Honey Cake vs Fruit Cake

I was talking to my cousin the other day, and telling her about my cute, cute, cute little cake mold from Martha Stewart for a beehive-shaped honey cake.

Being Jewish, honey cake is a big deal. At least once a year someone has to make a honey cake. And, universally, everyone else has to pretend to eat it, all the while trying to feed it to the dog and complaining about the density (somewhere near that of a black hole).

I said to Barbara, honey cake is the Jewish equivalent of Christmas fruitcake. It's expected to show up at the appropriate holiday. Everyone makes a fuss. Nobody likes it. They are small, weighty blocks useful as doorstops and little else.

Except, of course, for the one made with Martha's recipe. It is light, almost airy. It is flavorful. I make mine even better than the original with the addition of instant coffee to the batter.

I made the cake complete with the little marzipan bees, once. Since then people have had to settle for the cake alone. I don't know if I'll do the marzipan bees this year or not, since I'm going to have a new audience for the production. (Different family at the holiday table -- new audience, same thing.)

Anyway, I'm off to my parents' house tomorrow and I'm packing up the cake mold, my laptop, a book, a bag of needlepoint, a loose leaf binder full of recipes, a pack of smokes, and a bottle of vodka. Oh yeah, there's clothing in there too, but mostly this is about mental survival.

Wish me well, I'll be gone for a week. I'll try to post, but if I can't, just leave messages on the guest map and peruse that long list of links, over there on your right.

And do NOT feed the dog any more honey cake.