This sweet and tender plant-based Jewish honey cake from the Jewish Food Hero Kitchen is a healthy makeover of a classic Jewish dessert. Traditionally, honey cake is served during the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. This plant-based version is lightly sweetened with honey and made with real, whole ingredients – a dessert you can definitely feel good about baking and eating.
About this Plant-Based Honey Cake
The Jewish Food Hero plant-based honey cake is dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and oil-free. It has a very tender and scrumptious crumb, proving that you don’t need tons of butter or oil to make a delicious cake. Instead, this recipe includes applesauce, plant-based milk, and honey or date syrup – all of which gives the cake a wonderful texture.
Local Raw Honey or Date Syrup
If you are going to use honey, try and use local raw honey to get all the nutritional benefits and to support local agriculture. Harvesting honey can be ethical or exploitative for the bees, so check with your honey provider to learn more about their agricultural practices.
Honey is not a vegan product, and if you want to make a traditional “honey cake” without honey, you can use natural date syrup. Date syrup is just as delicious as honey and contains lots of vitamins and minerals.
To make this cake gluten-free: try substituting the whole-wheat flour with an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend.
This recipe also includes pumpkin pie spice which rounds out the cake with some warm spice, as well as sweet currants for additional texture and chew.
It can be served both slightly warm from the oven or cold from the fridge and pairs great with a cup of afternoon tea or coffee.
Yield: Makes 1 9- and 1/2-inch bundt cake
If you like this recipe, you’ll love the Jewish Food Hero Cookbook: 50 Simple Plant-Based Recipes for Your Holiday Meals.
Check out our complete collection of Rosh Hashanah recipes for mains, sides, soups, desserts, and more inspiration for the holiday.
