Lekach or Jewish honey cake is a honey-sweetened cake, one of many symbolically significant foods traditionally eaten by Ashkenazi Jews at the holiday of Rosh Hashana, in hopes of ensuring a sweet New Year.[1]
Recipes vary widely. It is usually a dense, loaf-shaped cake, but some versions are similar to sponge cake or pound cake, with the addition of honey and spices with coffee or tea for coloring; others are more like gingerbread or lebkuchen.[1]
The Jewish tradition of honeyed cakes may date back to ancient Egyptian cakes called basboosa.[1] The Egyptian cakes, basboosa.[1] are probably a variant of Lekach