A family-friendly dessert idea for Rosh Hashanah: apple cupcakes with honey cream cheese frosting and shards of honeycomb candy.
Remember when I said I was over cake for Rosh Hashanah and I was going to make a pie this year? Lies. All lies. As soon as I finished making that amazing Fig and Honey Custard Pie that blew up on Instagram – thanks for the kind words, everyone – I started thinking about how fun it would be to serve apple and honey cupcakes for Rosh Hashanah. And to decorate them, I would use that sticky, crispy honeycomb candy that is like toffee but full of tiny holes just like a honeycomb.
Do you guys know what I am talking about when I say honeycomb candy? Some people call it sponge candy or violet crumble, which is the name of an Australian candy bar consisting of honeycomb toffee covered in chocolate. (Dear Australian readers, please send Violet Crumble and an authentic flat white, STAT.) When you bite into it, honeycomb candy shatters into a million pieces and then it sticks to your teeth like cement. It’s the best.
I have always wanted to try my hand at making honeycomb candy – I gather it’s the culinary equivalent of those elementary school science projects where you make a volcano erupt using baking soda. And what better occasion than Rosh Hashanah, a holiday for which honey is the preferred sweetener?
Making honeycomb candy is pretty straightforward, but it does get dramatic and I highly recommend having a good digital thermometer available. Basically, you start to make caramel and when the caramel reaches 300 degrees, you add baking soda and the whole thing foams up like crazy, creating the honeycomb structure. (Because of the dramatic foaming, use a large pot.) The candy then needs to harden for at least an hour before it can be broken up into pieces, so I advise doing this step in advance.
Even if you didn’t want to make the honeycomb, these cupcakes still check the Rosh Hashanah apple and honey box. The cupcakes themselves have lots of grated apple, which makes them especially moist and adds some interesting texture. And the cream cheese frosting is sweetened with honey, as well as powdered sugar. The tanginess of the cream cheese offsets some of the sweetness from all that honey and sugar.
So many Rosh Hashanah desserts are targeted at adult palates – think of a spiced honey cake or a delicate German apple cake. These apple and honey cupcakes, however, will win over the kids at your table – as well as those who are kids at heart. Because who doesn’t want to ring in the new year with a cupcake?
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 2 TB honey
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tsp baking soda, sifted
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- Pinch ground cloves
- 2 oz (4 TB) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 TB buttermilk
- 1 cup shredded apples (about 2 medium apples) peeled
- 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 oz (4 TB) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 3 TB honey
Instructions
- To make the honeycomb candy, have all the ingredients ready and close to the stove. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Place the sugar, corn syrup, honey and water in a large saucepan and stir to combine.
- Heat mixture over medium-high heat without stirring until mixture reaches 300 degrees. Remove from heat and add baking soda all at once. Whisk for a few seconds untiol mixture stops foaming.
- Pour mixture into the prepared pan and allow to harden completely.
- Once the honeycomb is hardened, break into pieces. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
- To make the cupcakes, whisk together the dry ingredients and spices in a small bowl and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 and line the cavities of a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Place the butter and sugar in a medium bowl and cream until light and fluffy using a handheld mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and combine.
- Add half the dry ingredients, followed by the buttermilk and mix to combine. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Fold in the grated apple, leaving behind any liquid that has accumulated.
- Divide the cupcake batter evenly between the cups of the muffin tin and bake 20-22 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, in standing mixer, beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and mix until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the honey and mix just until combined. If frosting is too soft, chill until it is stiff enough to pipe.
- Frost the cupcakes as desired. Top each cupcake with crumbled honeycomb candy and one larger shard of candy.
