Honey Loaf Cake
Honey and bicarbonate over heat put on a small chemistry show: the mixture foams, pales and triples in volume. That reaction is what gives honey bakes their dark colour and caramel scent. Without it the cake is merely sweet; with it, it tastes of honey.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 50 min
- Rest
- 30 min
- Total
- 1 h 40 min
- Servings
- 10
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 350 kcal
Ingredients
Makes: a 25×11 cm loaf, 10 slices
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Method
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Step 1: Warm the honey with soda
Melt the honey in a pan over low heat, add the soda and stir. It foams and triples, so use a pan with room. Hold it 2 minutes, until the foam turns caramel-coloured.
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Step 2: Cool it
Take it off the heat and leave 10 minutes. Hot honey scrambles eggs and melts butter.
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Step 3: Cream butter and sugar
Beat them for 3 minutes until pale and light, then add the eggs one at a time.
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Step 4: Add honey and sour cream
Stir in the warm honey mixture and the sour cream. It may look uneven — the flour will bring it together.
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Step 5: Fold in the dry side
Add the flour with the spices and salt and fold until no flour shows. No more soda goes in — it has already done its work in the honey.
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Step 6: Bake
Forty-five to fifty minutes at 170 °C, to a clean skewer. Honey batter darkens faster than plain, so cover it with foil once the top is deep amber.
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Step 7: Let it mature
Cool it 30 minutes in the tin — better still, wrap it and leave it a day: honey cakes are moister and more fragrant on the second.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Crystallised honey works just as well; it melts the same. Dark honeys such as buckwheat give a stronger flavour, pale ones a gentler bake.
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Tip
The soda is neither a mistake nor excess: honey's acidity neutralises it completely, so there is no soapy taste, only colour and lift.
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Variation
With 80 g of nuts and 100 g of prunes it becomes a festive loaf. An icing of icing sugar and lemon juice adds the acidity honey batter lacks.
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Storage
A week wrapped at room temperature — honey holds moisture better than any other sweetener, and this loaf stales very slowly.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 10 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 350 kcal | 3,500 kcal |
| Protein | 5 g | 50 g |
| Fat | 15 g | 150 g |
| Carbohydrates | 49 g | 490 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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