Apple, Ginger, Honey and Golden Raisins Cake

The Jewish New Year is celebrated today, and this brings back memories of traditional foods, even to an agnostic such as me. One of the culinary traditions for this event, is to dip a slice of apple in honey, and eat it as a symbol for a sweet New Year. Plenty other sweet dishes are added to the table as well, in order to emphasize this hope for a sweet New Year.
The quick and easy “all in one bowl” cake I’ve created here, was inspired by this tradition. On top of the traditional apple/honey combination, I chose to spice up the cake with fresh and powdered ginger, which gave it wonderful sweet, yet pungent, flavor and aroma. To enhance the apple flavor, I substituted the white wine, which I usually use in such cakes, with hard apple cider. The cake turned out very tasty; moist and fragrant, and not overly sweet. Try it and enjoy. Happy and sweet New Year to all!

Makes: 20
Prep time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:
1 large crispy apple
1 piece of fresh ginger, about 2” (5 cm)
3 L eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/3 cup oil
2 Tbs honey (preferably orange blossom)
1 tsp vanilla paste
½ cup hard cider
2 cups flour
1 tsp ginger powder
1 Tbs baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup golden raisins
For serving:
2 Tbs honey (preferably orange blossom)
¼ cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Brush a 12 cup Bundt pan with soft butter or oil, and dust with a bit of flour. Turn the cake upside down and tap on in, to get rid of access flour. Place in the fridge until using.
2. Peel and core the apple, and dice it into small cubes. Measure 1 cup and set aside. Peel the ginger and chop it finely. Measure 1 Tbs and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar. Add the apple sauce, oil, honey, vanilla and hard cider and mix well. Add the flour, ginger powder, baking powder and salt, and mix. Add the raisins, diced apple and ginger and mix with a spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

4. Bake for 55 minutes, or until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost dry.
5. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, before carefully releasing it onto a serving plate (as you can see from the cracks in the cake, I wasn’t careful enough, but luckily, it survived…) Drizzle 1 Tbs of the honey over the cake and let cool completely before dusting it with powdered sugar. Drizzle the remaining 1 Tbs of the honey over it just before serving.