Recipe - Pain Depice (Honey Cake)

1 One half cup Water
1 teaspoon Anise seed
1 cup Honey
1 One fourth cup Sugar
3 teaspoon Baking soda
4 One half cup Sifted flour
One fourth teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
One half teaspoon Nutmeg
One fourth teaspoon Ground cloves
One half teaspoon Ground allspice
6 tablespoon Chopped candied orange peel

Put anise seed and water in a pot and bring to a boil, then turn off the
heat and set it aside. Stir in sugar and honey and keep stirring until
dissolved.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together the dry ingredients, then stir in the candied peel. Add the
honey mixture and stir until smooth. Turn into 2 greased loaf pans (81/2"
x 41/2") and bake until done, about one hour. (Because this gives a
tougher crust than most cakes, I take them out when the cakes has pulled
away from the sides of the pan.

Let cool completely before cutting. It's better the next day, and will keep
surprisingly well if wrapped in plastic wrap and kept in an airtight tin
away from heat.

I bake about a dozen miniature loaves at Hannukah/Christmas time for gifts.
This is every bit as delicious as the pain d'epice I enjoyed in France as a
kid.

(Note: I could slice this up, dry it a day, and toast it for the kids as
toddlers; it made a fairly good teething toast.)

Posted to fatfree digest V96 #244

From: Sylvia LeReverend sylvia@cs.toronto.edu (by way of

Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 10:36:51 0400