Rosh Hashanah is here. We are all making some sort of honey cake today to serve on our High Holiday table. For mine this year, I am making this black sesame honey oolong cake. Oolong and black sesame is a very common duo in Taiwan, people usually enjoy their black sesame dessert with a cup of oolong. Here, I am combining the two into one. Making a black sesame oolong cake, sweeten with honey for the high holiday. Topped with my caramelized apple chips. The entire look is so elevated and elegant. Definitely one of my favorite look from all my cake recipes.

I made the cakes in individual mini bundt cake pan, but feel free to make it in a regular bundt cake pan. Just adjust the baking time accordingly.

Black Sesame Honey Oolong Cake 黑芝麻蜂蜜烏龍蛋糕
Yield 10-12 mini bundt cakes

Ingredients

Milk, 250g
Oolong tea leaves, 8g
Oolong tea ground, 8g
Unsalted butter, 340g, at room temperature
Brown sugar, 150g
Honey, 150g
Eggs, 6, at room temperature
Salt, 7g
All purpose flour, 300g
Black sesame powder, 50g
Baking powder, 9g

Oolong syrup

Water, 70g
Oolong tea leaves, 4g
Granulated sugar, 60g

Icing Ingredients

Powdered sugar, 230g
Vanilla extract, 2 tsp
Heavy cream, 110g
Oolong tea leaves, ground, 8g

Instruction

Make the apple chips- Preheat the oven to 225F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a mandoline and slice the apple into 1/8” to 1/4” thickness slices. Remove the remaining seeds after sliced. The thickness here matters and if they are too thick, it takes longer to dry them out and harder to curl up. Dip the apple slices in the sugar to coat both sides. Arrange the apple on the baking sheet in a single layer. Do not overlap. Bake for 1.5 hours and then flip the apple slices to the other side. Return to the oven for another 30 to 45 minutes until all slices are dried and edges are curly. Transfer the apple slices to a cooling rack to cool.
Raise the oven temperature to 350F. Butter and light flour a mini bundt cake pan.
Heat the milk with oolong tea over medium low heat, do not let the milk boil. Once it starts to simmer, turn off the heat and let it sit for 5-8 minutes. Pour the milk tea into a measuring cup through a fine sieve, you will get about ¾ cup of milk tea.
Cream the brown sugar and butter. Add in salt, eggs and honey. Mix to combine.
In a separate bowl, add in all the dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, oolong tea, and black sesame powder mix well.
Add in ⅓ of the dry ingredient mix into the wet ingredient bowl, mix a little, add in ½ of the milk tea. Followed by another ⅓ of the dry ingredient mix and second half of the milk tea. Finish with the last ⅓ of the dry ingredient mix. Mix until just combined.
Pipe or spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Tab the filled pan on the surface 2-3 times to release some air. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
While the cakes are in the oven, make the oolong syrup- make the oolong tea with the water and the tea leaves. Bring the water to boil and off heat add in the tea leaves and let it steep for 5 minutes. Pour the tea through a fine sieve into a small saucepan to get about 60g of tea. Add in the sugar. Stir over medium heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Set it aside to cool.
Leave the baked cakes in the pan for 3-5 minutes. Transfer the cakes onto a cooling rack, brush on the oolong syrup. Let them cool completely on the rack.
While the cakes are cooling, make the icing. Combine the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream, and oolong tea ground. Started with 55g of the cream, add more if needed. Mix until smooth. The texture should be pourable but not too watery.
Once the cakes are cooled completely, spoon on the icing and top each cake with an apple chip.