Honey Spice Cake with Pomegranate Glaze

Before I get to this AWESOME Honey Spice Cake with Pomegranate Glaze (I know!) I wanted to share with you a few photos from my recent adventures to San Francisco. One of my favorite things to do in the world is travel, and when my brother Andy found himself in SF for work this summer, he couldn’t keep me away if he tried! And he tried. Kiiiding. He loved me there! We frolicked, we ate local produce, we drank good wine. Living the dream! Here I am in front of some bridge:

On a random fun sculpture:

And of course there was food! A little sampling:

Anyhoo, back to the cake. Honey Cake is super traditional for Rosh Hashanah, representing a sweet Jew New Year, but it has a bad reputation. Kind of like Jewish fruitcake. Okay, I’m not selling it. But for this cake, I had a little help from my friends:

Oh hello there, whiskey. Long time no see. How could I fail? Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F and spray a bundt pan with non-stick spray. Then mix together the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cardamom and nutmeg until combined.

Then add canola or vegetable oil, honey, eggs, vanilla extract, coffee, pomegranate juice, whiskey and lemon zest and beat with a mixer until just incorporated. You do not want to over beat and make the cake tough.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the oven until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs, about 1 hour.

Cool for 20 minutes in the pan before and then turn the cake out onto a serving platter. Perfect!!

If yours doesn’t look perfect, don’t fret. Simply mix confectioner’s sugar and pomegranate juice to make a glaze and cover any blemishes! Garnish with pomegranate seeds aka arils and serve!

Honey Spice Cake with Pomegranate Glaze

Amy Kritzer

A super moist Honey Spice Cake with Pomegranate Glaze. The perfect dessert for Fall or Rosh Hashanah!

4 from 5 votes

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Jewish

Servings 12

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

For Cake

• Butter, oil, or cooking spray for greasing pan
• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for flouring the pan (426 g)
• 1 cup granulated sugar (200 g)
• 1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar (115 g)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 Tablespoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup canola or vegetable oil (any neutral oil) (235 ml)
• 1 cup honey (trick: measure oil before honey and it will slide right out of the measuring cup) (235 ml)
• 3 large eggs
• 11/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee (decaf is okay), room temperature
• 1/2 cup pomegranate juice (120 ml)
• 1/4 cup whiskey (or more pomegranate juice; I’ve also used amaretto or rum) (60 ml)
• Zest from 1 lemon

For Pomegranate Glaze

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar (113 g)
• 2-3 Tablespoons pomegranate juice (ideally fresh squeezed for the brightest color)
• Pomegranate arils for garnish

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºF. Grease 12-cup (2.8L) Bundt pan and flour lightly. (You can also make 24 muffins with this batter. Line two muffin tins with liners if you want to do that.)
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg until combined. Set aside.
• In a separate large mixing bowl add oil, honey, eggs, vanilla, coffee, pomegranate juice, whiskey, and lemon zest and beat with a hand or stand mixer with a whisk attachment until incorporated. A whisk works here too.
• Add dry mixture to wet mixture and beat just until combined. You do not want to over-mix and make the cake tough. The batter should be thick but still runny and stick to the whisk attachment.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan (it should fill two-thirds of the pan) and bake 50–60 minutes until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out mostly clean. (If making muffins, fill the muffin tins 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 18-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.)
• Cool for 15 minutes in the pan and then turn the cake out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
• To make glaze, whisk together powdered sugar and enough pomegranate juice to make a glaze thick enough to cover the back of a spoon. To get fresh pomegranate juice, squeeze a pomegranate through a sieve over a bowl to catch the arils. Drizzle over cake. Garnish with pomegranate arils (or whatever you like!) and serve.

Notes

Notes: Frost the day you are serving. Unfrosted cake stores great wrapped well at room temperature for up to 3 days.

 

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