Bee Honey Lemon Cake

This Bee Honey Lemon Cake is the perfect pairing of honey and lemon, baked in an adorable beehive cake pan, to welcome spring. 

Honey

Having grown up around Middle Eastern food, nearly all things sweet, were sweetened with honey.

Did you know that honey produces hydrogen peroxide naturally? It occurs, in the honey, by an enzyme called glucose oxides, which is added to the plant nectar by bees.

It’s why, back in the day, doctors always carried a jar of honey in their home visiting bag.

What’s that got to do with cakes? Nothing really, except that I most prefer to cook with ingredients that have interesting properties, like yogurt, which offers healing elements to our intestines, than over processed ingredients, like sugar. 

Honey Flavors

Honey has a very unique flavor of its own, each type depending on what flowers the bees were extracting from.

The plants a bee is attracted to, is what determines what the honey will ultimately taste like. 

Once I bought a honey that had a horrid tasting honey, looked on the jar to see what flower it was gathering nectar from. It was eucalyptus!

Might have been great for a sore throat or cough but not desirable for dessert. Always read the label to see where the bee was hanging out.

Bees And Honey Cakes

The moment frost subsides and new life starts popping up from the ground, after a long winter’s sleep, we start thinking about bees.

I have come to enjoy feeding birds, in my yard, just so I can watch their comings and goings, but it’s the bees I find fascinating to watch when flowers begin to bloom. 

The bee, hovering in my cover photo of this honey cake, was a shot I felt lucky to capture while living in Brazil.

Flowers blooming nearly all year, the bees have so many plant choices,producing varied flavors, but I found it odd that few desserts were made with honey.

Oh sure, honey is used in some cooking in Brazil but because they are known for their sugar cane, most desserts are made from sugar and not honey.

So, when I saw this little bee hoving about my balcony, it inspired me to make my first honey cakes.

Why Lemon In Honey Cakes?

I have always found that lemon is a flavor that marries well with sweets. It seems to enhance the flavors in the recipes it gets added to.

This honey cake recipe allows the flavor of the honey to stand out and I attribute that to the lemon.

Lemon rinds are loaded with oil, naturally. The lemon oil adds just the right amount of balance to make this cake extra moist.

I’ve also found that orange rinds would do the same, except the flavor of the orange is more dominant and would detract from the flavor of the honey. So… lemon it is!

How This Recipe Came To Bee

When it comes to whimsical kitchen gadgets, I am always eager to try something new; it is where I spend much of my playtime.

That said, I came across this adorable beehive mini cake pan and thought ‘there’s no way all those intricate details won’t cause the cake to stick to them’.

As it turned out, my curiosity got the best of me and I had to create a honey cake, with lemons (the color of the pan), to see if it worked. It did and I just love it!

It’s funny how the oddest things will inspire a recipe in my brain.

Honey Cakes, Winnie The Pooh And Christopher Robin

Having gone to see the Christopher Robin film with my (30 year old), daughter, reminded me just how much I adored Winnie the Pooh, both while growing up and when my children were growing up.

The numerous scenes in the film of honey oozing and dripping from here and there, tantalized my appetite to go home and make these honey cakes… yet again. My little dedication to Pooh Bear!

Ingredients Needed

• Flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Butter
• Sugar
• Honey
• Eggs
• Milk
• Lemon juice and zest

Equipment Needed

• Beehive Muffin tins
• Mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Measuring spoons
• Measuring cup
• Citrus press
• Oven

Bee Honey Lemon Cake

Recipe by Robin DaumitCourse: CakesCuisine: American

Servings

12

servings

Honey and Lemon cakes made in a beehive tin.

Ingredients

• Flour – 2 3/4 cups

• Baking powder – 1 1/2 teaspoon

• Baking soda – 1/4 teaspoon

• Salt – 1/2 teaspoon

• Butter – 1 cup, softened

• Sugar – 1/2 cup

• Honey – 1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoon for glaze

• Eggs – 4

• Milk – 3/4 cup

• Lemon juice – 2 tablespoon, plus 2 more for glaze

• Lemon zest – 1 tablespoon

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour baking tins.
• Whisk butter, sugar and 1/2 cup of honey together until blended. Add one egg at a time and whisk until light and creamy. Add the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and zest. Whisk.
• Sift the dry ingredients and blend. Slowly add milk and whisk.
• Place in prepared baking pans and bake for about 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool.
• Glaze
• Whisk the remaining lemon juice and honey until well blended.
• Remove cakes from their pan and drizzle glaze over the cakes. Add a little lemon zest across the tops, if you would like a touch more color and zing!

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rdaumit

I am all about the gratification of the senses, and so I have become passionate about capturing the stimuli for my senses through videography and photography. Food provides some of the most alluring subject matter to capture on film, and videography does what a still shot can not do: capture sound. When you hear something sizzling, or pouring, your taste buds and sense of smell are already engaged.

I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.

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