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Honey Cake

By Morgan Bolling

Published on June 8, 2015

Time

1¼ hours, plus 2½ hours cooling and 30 minutes setting

Yield

Serves 12

Honey Cake

Ingredients

Cake

2 ½ cups (12 ½ ounces/354 grams) all-purpose flour 1 ¼ teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ cup water 4 large eggs ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce ¼ cup vegetable oil ¼ cup orange juice 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ¾ cups honey

Glaze

1 cup (4 ounces/113 grams) confectioners' sugar 4 ½ teaspoons water 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Pinch salt

Before You Begin

Make sure to use unsweetened applesauce in this cake. If you plan to make this cake ahead of time, hold off on glazing it until 30 minutes before serving. You’ll need 20 ounces of honey for this recipe. This cake is sticky; baking spray with flour provides the cleanest release, but if you have only regular cooking spray, apply a heavy coat and then dust the inside of the pan with flour.

Instructions

    for the cake

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Heavily spray 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan with baking spray with flour. Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in large bowl. Whisk water, eggs, applesauce, oil, orange juice, and vanilla together in separate bowl until combined. Whisk honey into egg mixture until fully incorporated.
  2. Whisk honey mixture into flour mixture until combined. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until skewer inserted into middle of cake comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.
  3. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes. Using small spatula, loosen cake from sides of pan and invert onto rack. Let cool completely, about 2 hours. (Cooled cake can be wrapped with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)
  4. for the glaze

  5. Whisk together all ingredients. Drizzle glaze evenly over top of cake. Let sit until glaze is firm, about 30 minutes. Serve.

Time

1¼ hours, plus 2½ hours cooling and 30 minutes setting

Yield

Serves 12

Ingredients

Cake

2 ½ cups (12 ½ ounces/354 grams) all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup water
4 large eggs
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups honey

Glaze

1 cup (4 ounces/113 grams) confectioners' sugar
4 ½ teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

Cake

2 ½ cups (12 ½ ounces/354 grams) all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup water
4 large eggs
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups honey

Glaze

1 cup (4 ounces/113 grams) confectioners' sugar
4 ½ teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

Cake

2 ½ cups (12 ½ ounces/354 grams) all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup water
4 large eggs
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups honey

Glaze

1 cup (4 ounces/113 grams) confectioners' sugar
4 ½ teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Test Kitchen Techniques

Why This Recipe Works

To create a honey cake that’s moist, tender, not greasy, and really tastes of honey, we discovered a few tricks that truly set this cake apart. First we backed off on the large amount of oil that most recipes call for and used a small amount, 1/4 cup combined with applesauce, for a moist cake without any greasiness. Adding orange juice (an acid) helped boost the leavening power of the baking soda and baking powder, keeping the cake light. In order to be able to taste the mild, subtle flavor of the honey, we used a whopping 1 3/4 cups and lowered the oven temperature to prevent the cake from burning.

Before You Begin

Make sure to use unsweetened applesauce in this cake. If you plan to make this cake ahead of time, hold off on glazing it until 30 minutes before serving. You’ll need 20 ounces of honey for this recipe. This cake is sticky; baking spray with flour provides the cleanest release, but if you have only regular cooking spray, apply a heavy coat and then dust the inside of the pan with flour.

Instructions

    for the cake

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Heavily spray 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan with baking spray with flour. Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in large bowl. Whisk water, eggs, applesauce, oil, orange juice, and vanilla together in separate bowl until combined. Whisk honey into egg mixture until fully incorporated.
  2. Whisk honey mixture into flour mixture until combined. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until skewer inserted into middle of cake comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.
  3. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes. Using small spatula, loosen cake from sides of pan and invert onto rack. Let cool completely, about 2 hours. (Cooled cake can be wrapped with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)
  4. for the glaze

  5. Whisk together all ingredients. Drizzle glaze evenly over top of cake. Let sit until glaze is firm, about 30 minutes. Serve.

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