I’ve never been such a huge fan of honey cake but after adapting my aunts honey cake recipe in to a Honey Pecan Streusel Cake for Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller Magazine one year ago, I’ve become a little bit obsessed! Since I know my husband’s family will want to have some honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, I wanted to try a new recipe this year that would take this traditional cake to a whole new level. After perusing my spice cabinet, I came across the Hibiscus Dry Flower Powder from WholeSpice.com that’s been waiting to be used for way too long! It has a beautiful bright red color and a tart and sour flavor that I knew would be perfect for a citrusy honey cake recipe. Combining some traditional honey cake ingredients like cinnamon, orange zest and, of course, honey with some new flavors like the hibiscus, coriander (thanks for the idea, Sarah from foodwordsphotos.com) and brewed tea actually turned out to be a great idea! This cake is sweet and tart and has a wonderful moist and dense texture that I expect from a traditional honey cake. To add another level of citrus, I whisked together a quick and easy icing with powdered sugar, amaretto and fresh orange juice and drizzled it over the top of the cake. Heaven! Please note that if you do not hibiscus dry flower powder, you can just use 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of coriander instead.
Hibiscus Honey Cake
step 1:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp Hibiscus Dry Flower Powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground coriander
step 2:
1 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm brewed citrus tea
3 eggs
1 Tbsp orange zest
Citrus Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp orange juice
2 tsp amaretto (or almond extract)
I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and prepared a bundt pan with lots of cooking spray. I really wanted to make sure the cake didn’t stick. In my stand mixer, I combined the all-purpose flour, hibiscus dry flower powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and coriander. If you do not hibiscus dry flower powder, just add 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon coriander.
I made a well in the center of the dry ingredients and added all of the step 2 ingredients: the honey, sugar, vegetable oil, brown sugar, brewed tea, eggs and orange zest. I mixed together the ingredients with the paddle attachment on medium-speed until combined, around 1 minute.
I poured the cake batter, which was a pretty purple color from the hibiscus flower, in to the bundt pan.
I baked for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick came out clean and the top was beginning to brown.
I let the cake rest for 30 minutes to cool then carefully flipped it on to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Once the cake was completely cool, I made the easy citrus icing by whisking together the powdered sugar, amaretto and orange juice. If your icing is too thick, add more orange juice. If your icing is too thin, add more powdered sugar. I placed parchment paper under the cooling rack (to catch the extra icing) and drizzled the citrus icing right on to the cake.
I sliced in to the cake, sprinkled a little extra orange zest on my slices and devoured!
Check out that beautiful texture!
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