Greek Honey Cake is a light, flavor-packed dessert that skips all the fuss. Make this simple, sweet, and citrusy cake to feed a crowd!
I found Greek honey cake in search of easy desserts that aren't laden with butter or frosting. This recipe, which features an olive oil cake soaked with a honey, fresh citrus and pistachio syrup rather than frosting, is exactly the not-too-sweet dessert I was craving.
This cake recipe is inspired by desserts on the island of Aegina, where pistachios and honey from local beekeepers are aplenty. To be honest, I was ready to try this Greek honey cake the instant I saw that it involved pistachios–whether in a milk pudding or baklava I'll take any excuse to use creamy, slightly savory pistachios to elevate a sweet treat.
Aside from its incredible flavor, this yiayia-approved honey cake is also ideal for serving a crowd. The squares can easily feed 12 to 15 or so, and it’s adored by kids and adults alike. Plus, it's the kind of simple dessert recipe where you dump all the ingredients in one single bowl and mix!
Table of Contents
Greek Honey Cake Ingredients
With tangy Greek yogurt, sweet honey, fresh citrus, course semolina flour, and crunchy nuts, this cake has a delightful balance of flavors and textures. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Eggs: Hold the batter together.
- Citrus: You will need 2 lemons and 2 oranges. Both the zest and the juice are used, so opt for organic citrus and give them a good scrub. I like extra fragrant and sweet Meyer lemons if they’re available.
- Greek yogurt: Moistens the cake with a tangy flavor to balance the sweetness.
- Sweetener: Granulated sugar sweetens the batter, and honey soaks into the cooked cake, flavoring and sweetening it. A high-quality, pleasantly flavored honey is essential–I like our Greek Alfa honey.
- Flour: A combination of semolina and all-purpose give this cake a nice fluffy meets toothsome texture.
- Baking powder: Gives the cake a nice rise.
- Extra virgin olive oil: Lends a lot of flavor to the cake. Use a high-quality extra virgin variety that’s not too bitter–I like our Private Reserve Greek for this recipe.
- Nuts: Ground almonds flavor the dough and add crunch to the topping. Use unroasted, unsalted almonds (sometimes labeled “raw”). Pistachios add crunch, creaminess and a pop of color to the top.
How to Make Greek Honey Cake
Though this cake is delicious right away, it’s even better if you let it soak in all the flavor. Ideally, make this cake the night before you plan to serve. Here’s how it’s done:
Make the Cake
- Get ready. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan with oil and dust with all purpose flour (shake the pan a little to get an even coating of flour).
- Make the cake batter. Place 5 large eggs, 1 cup of Greek yogurt, 2 cups of sugar, 5 tablespoons of ground almonds, the zest of one orange and one lemon, 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour, and 1 cup semolina flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and ¾ cup olive oil in a large mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon or a whisk to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and spread evenly with a spatula.
- Bake and cool. Bake on the center rack until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cake completely cool in the pan.
Flavor the Cake
- Make the honey syrup. Once the cake has cooled, toast the pistachios in a large dry non-stick pan over medium-low heat. Once they become fragrant, stir in the honey, orange juice, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and reduce until nice and syrupy, 1 to 2 minutes. (Do NOT taste the hot syrup as it will burn your mouth).
- Soak the cake. Stab the cake all over with a small knife or a skewer to create holes. Pour the honey pistachio syrup all over the cake as evenly as possible. If you need to, use a spoon to distribute the pistachios across the top of the cake. Sprinkle on the shaved almonds, if using. For best results, allow the cake to soak with the syrup for a few hours.
- Serve. Cut the cake into 12 to 15 squares and serve.
What to Serve with Greek Honey Cake
Greek honey cake, like banana bread or Italian carrot cake, perfectly balances sweet and savory to make it welcome at any time of day. Serve for brunch or an afternoon snack with a cup of lemon ginger tea or coffee.
For dessert, serve this honey cake after a Greek-style feast. Start with ice-cold glasses of ouzo and mezze like Tirokafteri and Tzatziki with pita. Move on to traditional Greek salad and something simple like Greek sheet pan chicken. Finish with a sticky square of honey cake, perhaps with Carajillos (Spiked Coffee) on the side.
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Our Signature Private Reserve and Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oils, Sourced Directly from Family Farms in Greece.
Greek Honey Cake with Orange and Pistachios
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup low-fat Greek yogurt (I used fat-free plain Greek yogurt)
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons ground almonds
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 cup coarse semolina (or farina or Cream of Wheat)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing the pan
- Handful of shaved almonds, for topping (optional)
For the Honey Pistachio Syrup
- 1 1 /4 cup shelled salted pistachios
- 1 ¼ cup quality runny honey
- Juice of 2 oranges
- Juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Get ready. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with oil and dust with all purpose flour (shake the pan a little to get an even coating of flour).
- Make the cake batter. Place the eggs, yogurt, sugar, ground almonds, orange and lemon zest, AP and semolina flour, baking powder, and olive oil in a large mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon or a whisk to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and spread evenly with a spatula.
- Bake and cool. Bake on the center rack until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cake completely cool in the pan.
- Make the honey syrup. Once the cake has cooled, toast the pistachios in a large dry non-stick pan over medium-low heat. Once they become fragrant, stir in the honey, orange juice, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and reduce until nice and syrupy, 1 to 2 minutes. (Do NOT taste the hot syrup as it will burn your mouth).
- Soak the cake. Use a small knife or skewer to poke holes all over the cake. Pour the honey pistachio syrup all over the cake as evenly as possible. If you need to, use a spoon to distribute the pistachios across the top of the cake. Sprinkle on the shaved almonds, if using. For best results, allow the cake to soak with the syrup for a few hours.
