I start thinking about traditional Jewish recipes and how to put my own modern foodie twist on them. After all, what other time of year do we actually get to eat dinner with our families 8 nights in a row? With candles to light and presents or candy to enjoy each night, Hanukkah is always a special time for family bonding. As children, we anticipated sundown with giddy excitement for the surprises our parents have in store for us. As adults, we enjoy the feeling of gift giving and cooking something special for the whole family.
This year my newest culinary challenge was putting an Italian citrus twist on a Jewish Honey Cake recipe – with these beautiful products at my fingertips here at Di Bruno Bros, the challenge was just too tempting! It turned out to be a wonderful idea and the easy recipe is for you below. The major differences were the replacement of vegetable oil and margarine with
Bartolini’s Lemon Olive Oil, which added wonders to the taste and texture. I also used
Rigoni’s Lime Honey and changed some spices around to compliment the citrus.
Full Recipe for “Not Your Mama’s Honey Cake”:
This recipe is easy and this cake is quite forgiving to small mistakes. Just make sure to let it cool completely before trying to remove it from the pan! This recipe makes 2 loaf pans or 1 loaf pan and 2 mini loaf pans.
Dry Ingredients:
- 3.5 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Wet Ingredients:
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Take the lid off the Rigoni Honey and microwave it in 30 second increments, stirring until liquefied. Or soak the jar in a pot of hot water for 10 minutes.
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
- Mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl.
- Next, make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet ingredients, so they go down to the bottom.
- Mix on low with an electric mixer or by hand with a heavy whisk until fully incorporated.
- Pour into 2 well greased loaf pans (or 1 loaf and 2 mini loaves).
- Bake for about 50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Try baking the loaves on 2 stacked baking sheets for even baking. And let it rest for at least 30 minutes before removing from the pan.
