Dutch Honey Cake
by meike peters
This cake was one of my childhood’s culinary highlights. Whenever I visited the Netherlands I had to get a large loaf of this juiciest, spongiest and stickiest of all spice cakes. You can buy this sweet treat all over the country, from artisan bakeries or simple supermarkets, which I did most of the time. The long square tightly wrapped in foil is stuffed with the wintery aroma of honey, ginger, cloves, aniseed, nutmeg and cinnamon. I’ll never forget the moments when I opened the package, sitting on a long and lonely beach, the sand in my shoes and the cold wind blowing against my face, my fingers touched the sticky golden cake to break it into chunks. Fantastic!
I never dug too deep into the Dutch cuisine, although the country is quite close to my hometown. My appetite focused more on the culinary pleasures coming out of France and Italy, or England when it comes to pies. I’m a big fan of milky Gouda cheese from the flat meadows of the Netherlands but apart from my beloved honey cake I’m not too familiar with the country’s cooking and baking traditions, I’d love to learn more about it.
To bake my first Dutch honey cake in my kitchen was only the start. I did some research and learned that the dough needs some strong black tea (or coffee), most of the sweetness – and the particular taste – comes from the honey and the spices, and a little sugar beet molasses is responsible for the cake’s dark warm tone. It was much easier than I expected, taste and texture left no doubt that this is a real Dutch honey cake – baked in Berlin.
Dutch Honey Cake
Makes a 24 x 10cm / 9 1/2 x 4″ cake
plain flour 260g / 2 cups
a pinch of salt
baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons
baking soda 1 teaspoon
butter 45g / 3 tablespoons
honey 170g / 6 ounces
sugar beet molasses 45g / 1 1/2 ounces
milk 120ml / 1/2 cup
organic eggs, lightly beaten, 2
strong black tea 60ml / 1/4 cup
Demerara sugar 55g / 2 ounces
ginger, freshly grated, 1 teaspoon
ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons
aniseed, ground in a mortar, 1/3 teaspoon
cloves, ground in a mortar, 1/2 teaspoon
nutmeg, freshly grated, 1/4 teaspoon
For the topping
pearl sugar (optional)
Set the oven to 160°C / 320°F. Lightly butter a 24 x 10cm / 9 1/2 x 4″ cake pan and line it with baking paper.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder and soda.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, let it cool for a few minutes and add the honey, molasses, milk, eggs, tea, sugar, ginger and spices to the warm pan. Whisk well, stir into the bowl with the dry mixture and mix with an electric mixer until well combined. The dough will be quite liquid. Scrape the dough into the lined cake pan and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the cake is done. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes before you take it out of the pan.
Keep the cake wrapped in paper and cling film to keep its moisture.
I grew up eating store bought Dutch honey cake or just “koek” as we called it. Always with butter and some tea. I haven’t had it in years and I stumbled upon your recipe a week ago. My Italian husband has been making his family’s honey cookies (similar to biscottis) and I wanted our children to have my Dutch honey cake. I made your recipe and it turned out perfectly, it was the best koek I’ve ever had and my family loved it. Thank you so much for your recipe!
Good morning! This makes me so happy to hear. I was so excited when I made it the first time and it tasted so much better than every honey cake I ever ate before. This recipe will also be in my new book coming out in autumn: ‘365 – A Year of Everyday Cooking & Baking’ (English and German). Happy weekend! Meike
Morning I would love to make this but I can’t find beet molasses what can I use to substitute instead if you could please let me know I would appreciate it thank you Wendypriolo
Hi Wendy, you can use sugar beet syrup (which is common is Germany), or you could use corn syrup or maple syrup. However, the cake will lack the particular, full and darker flavor that it gets from molasses or sugar beet syrup, it’ll also be sweeter and affect the texture and baking time (you might need to use less syrup in that case, but I never tried it with other syrups so I can’t give you any exact tips). Enjoy!
Hi Wendy, not sure where you are… I’m in Ontario Canada and I use “Gemengde stroop” or mixed spread. It says apple spread on the English part of the label. Though I can get Dutch food in my area… This is a mix of beet and apple syrup.
[…] I used to love Dutch coconut sheets for breakfast, which is as weird as it sounds. This is compressed dessicated coconut, pressed into thin sheets and, to make it even more appealing, they were either pink or pale white. I was obsessed with them. After a culinary break from this delicacy, I tried them again years later and I was so disappointed. But there’s another Dutch classic, which still lives up to my memories, and I enjoy it with the biggest passion whenever I pull it out of my oven: sticky honey cake. […]
meike, i already finished off two of these loaves. i want to blame my dog, but most of the horrible wonderful over-eating was from my hand to my own mouth. i am sooooo grateful for this share. i am not sooooo grateful for the addiction 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Isn’t it perfect? So soft and spongy, I could eat right now!
a dutch cake cooked in berlin, yeah? love the thought of it. love the phrase. also love the art edge thrown at us in that dry ingredient meets wet image above 🙂
dutch honey cake is new to me. i am especially drawn in by the character of said cake being enhanced by the additions of sugar beet molasses and extra strong black tea. i can’t wait to also enjoy this share that takes you over the moon. test kitchen holiday share list, check.
You should try this one, it’s so good, a perfect tea time cake for the Christmas season!
Meike,
I finally had the time for this and it is better than I could have expected. I think many of my memories of this are definitely the “industrial packaged” version of this. The flavors here just pop!! I used your measurements for the baking soda and baking powder and it baked up great. As always another great addition to my personal traditions from you. Thanks Dave
Hi Dave,
That’s great, I’m glad it worked out so well for you! As much as I enjoyed the industrial honey cakes when I was young, to make this cake from scratch at home is so much better!
All the best!
Meike – WOW and OMG ! ! Many years (and I mean many) a college buddy and I took a summer off and toured Europe. I can so remember this Dutch treat. We would buy one and take it back to the hostel and devour it. I so look forward to making this. One question – seems like a lot of baking powder and soda. What do you think the amount should be for “US” made leaveners ? I would hate to get my mouth set for this and fail on my first attempt.
Hi Dave, I know so many people who have special memories with this cake, that’s great!
You can substitute 1 1/4 teaspoons of German baking powder with 1 teaspoon double acting baking powder which would lead to about 1 1/4 American baking powder for this recipe. But I also read that you can use 1 teaspoon American baking powder for 1 cup flour which is still more than I use in my recipe above. I hope this helps. I wouldn’t change the baking soda though. Enjoy the cake – and the memories!
I was searching for a new cake recipe, special and easy at the same time. And here it is, this recipe sounds so delicious and perfect for october.
Have a wonderful day, Franzi
That’s perfect timing! It’s a really quick cake – and so juicy, sticky and spongy! I love it 🙂
Have a great start to the week! xx