Honey Walnut Cake

While I was posting about bundt cake on Monday, in reality I was also celebrating the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur - the final stage of the New Year, a day of penance in which one asks forgiveness for one's errors of the past year. Yom Kippur is also the only Jewish holiday that doesn't include a festive celebratory meal - Yom Kippur is, in fact, a fast day, entailing no food or water for 25 hours. I confess, I don't handle fast days well. My father always jokes that my mother is the "most holy" member of our family, because she literally floats through the fast of Yom Kippur on a high of spiritual devotion while my father and I are feeling more than a little lightheaded from dehydration... Traditions are traditions, though, and it is very insightful to put aside for one day the nutritious bounty with which we are blessed all year long, making me very thankful for simple water and toast at the end of a long day.

In true Jewish fashion, though, there are also plentiful traditions associated with the meal after the fast, which, again in true Jewish style, is supposed to be celebratory and joyous even though the actual Yom Kippur holiday is somber. Because I tend to feel more than a little ill by the end of the fast, most years I typically just drink lots of water, have a small piece of toast, and head off to bed, but this year I decided to be more traditional. Honey cakes are the classic dish of Rosh Hashanah, but they are also often included in Jewish homes as part of the meal concluding the Yom Kippur fast, in both cases served along with other sweet dishes in hopes for a "sweet" new year. This year I fixed an especially light, fluffy, walnut-honey cake that was just oh so slightly sweet, perfect with whipped cream for dessert or toasted with a drop of jam for breakfast...

Here's to all our troubles washed away, and only sweetness in the coming days!

Honey Walnut Cake

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp orange zest

1/2 cup light, nonhydrogenated vegan marg or butter

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup honey

3 eggs

1/4 cup orange juice

1 cup walnut halves

~ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9" loaf pan.

~ In a small bowl, stir together the flours, salt, cinnamon, and orange zest.

~ In a large bowl, beat together the marg or butter, the applesauce, and the honey.

~ Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined.

~ Stir in the flour mixture in two batches alternately with the orange juice.

~ Fold in the walnuts.

~ Pour the mixture into the loaf pan, and bake for 40 minutes - until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve with whipped cream, jam, or just beautifully plain...