Honey cake/muffins

[sonia]

This is adapted from a family recipe, "Kuchen de miel," probably originally from my German Jewish grandmother (the "Kuchen" part), written out in Spanish for my father (the "miel" part), and translated into English and made gluten-free by me.

I tried it twice, once as a loaf as originally written and once as muffins (thanks to writedragon for the idea). The muffins turned out better for me. They are sweet. Also moist and delicious and nostalgic for me, but too sweet for my current palate. If someone successfully makes a less sweet version, let me know!

Ingredients
150 g honey (scant 1/2 cup)
125 g sugar (1/2 cup)
1 egg
1/4 cup neutral flavor oil
225 g flour (see Notes)
1/4 tsp baking soda, heaping (see Notes)
1 1/2 tsp cocoa
1/2 cup cold coffee (see Notes)
1/2 lemon, zest and juice
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped, optional
1/2 cup candied fruit, optional, powdered with flour (see Variations)

Oven at 350F.

Time
Estimated half hour to put together, 60-75 min baking time (25-30 min for muffins).

Tools
Electric mixer is helpful, although I didn't feel like dragging mine out and used a whisk, which worked fine.
9x5" pan, well greased (parchment paper would be good), or silicone muffin pan for 12 muffins.
Sifter, officially. (I just mixed the dry ingredients separately.)

Methods
Prepare your pan with parchment paper and/or grease. I left my silicone muffin pan ungreased and that was fine.
Beat honey, sugar, egg, and oil until foamy. Add lemon zest.
Separately sift together flour, baking soda, and cocoa.
Alternately add flour mixture and liquids (coffee and lemon juice) to honey mixture. Batter will be a thick liquid. Add a little more flour if it is runny.
Stir in walnuts and candied fruit, if using.
In a loaf pan, bake at 350F for 60-75 min. (Recipe says 75 min, mine was done in 60 min.)
In a muffin pan, bake for 25-30 min.
It's done when a cake tester comes out clean, or with a few cooked crumbs attached. It's a very moist cake. Top will be golden brown, not too dark.

Storage
Will last several days in an airtight container on the counter.

Notes
Flour: When I made muffins I used Bob's Red Mill Paleo flour, which is premixed almond flour, arrowroot starch, coconut flour, and tapioca flour. I used 225 g, and the batter was the right consistency, a thick liquid. This worked well.
When I used a loaf pan, I tried my own mix, 150 g white rice flour, 45 g sorghum, 30 g tapioca starch. The batter was too thin, but I didn't feel like doing calculations to add the right proportion of flours, so I just baked it as is. The cake was fine, but the nuts and fruit fell to the bottom of the pan.
Coffee: If you make coffee all the time, just save a 1/2 cup to pour in. I almost never make coffee, but I do have a small french press and some ground coffee for guest coffee emergencies. I used 1 1/2 tsp of coffee for 1/2 cup of water in the french press.
Measuring honey: I feel strongly about getting all the honey into the cake, not leaving a bunch of it behind in the measuring cup. it worked well to use a 1 cup glass measuring cup on the scale, and use it successively for the honey, sugar, and then oil. With the help of a spatula most of the honey did get into the batter.
Baking soda: By analogy with other gluten-free recipes, I put in 1/2 tsp of baking soda, but the recipe does say 1/4 tsp.

Variations
I have never been fond of candied fruit, and used to lobby for it to be left out of this cake when my dad made it. I don't know if you can even get it anymore! I had some dried cranberries, so I tossed them into my first batch. It was fine, but I liked it better without.

I cut the original recipe in half, so you can certainly double it if you have two pans and want lots of cake.

Comments

[writedragon]

I'm glad the "muffin trick" works for you. I find that muffins work better than loaf quickbreads with gf and paleo flours -- not sure exactly why that is. Perhaps they hold moisture differently than gluten and/or grain-based flours. I also prefer muffins for easy portion control, and as you noted, they bake faster (especially important during hot summers when I don't want the oven on for long).

A trick for dealing with sticky ingredients: when measuring something sticky like honey, maple syrup, or molasses, measure your oil in the liquid measuring cup FIRST, then the syrupy ingredient. The sticky syrupy ingredient will mostly slide right out. Works like a charm. I use a separate set of dry measuring cups for sugar, flour, chopped nuts/ chocolate/ fruits.

[sonia]

It makes sense that a smaller amount of batter would hold together better without gluten. It had just never crossed my mind that I was allowed to put batter from a loaf-pan recipe into a muffin pan, and it would work fine. The amounts even work out!

I had heard that about oil & honey. Will try it in that order next time! Thanks for the tips!