Enjoy an Easy
Honey Cake Recipe

I am spoilt for choice with so many honey cake recipes from which to choose and you will be too.

Here is a simple way to show you how to change the ingredients when baking honey cakes and how to adjust the cooking times so that you will get superb results.

8oz of honey = 1 cup of sugar

For every 60mls of liquid replaced with honey = 4 tablespoons

Reduce the oven temperature accordingly. For e.g if you would normally bake a cake at Gas mark 4/180 - lower the oven temperature to Gas mark 3/160 C/350 Farenheight.

It is ok to use some sugar if that is what you prefer; I’m a great believer in free choice so you can adjust your honey cake recipe by using half honey and half sugar if that is your choice.

It may make your honey cake a little darker in color but it won’t spoil the flavor.

Years ago my grandmother taught me how to make cakes and boy was it hard work.

Everything had to be beaten together with a wooden spoon and made your arms ache like mad!

Thank goodness in this day and age we have blenders and food mixers which make the job of making honey cakes a whole lot easer. Top Tip If you haven’t already got one make the investment, it saves so much time.

Place half a cup of honey and 6oz of butter into a blender and beat them together

Beat 3 medium sized eggs and add a little at a time with 2 cups of self raising flour

When all the ingredients have been blended spoon them into an 8 inch deep cake tin

Cook in a pre-heated oven Gas Mark 5/190 degrees C/375 F for 30 minutes

Turn your honey cake out onto a cooling rack

When cold slice through the middle to seperate into two sponges

Sandwhich together with an easy butter icing using 1 cup of icing sugar and a third of a cup of butter

You can make your honey cake recipe flavored if you prefer, some like chocolate cake, who doesn't!

Scoop out one and a half tablespoons of flour and replace with one and a half tablespoons of cocoa powder

Separate 3 eggs and whisk the whites until they are really firm, leave to one side.

Place 3 egg yolks, 2 tbs of sugar, 3 tbsp of honey and 2 tsps of finely grated orange peel into your blender, and whisk until thick and creamy.

Add half a cup of cornflour and whisk again.

Add half a cup of self-raising flour and your egg whites, set your blender to slow speed and blend these in.

Pour into a prepared 8 inch sandwich tin and bake your cake for about 25 minutes 180C/350F/ Gas 4

Turn it out onto a cooling wrack and dust very lightly with icing sugar.

This one is great for busy cooks, it’s less fiddly because all the ingredients can be placed in a cake blender/food mixer together at the same time and whipped up until smooth.

6oz/ 150g soft butter

6oz/ 150g soft brown sugar

2oz/ 50g desiccated coconut

3x medium eggs

8oz/ 200g of sifted plain flour

4 tablespoons of honey

1 and a half teaspoons of baking powder

Pour into a prepared deep cake tin and bake in the center of the oven for around one and half hours at 160C/325F/ Gas 3.

Using the honey cake recipe above can be varied if you don’t like coconut, simply exchange this for dried fruit and/or cherries.

In your blender place 2 cups of wholemeal flour and 2 tsps of freshly ground cinnamon

In a saucepan gently melt 1 cup of brown sugar, half a cup of butter and a third of a cup of honey.

Once melted add to your blender with 8oz of finely grated carrot.

Blend all together, pour into a greased loaf-tin and bake your cake 160C/3250F/Gas mark 3 for about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Leave to cool slightly and turn out on to a cooling wrack.

We eat this cake often and it is the one my friends look forward to when they pop round for a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

Especially nice on a warm summers day sitting in the garden chatting, putting the world to rights and just generally chilling out for a while.

We all live busy lives and sometimes forget we need a bit of (us) time to do just that.

We like the flavor of lemons in our honey cake recipe, the following two honey cakes both use lemons.

For the loaf type honey sponge cake I use a good Madeira sponge recipe and you really don’t need to add the lemon if you don’t want to.

One has a rich butter cream topping and the other has a good soaking of honey and lemon and is more of a loaf type honey cake, you could choose any shape deep cake tin you like.

Honey used in home cake baking also keeps your cakes moister for far longer not that ever happen in my house; these cakes are just not round long enough!

1 Loaf tin 23 x 13 x 7cm, greased with butter and lined with greaseproof paper or a deep round cake tin.

6oz/170g of honey

5oz/140g soft butter

3oz/85g light brown sugar

2 x beaten eggs

7oz/200g sieved self raising flour

A little lemon juice and the zest of a whole un-waxed lemon.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 3

Grease and line your choice of cake tin

Place honey, butter and sugar with a spoonful of lemon juice into a large saucepan and heat gently until melted.

Remove from the heat and gently stir in the flour and eggs.

Pour into your pre-prepared cake tins and pop in the oven for about 40 45 minutes or until the sponge feels springy to touch.

Turn out onto a wire cooling tray and whilst still warm add a glaze made with 8oz of icing sugar, a teaspoon of honey, the zest of a lemon and just a dash of hot lemon juice, enough to make a pouring consistency.

Prick the sponge with a fork a few times on the top, place it on a serving plate and drizzle this over the cake.

This allows the glaze to seep into the sponge and once cool cut into slices and serve.

If you prefer, wait until this honey cake recipe is cold and slice into two halves, a top and bottom layer and fill and cover with lemon and honey butter cream icing.

This makes the most fantastic honey cake recipe often known as Lemon Drizzle Cake but because it is so mouthwatering we tend to call it "Dribble Cake".

There are endless honey cake recipes and sometimes we just don’t have the time to bake them.

Melt 1 tbsp of honey with a third of a cup of butter

Place 8oz of broken digestive biscuits (chocolate covered ones are nice) into your blender and whisk until they look like fine breadcrumbs

Chop up 2 bananas or apples, add these with your melted honey and butter to your crushed biscuits and whisk together until blended

Place in a greased 8 inch sandwich tin and leave to set in the fridge until cold then cut into slices, eat and enjoy the frutis of your labors.