Honey cake ingredients have stayed remarkably consistent for generations: honey, a neutral oil, eggs, flour, warm spice, and a dark liquid such as coffee or strong tea to cut the sweetness and darken the crumb. The cake, known as lekach, is a fixture of the Rosh Hashanah table and is traditionally given and received on the day before Yom Kippur. It is also one of the few cakes that improves with a day or two of rest and freezes well, which makes it a natural production bake for bakeries in the ten days between the two holidays. This guide covers what goes into a traditional lekach, why each ingredient is there, and how to source it in case quantities.
The ingredients below are stocked in our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Prep collection, alongside the flour and yeast for round challah.
Two well-known published versions show how little the formula varies. One uses 3½ cups of flour to 1 cup honey, 1½ cups granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 cup oil, 3 eggs, 1 cup warm coffee or strong tea, ½ cup orange juice, cinnamon, cloves and allspice, baked at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes in a bundt pan. Another uses 2¾ cups of flour to 1 cup honey, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup oil, 6 separated eggs, orange juice and zest, cinnamon, allspice and ginger, baked at 325°F for about an hour. The ratios that matter are the same in both: roughly equal weights of honey and oil, honey plus sugar together outweighing the flour, and a spice blend led by cinnamon.
Converted to a bakery-friendly gram formula, a single 10-inch bundt or two 9-by-5 loaves comes to about 400 g flour, 340 g honey, 300 g sugar, 220 g oil, 3 eggs (about 150 g), 240 g warm coffee, 120 g orange juice, 12 g baking powder, 5 g baking soda, 5 g salt and 15 g of mixed spice. Multiply by eight for a 3.2 kg flour batch, which fills sixteen loaf pans.
Honey is roughly a third of the batter by weight, so its character shows. A pure wildflower honey such as Suzanne's Specialties wildflower, packed in 5 lb jugs by the case, gives a rounder, slightly floral cake than a pale clover honey and holds up to the coffee and spice. Honey is also hygroscopic, which is the technical reason lekach stays moist and is better on day two: it keeps pulling moisture into the crumb as the cake rests. That same property means honey cake browns quickly, so the classic bake is low and slow, 325 to 350°F, rather than a hot oven.
For the table itself, cut honeycomb and honey sticks cover the apples-and-honey plate and the take-home basket without opening a production jug.
The cup of warm coffee is what separates lekach from a generic spice cake. It deepens the color, tempers the sweetness and gives the finished cake a faintly bitter edge that keeps a slice from being cloying. Brewed coffee works, but for a bakery batch a measured dose of Prova coffee extract in warm water gives the same result with consistent strength from batch to batch. Strong black tea is the traditional alternative in households that do not keep coffee.
Oil rather than butter is deliberate. It keeps the cake pareve, so it can follow a meat meal, and it produces a more tender, longer-keeping crumb than butter in a batter this heavy with sugar. A neutral canola oil is the standard; some bakers replace a quarter of it with a mild olive oil for depth.
Cinnamon leads, with cloves and allspice in support, and ginger where the baker wants a sharper finish. For a 400 g flour batch, a working blend is 8 g ground cinnamon, 2 g ground cloves, 3 g ground allspice and 2 g ground ginger, with a pinch of nutmeg if you like. Cloves are the one to measure carefully; they are the strongest of the group and a heavy hand turns the cake medicinal. Buying spices in foodservice jars rather than retail shakers matters for a cake this spice-forward, since the blend is the difference between a good honey cake and a memorable one.
Most formulas pair honey with granulated sugar and a smaller amount of brown sugar. Dark brown sugar brings molasses notes that sit well with the coffee, and a small swap of the white sugar for muscovado pushes the cake darker and more caramelized. Keep total sweetener where the published formulas put it; cutting it substantially changes the crumb, since sugar and honey are carrying much of the moisture.
Orange juice and zest are standard in most versions and brighten the batter. Golden raisins or diced pitted dates folded in at about 15 percent of flour weight add texture; toss them in a spoonful of the flour first so they stay suspended. Walnut halves pressed onto the top before baking are the traditional finish and toast in the oven. Sliced almonds work the same way for a lighter look.
Because the cake keeps, bake it early. A loaf baked on the Monday before Rosh Hashanah is better by Friday, and the whole run can be frozen unglazed and thawed as needed through Yom Kippur eve, when demand for a cake to give and receive peaks. Wrap loaves fully cooled; honey cake sweats if wrapped warm. Dust with confectioners' sugar or brush with a thin honey glaze just before sale rather than before storage.
Honey, oil, eggs, flour, sugar, a warm liquid such as coffee or tea, orange juice, baking powder and soda, and a spice blend led by cinnamon with cloves and allspice.
Coffee darkens the crumb and balances the sweetness of the honey with a slight bitterness. Strong tea is the traditional substitute.
Honey attracts and holds moisture, so the crumb becomes more tender and the spices meld as the cake rests. Most bakers make it at least a day ahead.
Yes. Cool completely, wrap unglazed, and freeze for up to three months. Thaw wrapped at room temperature and finish with sugar or glaze before serving.
When made with oil instead of butter and no dairy, yes, which is why nearly every traditional version calls for oil.
A wildflower or other medium-bodied honey gives more flavor than a pale clover honey and stands up to the coffee and spice. Very dark honeys such as buckwheat can dominate; blend them rather than using them alone.
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