Easy Honey Cake- Indian Bakery Style Honey Cake

Honey cake is delicious, and today's recipe is a simple, Indian bakery style honey cake. If you are a cake enthusiast, you will love this delicious cake along with afternoon tea. What’s not to like about this cake? It is surprisingly light, with the warm taste of honey and the sweet crunch of coconut. At least for some of my readers, this cake will take you a trip down memory lane. Well, now you can make them at home! This delightful cake is sure to impress your friend, especially kids.

Honey cakes, are popular bakery treats. These colorful cake slices adore the glass shelf of most bakeries in South India. It is a simple and delicious vanilla sponge cake. Spread a liberal amount of jam, dip each cake slice in warm honey syrup, and coat with desiccated coconut and it tastes divine . Even though this cake is called honey cake, most bakeries do not use honey. It is the thick sugar syrup, which is sweet, and tastes like honey and hence the name. But for this recipe, I highly recommend adding honey to the syrup. It not only adds sweetness but a floral note, warmth, and richness to the syrup.

Recently I have been trying to replicate the taste of bakery goodies that were childhood favorites. Some of these recipes are nostalgic childhood memories. Are you like me? Do you wish to recreate them at home? Check out the following posts for more recipe ideas.

Butter Bun/ Cream Bun- Kerala Bakery Style
Bakery Style Egg Puffs/ Mutta Puffs
Dilkhush Recipe
Chocolate Cream Cake/ Chocolate Pastry Cake

About the Ingredients

Honey Cakes are moist cake drenched with sweet syrup. You can use a simple vanilla sponge cake or pound cake. The cake flavor is usually vanilla, but orange or pineapple flavor cake can also be used. Warm spices like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and nutmeg, apple sauce, etc, taste good in honey cakes. Add your favorite flavor to the cake.
For glazing, I have used strawberry jam. Another popular and tasty option is mixed fruit jam. Pineapple jam, orange marmalade, fig, and mango jam also tastes good. If you are not a big fan of jam, just dip the cake in the honey syrup and roll each slice with coconut or toasted nuts. Dress it up by drizzling your favorite glaze over the top.
The sugar syrup is flavored with honey and rose water. Pineapple essence or orange blossom water goes well with the complex, floral notes of honey.

You can make countless variations with it. What you add is totally up to you. So get creative! This cake is worth a try. Make it and share it with family and friends. Let me know how it turned out for you. Enjoy!

Easy Honey Cake- Indian Bakery Style Honey Cake Recipe

Ingredients
For the cake
All purpose flour- 2 1/2 cup
Baking powder- 1 1/4 tsp
Baking Soda- 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Egg-3
Sugar powdered- 3/4 cup
Butter- 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
milk- 1/2 cup

To make the syrup
water- 1/2 cup
Sugar- 3 tbs
honey- 1/4 cup
Rose water- 1/2 tsp
Orange food color-a pinch optional

Jam- mixed fruit jam or strawberry-4 tbs
Grated Coconut- 3/4 cup

To make the cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside.
In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Separate egg yolks, and egg whites. In a large bowl, whisk butter and half of the powdered sugar till well combined( make sure the butter is soft and at room temperature). Continue whisking until the mixture is pale and thick. Add egg yolks, one at a time, and mix them. Combine half the dry ingredients, milk, and vanilla essence and gently fold in. Add the rest of the flour, and the milk and fold in till it is all incorporated. Set this aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites. Whisk at medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat the sugar and continue beating at high speed until whites are stiff and shiny but not dry. Gently fold about 1/3 of the whites to the cake mixture until nearly incorporated. Fold in the rest of the egg whites into the batter.
Transfer the prepared batter into the cake tin. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool down completely.

To make the syrup
While the cake is baking, you can make the syrup. In a saucepan, add sugar and water and bring to a boil. Switch off the flame and let it come to room temperature. Add honey, rose water, and a pinch of orange color and set aside.
Add jam to a saucepan and warm it in a low flame, and set aside. If you are using freshly grated coconut, add it to a pan and slightly toast in low flame for all the moisture to evaporate, and it is slightly dry.

To assemble the cake.
Allow the cake to cool down. Lightly brush the cake with the syrup. Spread a generous amount of your favorite jam. Slice the cake into desired portions. Take each slice and dip both sides in sugar syrup and then coat with desiccated coconut. You can decorate the cake slices with whipped cream, glazed cherries, or nuts. You can refrigerate it for 3-4 days.