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EGGLESS HONEY CAKE (INDIAN BAKERY STYLE)

This simple Eggless Bakery Style Honey Cake requires minimum effort but yields amazing results! A simple, delicious sponge cake that is perfect with a morning coffee, afternoon tea or for any happy occasion.

Pairs beautifully with a cup of Karak Chai

indian honey cake slices topped with strawberries on a metal tray

The Indian Honey Cake is essentially an eggless sponge cake that is soaked in a honey sugar syrup and topped with a fruit jam and coconut. 

This cake has been baking in South Indian Bakeries known as Iyengar bakeries for a half a century. This delicious cake is therefore known as Eggless Honey Cake Iyengar Bakery Style or Indian Bakery Style Honey Cake.

It reminds me a lot of my school days! In school dinners, we often had a jam sponge doused in hot custard! Nothing got us more excited than seeing Butterscotch Tart though – word would travel down the queue!

iyengar bakery style honey cake served in a tray on a light blue backdrop

Why you will love this eggless honey cake recipe

Eggless recipe

Easy to make perfect honey cake

Tasty option for a birthday cake

Sweet treat 

slices of delicious eggless honey cake topped with strawberry jam and coconut

Honey Cake Ingredients

Sponge:

All purpose flour

Alternatively, use whole wheat flour

Condensed milk

Sunflower oil or other flavourless oil

Orange juice

Baking powder

Baking soda

Lemon juice

Vanilla extract or vanilla essence

Honey Syrup

Water

Sugar – I prefer using white sugar rather than brown sugar to prevent the colour of the syrup changing too much

Honey

Optional:

Add a few drops of rose water 

Topping / Jam glaze

Strawberry Jam – I used homemade strawberry jam but store-bought jams work perfectly. optionally use other fruit jam such as mango jam, pineapple jam or rose jam

Desiccated coconut or coconut flakes

Few Fresh strawberries

small portions of indian bakery honey cake served with chai on a blue backdrop

How to make Indian Honey Cake

  1. Preheat oven to gas mark 4, 160C or 350F.
  2. Grease or spray 2LB loaf pan or cake tin then dust with little flour and remove extra flour.
  3. Place the dry ingredients – plain flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a large bowl and whisk properly.
  4. In another mixing bowl whisk the wet ingredients – oil, orange juice, condensed milk, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
  5. Incorporate wet mixture into dry ingredients.
  6. Spread the cake batter into greased and floured loaf tin.
  7. Bake the cake in the preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean and top should be a little brown.
  8. It should take about 50-55 minutes.
  9. Remove it from the oven and allow cake cool completely
  10. When the cake is cool, remove it from the loaf tin and arrange it on the board.
  11. Now prepare the syrup by boiling together water and sugar. Boil this syrup for 5 minutes then turn the heat off.
  12. Whisk in honey when the syrup is just warm.
  13. Using a fork or a toothpick to poke holes in the cake.
  14. Use a spoon to pour honey syrup, maybe you won’t need all of the syrup. Adjust the amount of syrup based on your sweet preference
  15. Now melt the jam in the microwave or saucepan (on low flame) for a few seconds and spread evenly on the top of the cake.
  16. Sprinkle desiccated coconut and leave the cake aside for a while or until jam settles.
  17. Now with a sharp knife cut slices of honey cake and serve with fresh strawberry slices.

Serving Suggestion

Top delicious honey cake slices with fresh strawberries and serve at room temperature

As always if you make this recipe, be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe and tag me on Instagram @jcookingodyssey or #jcookingodyssey. I love seeing all your photos of my recipe recreations!

Don’t forget to follow me on social media using the buttons below – I can’t wait to see you all there!

eggless honey cake slices served in a rectangular tray

Eggless Honey Cake (Indian Bakery Style)

Hayley Dhanecha
This Indian bakery style eggless honey cake is easy to make. A perfectly moist sponge cake is topped with jam and grated coconut.
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Dessert
Cuisine Indian
Servings 8 servings
Calories 737 kcal

Ingredients
  

Eggless sponge

  • 315 gram Plain flour
  • 397 gram Condensed milk
  • 235 millilitres Sunflower oil
  • 280 millilitres Orange juice
  • 2 teaspoon Baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon Baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon Lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Syrup

  • 240 millilitres Water
  • 60 gram Sugar
  • 150 millilitres Honey

Topping

  • 150 gram Strawberry Jam
  • 3-4 tablespoon Desiccated coconut
  • Strawberries fresh

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to gas mark 4 or 350F.
  • Grease or spray 2 lb loaf tin then dust with little flour and remove extra flour.
  • Place the plain flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a big bowl and whisk properly.
  • In another bowl whisk in oil, orange juice, condensed milk, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
  • Incorporate wet mixture into dry ingredients.
  • Spread the mixture into greased and floured loaf tin.
  • Bake the cake until a toothpick comes out clean and top should be a little brown.
  • It should take about 50-55 minutes.
  • Remove it from the oven and allow to completely cool.
  • When the cake is cool, remove it from the loaf tin and arrange it on the board.
  • Now prepare the syrup by boiling together water and sugar. Boil this syrup for 5 minutes then turn the heat off.
  • Whisk in honey when the syrup is just warm.
  • Using a fork or a toothpick to poke the cake.
  • Use a spoon to pour on the syrup. You may not need all of the syrup.
  • Now melt the jam in M/W for 30-35 seconds and spread evenly on the cake.
  • Sprinkle desiccated coconut and leave the cake aside for a while or until jam settles once again.
  • Now with a sharp knife cut the slices and serve with fresh strawberry slices.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Eggless Honey Cake (Indian Bakery Style)
Amount per Serving
Calories
737
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
33
g
51
%
Saturated Fat
 
7
g
44
%
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
1
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
24
g
Cholesterol
 
17
mg
6
%
Sodium
 
316
mg
14
%
Potassium
 
341
mg
10
%
Carbohydrates
 
104
g
35
%
Fiber
 
2
g
8
%
Sugar
 
69
g
77
%
Protein
 
9
g
18
%
Vitamin A
 
206
IU
4
%
Vitamin C
 
22
mg
27
%
Calcium
 
217
mg
22
%
Iron
 
2
mg
11
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

The nutritional information provided is an approximation calculated by an online calculator/plugin. Please consult a professional dietitian for nutritional advice.

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Recipe Rating




cookwithrenu

Friday 28th of September 2018

This is such an irresistible treat. Would love to dig in this now.

Ashima

Wednesday 19th of September 2018

This cake looks gorgeous -- like little bars of gold! :-) I love the addition of strawberry jam and coconut. I haven't baked in a while and you photos are totally inviting me to try this out!

PS:I love your backdrop and those dainty tea-cups!

code2cook

Wednesday 19th of September 2018

first of all overall cake looking beautiful. I have seen honey cake with simple honey syrup on top. Adding lemon juice and starwberry definitely take it to another level.

Anonymous

Wednesday 20th of September 2017

Wow what a wonderful bake.. beautiful cake.

Catherine

Monday 18th of September 2017

What a gorgeous cake! I love the deep golden color and the jam topping is perfect.