Apricot Honey Cake

"One thing I cannot get out of my head" said Ben Moskovitz, owner of Star Bakery in Oak Park, Michigan. 'Was the food better growing up in Czechoslovakia or were the people hungrier there? My mother made a honey cake for the holiday, and it was so delicious. Honey was too expensive for us, so my mother burned the sugar to make it brown. Here I use pure honey, but I still think my mother's cake was better and I know I am wrong. The taste of hers is still in my mouth.' Mr. Moskovitz's European honey cake follows, with a few of my American additions. Other European Jewish bakers interviewed for this book also bake with white rye flour and cake flour when we would use all-purpose flour. I have included both choices." - Joan Nathan.

Recipe Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
1/4 cup dark rum
2 large eggs
1 cup clover honey
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
Grated peel and juice of 1 orange
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup apricot jam
1 3/4 cups white rye or unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cake or unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup slivered almonds, or roughly chopped walnuts or cashews

Cooking Directions:

1. In a small bowl, soak the apricots in the rum for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease a 10- by 5-inch loaf pan.
3. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Stir in the honey, vegetable oil, grated lemon and orange rind and juice, sugar, salt, and apricot jam.
4. Sift the 2 flours and the baking soda into another bowl.
5. Strain the apricots, reserving the excess rum.
6. Add the flour alternately with the rum to the honey cake mixture. Fold in the apricots. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the nuts.
7. Bake in the oven on the lower rack for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the center of the cake is firm when you pres sit. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Makes 1 Cake.

Recipe from: The Jewish Holiday Baker, by Joan Nathan.