L’shana tovah, friends! Rosh hashanah began tonight at sunset, and we’re celebrating the new Jewish year. Tonight we begin the Days of Awe, also known as the High Holy Days, which end at yom kippur, the Day of Atonement. Although I’m the Catholic one in our interfaith household, I absolutely love this time of year.

Sweet foods figure heavily in rosh hashanah celebrations, in keeping with wishes for a sweet new year. This apple honey cake combines two traditional rosh hashanah foods, apples and honey, in a delicious treat. The recipe below comes from the fine folks at chabad.org, and I added a thick powdered sugar drizzle icing just to dress it up a bit.

This cake is a dense, almost bread pudding-like treat with great apple, honey, and cinnamon flavor. Next time, I’ll probably add more allspice to the batter, and Mike has requested raisins as well (although I’d rather add something like pecans). Whatever you choose, I hope you have a sweet new year!

Ingredients 

For the cake

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 apples, peeled, cored, and grated (I used 2 Granny Smith and 2 Gala; you want a combination of sweet and tart)

For the drizzle

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Generously grease a bundt pan (or spray with baking spray).

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat sugars and applesauce to combine. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add honey and vanilla and beat to combine.

Add flour mixture and beat to combine. Fold in grated apples.

Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.

Cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then turn onto a rack or cake plate to cool completely. I cooled my cake on a wire rack, and the bottom did stick to it a bit; this was fine in the end, because after all, you serve a bundt round-side-up anyway.

A few hours before serving, prepare the drizzle. Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and water in a small bowl until you have a thick drizzling consistency. Pour drizzle into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (or use a small zip-top bag with the corner cut off) and drizzle over cake.

Store at room temperature for up to 3 days; the moisture in the cake will make the bottom a bit gooey, but with all of the moisture in this cake, that’s not a surprise.