Lekach

Lekach, or honey cake, is a honey-sweetened cake that Jewish communities make all year round and especially for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Eating it at that holiday is meant to wish for a sweet year ahead.

History

Cakes sweetened with honey and spiced were known long before the medieval period, in Egypt, Rome and the Middle East. Arabs carried these traditions to Sicily and to Moorish Spain, and in the 11th century a dense, strongly spiced cake of breadcrumbs and honey, similar to panforte, became popular in Italy.

The name lekach comes from Middle High German, where a related word meant to lick. The earliest known mention in a Jewish source appears in the Sefer ha-Rokeach by Eleazar ben Judah of Worms, in Germany. By the 13th century many Ashkenazi versions were modelled on German Lebkuchen and Honigkuchen, honey and spice cakes that were popular across medieval Europe, among people of every religion, especially at feasts. Over the centuries the recipe changed a great deal, and today it ranges from dark, heavy loaves to lighter, more delicate cakes, though it is rarely frosted. Ashkenazi immigrants brought it to the Land of Israel.

Culture

At Rosh Hashanah the lekach is part of the custom of wishing for a sweet year, and its honey flavour links it to the teaching of the Torah. The Jewish community of Austria has a traditional version made with white rye flour, an equal weight of dark honey, strong Austrian coffee instead of water, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and golden raisins, topped with slivered almonds. It contains a fair number of eggs, vegetable oil, salt and baking powder. It is usually a dense, loaf-shaped cake, though some recipes resemble sponge cake, pound cake or French pain d'épices. Among Chabad Jews it is customary to ask for and receive a honey cake on Erev Yom Kippur.