Hon­ey Cake with Apple But­ter Frosting

Bakes one 8-­inch (20 cm) round cake 

For many Ashke­nazi fam­i­lies, hon­ey cake is a non­nego­tiable part of the Rosh Hashanah meal. Like eat­ing apples dipped in hon­ey, it is an edi­ble sym­bol of hope for a sweet year ahead. (Some fam­i­lies also break the fast on Yom Kip­pur with hon­ey cake.) The cake’s Yid­dish name, lekach, comes from the Ger­man word lecke, which means ​“lick” and like­ly refers to the sticky hon­ey mixed into the bat­ter. But hon­ey cake might just as well be referred to as spice cake, since it usu­al­ly con­tains an array of warm­ing spices. This moist and fluffy take on hon­ey cake is sim­i­lar to most Amer­i­can-­Jew­ish hon­ey cakes in that I sweet­en the bat­ter with both hon­ey and brown sug­ar and pour in strong brewed cof­fee to add a slight­ly bit­ter coun­ter­point to the sweet­ness. But the thick sweet-­tart lay­er of apple but­ter glaze brings a lev­el of sophis­ti­ca­tion that will make the cake the star of the dessert table.

For the Cake:

1⅓ cups (185) all-­pur­pose flour

½ tea­spoon bak­ing powder

½ tea­spoon bak­ing soda

1½ tea­spoons ground cinnamon

1 tea­spoon ground ginger

½ tea­spoon ground allspice

¼ tea­spoon ground nutmeg

¼ tea­spoon kosher salt

⅓ cup (80 ml) neu­tral veg­etable oil

½ cup (120 ml) mild honey

½ packed cup (100 g) light brown sugar

½ cup (120 ml) brewed cof­fee (decaf or reg­u­lar), slight­ly cooled

1 large egg

1 tea­spoon pure vanil­la extract

For the Apple But­ter Frosting:

3 table­spoons unsalt­ed but­ter or veg­an butter

½ packed cup (100 g) light brown sugar

¼ cup (70 g) apple butter

1 table­spoon milk or nondairy milk

⅛ tea­spoon kosher salt

1½ cups (180 g) con­fec­tion­ers’ sug­ar, sifted

½ tea­spoon ground cinnamon

Chopped toast­ed pecans for sprin­kling (option­al)

1. Make the cake: Pre­heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease an 8-­inch (20 cm) round spring­form pan or cake pan.
2. Whisk togeth­er the flour, bak­ing pow­der, bak­ing soda, cin­na­mon, gin­ger, all­spice, nut­meg, and salt in a medi­um bowl.
3. Whisk togeth­er the oil, hon­ey, brown sug­ar, cof­fee, egg, and vanil­la in a large bowl until smooth. Add the flour mix­ture and stir to thor­ough­ly com­bine. Pour the bat­ter into the pan and smooth the top.
4. Bake the cake until a tester insert­ed into the cen­ter comes out clean, 30 to 35 min­utes. Remove from the oven and trans­fer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 30 min­utes, then gen­tly unmold the cake and place on the rack to cool completely.
5. When the cake is ful­ly cooled, make the frost­ing: Com­bine the but­ter, brown sug­ar, apple but­ter, milk, and salt in a small saucepan, bring to a boil over medi­um heat, and let bub­ble vig­or­ous­ly for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and imme­di­ate­ly whisk in the con­fec­tion­ers’ sug­ar and cinnamon.
6. Driz­zle and spread the frost­ing even­ly over the cake. If desired, while the frost­ing is still warm, sprin­kle the top of the cake with chopped pecans. Let the cake sit until the frost­ing sets, about 10 min­utes, before serving.
7. Store any left­overs in an air­tight con­tain­er in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Note: This amount of bat­ter will also make 12 cup­cakes. Bake them until a cake tester insert­ed into the cen­ter of a cup­cake comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

Excerpt­ed from The Dessert Table: 100 Joy­ful Jew­ish Sweets. Copy­right © 2026 by Leah Koenig. Used with per­mis­sion of the pub­lish­er, W. W. Nor­ton & Com­pa­ny, Inc. All rights reserved