Honey for my Honey Cake

Honey for my Honey Cake

It was no surprise when the theme of this month's Sheffield Clandestine Cake Club was announced that it was Valentine's related. It was given a vintage twist which was a nod to the lovely new café where our meeting was held. Since I already have a heart shaped tin there was no question what shape the cake would be just what type of cake I would bake.

I had a flick through my Fiona Cairns books for some inspiration as she has a selection of heart shaped cakes in both The Birthday Cake Book and Bake and Decorate. I saw a photograph of her Fresh Flower Heart in The Birthday Cake Book and decided its simple elegance was the one. However, the cake she used was her honey cake recipe which contains mashed bananas. I don't do mashed bananas in fact I don't want to think about them at all!

I liked the idea of a honey cake though and felt it had a old-fashioned even still timeless quality about it. Once I got the idea of a 'Honey for my Honey' cake in my head I knew it had to be. So this is a honey cake with no mashed bananas which means the natural sweetness and flavour of the honey is allowed to come through.

Fiona's version is covered with a mint green fondant icing. I already had some Renshaw Duck egg blue icing in stock so I used that. Whatever colour you choose I think a pastel colour really does work best. Sadly there are no fresh flowers in my garden at the moment to decorate it with so I went with some fake ones.

Not surprisingly there are several Valentine's and love themed blogging challenges this month – mine own new one included! So this is for my Love Cake challenge which has a theme of 'Baking with passion' this month.

Equipment: 1 heart shaped tin. Mine measures 22cm across at the widest point and 20cm down at the longest point (bought from Sainsbury's)

Ingredients

6oz (170g) Unsalted butter or baking spread

6oz (170g) Runny honey

4oz (110g) Soft light brown sugar

2 Large eggs

1 tbsp (15ml) Milk

8oz (225g) Self-raising flour

To cover

2 tbsp Apricot jam

500g Ready to roll icing

Icing sugar for rolling out

Method

1. Grease and line a heart shaped tin

2. In a large pan heat the butter, honey and sugar. Keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved and the butter has melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4.

4. Once the mixture has cooled slightly beat the beat and milk into it.

5. Sift the flour into the pan and then stir into the mixture until it has all combined. Pour the mixture into the tin (it should have quite a runny consistency).

6. Bake for 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

7. Leave in the tin for at least 10 minutes before removing and leaving to cool on a wire rack.

8. Once the cake has completely cooled prepare the icing.

9. Knead the icing until it is pliable.

10. Dust a flat surface with the icing sugar and start to roll out the icing. Try to have an equal thickness all round.

11. Take the base of the cake tin to give an idea of how much icing you need adding in the extra to cover the sides.

12. Heat the apricot jam in a small pan until it just starts to boil. Take it off the heat and brush it all over the cake.

13. Roll the icing onto your rolling pin and then cover the cake. Carefully smooth down the sides and trim any excess off.

14. With the excess icing make a small ball and use it to smooth round the icing. Trim any further excess off.

15. Once you are satisfied with the finish decorate as you wish with flowers and/or a ribbon trim.