Honey Mini Cakes for Rosh Hashanah

Leshanah tovah tikateiv veteichateim, "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."

I love Rosh Hashanah it kicks off the "Days of Awe"(days of repentance) these ten days are where you spend time reflecting on your mistakes from the year and then figure out how to make it better and do it better for next year. Also atone for your sins against another human being and must be done between you and that person and must be done before Yom Kippur. The ten days ends with "Yom Kippur"(day of atonement), we fast for 25-hours and atone for our sins that we commited between us and G-d.  This is the most important time of the year for Jews and now you have learned why.

The first day of Rosh Hashanah I practice the tradition of "Tashlikh" (casting off). I put some rice in my pockets( you are supposed to throw bread crumbs) go to any body of running water I can find and empty my pockets and throw the rice into the water. This symbolizes casting off my sins and watching them wash away. It is like I have lifted a load off my shoulders when I do this. It is a great practice.

Also I love me some HONEY CAKE!!!! This a pretty traditional thing to eat. In Rosh Hashana we have apples dipped in honey, a symbol of our wish for a sweet new year. So the honey cake has honey, of course, and apple sauce in a very heavy type of loaf cake. The first couple of times I made this I used the recipe from Gluten Free by the Bay's Blog. Great recipe I just loved it but I ended up making some changes to it and pretty much re-writing the recipe to serve my taste and also make little mini cakes instead of one cake. This is a super moist cake! Pretty much like a chiffon or a sponge cake. The best GF cakes use stiff peaked egg whites. They really make the cake moist and bouncy and not crumby like most rice flour GF cakes. Also I use Oat Flour in my mix and that takes most cake recipes to a whole other level.

Tools:
two cupcake pans (Or one full size Bunt Pan, or a multi mini Bunt Pan is supper cute to)
cup cake liners
a hand mixer or a stand mixer
three large mixing bowls
measuring cups and spoons
a zester(micro plane)
big spoons
cutting board
knife
either hand juicer or electric

Ingredients:
4 cups of my flour blend(recipe below)
1/2 cup of almond meal
2 cups of honey
3 tsp of baking powder
1 1/2 tsp of baking soda
2 tsp of xanthum gum
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1/2 cup of apple sauce
1 tbsp of grape seed oil (EV olive oil works to)
4 oranges (zest two of them and juice all four)
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of nutmeg


Flour mix:
1 1/2 cups GF oat flour
1 1/2 cup of brown rice flour
1/2 cup of potato starch
1/2 cup of tapioca starch

Turn oven to 375 degrees. Zest two oranges and juice all four.

Separate your eggs. Yokes with the orange juice and zest and yokes in another bowl by themselves. Keep the egg white covered. You don't want any other ingredients to accidentally mix with the yokes. They won't become stiff with anything foreign add except.

Wisc together egg yokes, grape seed oil and orange juice and zest.

Combine your flours. 1 1/2 cup of oat flour+1 1/2 cup of brown rice flour+1/2 cup of potato starch+1/2 cup of tapioca starch and go ahead and add the rest of the dry ingredients. 2 tsp of zanthum gum+3 tsp of baking powder+1 1/2 tsp of baking soda+1/2 cups of almond meal

Measure out your honey. 2 cups.

add honey to the orange juice/oil/zest/egg yoke mixture and stir until completely combined. Then pour at about a cup at a time of the dry ingredients until combined. Lastley add your apple sauce, cinnamon, nutmeg and combine.

This is what it should look like.

Now make sure your mixing bowl for the egg whites is squeaky clean(dish washer clean) and made of glass or steel only. Any trace of any oil, fat or grease will keep your egg whites from forming stiff peaks and becoming stiff. Also make sure the egg whites are not strait out of the refrigerator they need to be room temp. You will notice I separated my eggs at the beginning of the recipe for this reason. If this is your first time making stiff egg whites add about 1/2 tsp of Cream of Tartar to the egg whites before you start mixing. I set my mixer to high and just walk away. If you only have a hand mixer set to high and move the mixer in a circular motion on high. If they turn out a little spongy that is fine usually that is a humidity issue in the air. 

Combine with the Honey/Orange mixture. Now fold to combine do not over mix. It is ok if it is not 100% combined. You do not want to break down the egg whites. You need them to still be stiff to help this very heavy batter rise.

Scoop into your cup cake cups, butter or oil the bunt pans large bunt or mini bunt pans. Even if they are non-stick bunt pans still butter or oil them. I did one tray of cup cakes and then used my large bunt pan for the left over batter. I could not find my medium size bunt pan so the large will work it will just not fill the bunt and be as tall.You can put them in the oven at the same time. I would set the alarm for 20 minutes and then once it goes off and you take the cup cakes out then set for another 20 minutes if you do what I did with the left over batter.

Cup cakes and medium and small bunts should take about 25 minutes to bake. Check with a tooth pick. Just push the tooth pick into the cakes and if it come out clean and the cakes are slightly golden they are ready. Now they will de-flate a bit do not be surprised that they do. Let the cool for about 15 in the tin and then pull them out and let cool more on a rack.

Large bunts even if they have half the batter will take about 40 to 45 minutes. Check with a tooth pic at 40 minutes and see if it comes out clean and if it does and the top is not brown enough let bake for five more minutes. Take the bunt out of the oven when done and let sit for about a half an hour. Take a knife and just release any of the edges of the cake that look stuck to the pan.  Then place a plate over the top and grab the plate and bunt pan and flip over. It should slide right out if not just let it sit until it does. If you want to move the bunt to another plate later I would put a piece of parchment paper on the plate before you flip it to make it easy to move from plate to cake plate or pedestal.

Take cup cakes out to cool. Top cup cakes and bunt cakes with a mixture of honey and a little orange juice maybe some zest if you have another Orange handy then sprinkle with sliced, slivered or chopped almonds.

So I have a person that I won't name that literately ate half the cup cakes and the about half of the bunt cake by the next morning so this is what is left:)