Well to being with there is a brief history behind my madness towards learning to make this cake. Madness I say because, it is " The honey cake", guess the quotes made it already special. I donot know about you guys, but growing up I had this fascination for honey cake, the one that was sold at the bakeries. Ofcourse Mom's special Birthday cake was always special, but this was the fancy-shmancy pastry piece that could be bought. And guess what after all these years together, I got to know that dear hubby was and still is a big fan of "Da Cake". What was even more surprising was that there are a lot of fans for it. While I did make the cake the first time for my Christmas party at home by using a ready made yellow cake mix, and the honey syrup recipe I had searched for in a number of Indian cooking blogs (guess mostly south Indian), one caught my attention because of the details. Since I could not make the cake from scratch, I felt it would be not so special to post it. Well New year's eve was the perfect occasion to make it one more time, this time all home made. And the result was an irresistible delicacy. Irresistible because, I love to cook, and bake but not eat on par with my food addict hubby. But this was an exception, I couldnot believe that I did complete justice (In my hubby's foodie language :-) ) to the cake, and finished it up by the next day. Here is the recipe.
For the Cake
1. 6 large eggs. Separate the yolks as we will use only whites
2. 2 Cups all purpose flour
3. 1 1/2 cups sugar
4. 1 1/2 sticks butter
5. 2 tsp Vanilla essence
6. 1/4 tsp kosher salt
7. 3/4 cup milk
8. 2 tsp baking powder
8. 13 X 9 inch pan for baking
While the eggs are still cold separate the whites from the yolk, and let them come to room temperature. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a mixing bowl. Mean while beat the sugar and butter which should be now at room temperature until light and fluffy. When the eggs come to the room temperature mix the vanilla, milk into the whites and beat for about a minute. Now mix the flour and the egg mixture and alternating with flour and eggs+milk so that you would end up with the flour at the end. Pour into the greased and floured pan and bake it in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for about 35-40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted into the cake. Take it out and while it is warm pour the honey syrup onto it. This is what makes the cake exceptionally delicious.
" Da Syrup"
1. 1/2 cup sugar
2. 1/2 cup honey
3. 1/2 cup water
4. 1/2 cup finely shredded coconut ( dont use the sweetened one)
5. 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
Boil the water and sugar, and honey, coconut for about 15 minutes, take it off the heat and add the cardamom powder. Pour the syrup onto the baked cake while both are warm still. let the syrup seep into all the corners of the cake, and wait for a day if you can. Savour it the next day you will be hit " da Spot" and if you can't wait you will still hit it. I chose to wait and relived my bakery memories from back home. Here is the link to the blog that I visited to search for the syrup recipe. I added less water than mentioned in paru's blog. Thanks to Paru's
Well you guys tell me if you did hit "da spot". Are you annoyed by the indiscriminate usage of "da", well I have been watching ZNMD (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) a zillion times, and one of the scenes where Abhay and Farhan call Hrithik "da mentalist" is so funny that I want to use it wherever I can. An absolutely cool, still emotionally touching movie that will definitely strike a chord with everyone who has friends, and I guess that is every body. 
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