- Serve. Cut the cake into 12 to 15 squares and serve.
Video
Notes
- You can by the almonds ground or grind whole almonds in a small food processor.
- The syrup needs to be hot when you pour it on the cooled cake so the cake will better absorb it.
- This cake is even better the next day when the flavors and the moisture have settled in.
- Visit our shop to browse quality Mediterranean ingredients including olive oils, honey, jams, and spices.
Nutrition
*This post has recently been updated with new information for readers’ benefit.
I have to make a dairy free cake for Rosh Hashanah. Is there a substitute to make it dairy free? This cooks delicious!
Thank you
Pam
Hi, Pam. You can try substituting the dairy yogurt with a plant-based alternative to make it dairy free. I believe brands like Silk and So Delicious carry those types of alternatives. It's not something we've tested with this recipe, though, so just keep that in mind. If you give it a try, we'd love to hear how it worked out for you!
An older post someone commented they substituted gf flour blend and turned out great. Has anyone tried a gf version, and if so, what flour did you use ? Thank you.
Hi! Just made for my sister’s birthday this weekend. We are letting it sit overnight before we try it. Should we let it sit out on the counter, or cover it at all, or keep it in the fridge overnight? Thanks!
Hi,
Can the cake be frozen and then thawed before adding the honey syrup and nuts. I'm looking to make ahead for a party.
Thanks
Hi, Vicki. Interesting question! We haven't tried that before, but I just reviewed the recipe again, and I think it would work.
Can you use all flour or course semolina sub cornmeal? Thank you I’ll make this weekend for guests I’m having.
Hi, Cheryl. We have never tried this recipe with all all-purpose flour or cornmeal, so I'm not sure how using either would turn out. If you are unable to find semolina, we recommend substituting with Cream of Wheat or a similar creamy wheat cereal for the best results.
Should it be refrigerated if serving the next day?
Hi, Jane. If you just leave it out at room temperature for one or two nights, it should be fine covered. When I want to keep it for a few days, I place it in the fridge and take it out well enough before serving.
I am allergic to oranges can I increase the lemons instead?
Many thanks Sandi 🙂
Can I use cream of rice instead of cream of wheat??
Hi, Danielle. That may work... it's just not something we've tried with this recipe ourselves, so hard to say with 100% certainty.
I've made this cake three times in the last month. It is insanely good. I made it according to your recipe and it was orange perfection. Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks so much, Stacey!
Just made this for a dinner party and it went down an absolute hit! People went for second helpings even though they were already stuffed from the main course... I'm based in the UK so I had to convert all the measurements, which I've listed below for the convenience of others. I'm also dairy intolerant, so I replaced the yoghurt with vegan yoghurt (Koko brand). I also halved the sugar to 200g from 400g as per the suggestion of other commenters who had said it was too sweet, and it was perfect for me!
Cake:
— 5 large eggs
— 236ml yoghurt
— 400g granulated sugar
— 5 tbsp ground almonds
— Zest of 1 lemon
— Zest of 1 orange
— 155g plain flour
— 170g coarse semolina
— 2 tsp baking powder
— 194ml olive oil
Syrup:
— 195ml runny honey
— 200g pistachios
— Juice of 2 oranges
— Juice of 1 lemon
Thanks for sharing! Very helpful!
I made this recipe last night (late Nov 2022). DELICIOUS. Love the sparkly citrus in baking. The course semolina flour and ground almonds give it sustenance. Add the honey syrup and you get a beautiful desert. I've never made a Greek desert before and felt pretty chuffed. My syrup turned out not sticky and syrupy and I want to ask you about that. I used a good quality clear honey and the lemon and orange juices... and lightly boiled it for 1-2 minutes, but it never got syrupy. I wonder if you could give me a measurement of how much juice should result from the 2 oranges and 1 lemon's worth of juice. Maybe my fruit produced more than the desired amount of juice? But you know what? It was still delicious. I'm loving your site! Thank you.
Thanks, Fran! So glad you enjoyed the recipe. Typically, one lemon will yield 3-4 Tablespoons of juice, and 4-5 Tablespoons of juice per orange.
I happened across this cake just the other day. Lucky me! I made it yesterday (taking advice from other reviewers, I cut the sugar by half) and served it today to rave reviews. So delicious, so moist, and the flavor is amazing! I admit I was concerned about the amount of syrup, it seemed like too much but... the secret is to leave it for several hours or overnight, as the recipe says. It will soak in all that luscious syrup and it's heavenly. Thank you for a wonderful addition to my favorite cake recipes!
So glad you enjoyed it, Nancy!
Hi Suzy. Love all your recipe idea. I'm in Melbourne Australia, we don't really use cup measurements here. Do you have this recipe grams??
Hi, Kim! Thanks for reaching out. I'm so sorry we don't have metric measurements for this recipe available. We do try to add them when we can, but we just haven't found the right metric conversion tool for every recipe on our website quite yet. It's something we're working on solving.
Hello! We recently ate a Mediterranean themed desert at a restaurant but it was a ricotta cake with pistachios and honey with a very distinct flavor profile (not sure if the spices used). This looks pretty similar, do you think the Greek yogurt could be substituted for ricotta?
Interesting idea! I think it could possibly work, but it's not something we've tested before. If you give it a try, please stop back! We'd love to hear your thoughts.
This is a delicious cake! My whole family loves it!! How do you suggest I store this? And how long does it last?
Hi, Kim. If you just leave it out at room temperature for one or two nights, it should be fine covered. When I want to keep it for a few days, I place it in the fridge and take it out well enough before serving. Hard to say how long it will last. It goes pretty fast at my house!
Can sour cream be substituted for the yogurt?
Hello! We'd recommend sticking with the yogurt here. Enjoy!