I am so proud of this cake and not just because it tastes great! If you follow me on Instagram and follow my stories, you know all about my saga with this recipe. I really wanted to make this cake with whole wheat flour and no refined sugars and I had no idea I would be making cake after sunken cake in the process. Boy, do I love a challenge! Turns out whole wheat flour is much heavier than white flour and needs more fat to keep it’s structure (what would I have done without the help of I Want That Dessert?!?). So what started out as tea for the liquid in this recipe turned into canned coconut milk. Oh, and it also seems coconut sugar and baking soda don’t get along very well. This cake needed the baking soda to neutralize the acidity in honey (thanks for that tip, Lil’ Miss Cakes!!!) so I changed around the baking soda and baking powder measurements and finally got it right!!! That moment when I opened the oven and the honey cake was full and golden, I did a happy dance and knew I had my winner. But hey, those first few cakes did go in the freezer and I’m sure I’ll find some uses for them (bread pudding, trifle, cake pops). You can see one of the sunken cakes below smiling at me…that evil smile…
I highly recommend lining your loaf pan with parchment paper. In fact, any time you bake a cake, line the pan with parchment paper. Trust me. You want that cake to come out of the pan in one piece, right???
Do I glaze? Keep it plain? I decided to keep this cake traditional but hey, you can add a citrus glaze or even just sprinkle with powdered sugar when you serve.
That crumb makes me so very happy!
Whole Wheat Honey Cake
makes one 9×4 loaf cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
- 2 orange flavored tea bags
- 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line a 9×4 inch loaf pan with parchment paper and grease with cooking spray.
- Warm the coconut milk over low heat on the stove (or in the microwave for 30 seconds) until warm to the touch. Add the tea bag to the coconut milk and set aside to steep. When ready to use, squeeze the tea bags right into the coconut milk to make sure all of the tea flavor infuses the milk.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the coconut sugar and coconut oil until smooth. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, then whisk in the honey until the mixture is smooth and thick.
- Alternately add the flour mixture and tea-infused coconut milk to the wet ingredients, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Note: After each addition of the dry ingredients, mix only until most of it is incorporated. Some streaks of dry are fine. If you try to get every round of dry ingredients totally incorporated, you’ll begin activation of the gluten in the flour. Your cake will be tough, not light.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes, until a toothpick comes clean out of the center of the cake. Try not to open the oven while you’re baking the cake because honey cakes can sometimes fall in the center and the sudden change in temperature can affect that.
