Blackcurrant Rose Honey Cakes (Nonnettes)
Sweet and sticky, these blackcurrant rose honey cakes are thoroughly delicious. Known as nonnettes in France, they are individual egg-free cakes. This gives them a delightfully smooth texture. Little chunks of caramelised white chocolate just add to the fun, but you can leave them out if you prefer.
The letter for this month’s Alpha Bakes is N. Apart from nuts, I could think of nothing else other than nonnettes and as I haven’t made any of these wonderful eggless French honey cakes for a while, this seemed like a good opportunity.
Blackcurrant Rose Honey Cakes
I decided I’d adapt and use half the amount of the original nonnette recipe to make twelve smaller cakes using my new muffin cases. A half eaten jar of my mother’s delicious blackcurrant jam was sitting in the cupboard and I still had a bit of rose syrup that really needed using up.
Blackcurrant and rose proves to be a nice combination as evinced by the blackcurrant, rose and white chocolate ice-cream I made in the summer. If you’d like to make your own, head over to my recipe for easy blackcurrant jam.
The normal quantity of honey cake batter I make fits twelve regular sized muffin moulds. This produces quite hefty sized cakes, which is fine if you’re very hungry, but not so good if you just want a tea time snack. This half batch size still managed to nearly fill these twelve cases and they produced the perfect size honey cake.
These nonnettes were as good as I imagined they would be. That is to say, they are thoroughly delicious. They’re sweet, sticky and flavoursome with a lovely smooth texture. The blackcurrant has a good strong flavour and its tartness helps to counteract the overall sweetness. CT was surprised by the little bits of white chocolate, but enjoyed them. Licking fingers is an occupational hazard with honey cakes, although CT doesn’t seem to be unduly bothered.
Silicone Muffin Cases
As some of you may have gathered by now, I am a big fan of silicone cookware and use it a lot in my baking. It has revolutionised my baking life. This is mostly because I have no more arduous lining of tins, or cakes sticking and refusing to come out.
A new pack of twelve silicone muffin cases were a welcome addition to my collection. For a start I love the vibrant colours of purple, deep pink, turquoise and lime green. With my eco hat on, it means less wastage and no need to use and then throw away lots of paper cases. But most usefully, they are smaller than the paper muffin cases I usually choose, which means I can make daintier morsels for my less piggy friends.
Other Little French Cakes You Might Like
- Brown butter choc chip friands
- Chilli chocolate madeleines
- Matcha madeleines – green tea & lemon sponges
- Rhubarb friands
- Rhubarb nonnettes
- Strasbourg kugolof
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make my blackcurrant rose nonnettes, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more blackcurrant recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Blackcurrant & Rose Honey Cakes. PIN IT.
Blackcurrant Rose Honey Cakes (Nonnettes)
Ingredients
- 40 g unsalted butter
- 100 g honey (I used a local Cornish variety)
- 50 g light brown sugar
- 50 ml milk
- 50 ml rose syrup
- 100 g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 50 g wholemeal rye flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- small orange
- 25 g white chocolate (optional) chopped
- 12 tsp blackcurrant jam (I used homemade blackcurrant jam)
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 tbsp rose syrup I used homemade rose syrup
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a pan, then add the honey and sugar and stir.40 g unsalted butter, 100 g honey, 50 g light brown sugar
- Take off the heat and add the milk and rose syrup. Stir until smooth then leave to cool.50 ml milk, 50 ml rose syrup
- Sift the flours, baking powder and bicarb of soda into a mixing bowl.100 g plain flour (all purpose flour), 50 g wholemeal rye flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- Grate in ½ the zest from the orange.small orange
- Stir in the white chocolate pieces.25 g white chocolate
- Make a well in the centre and pour in the honey mixture. Stir from the inside out until just combined.
- Divide the mixture between 12 silicone muffin cases or moulds lined with paper cases. Leave in a cool place for half an hour.
- Meanwhile set the oven to 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4).
- Place a small teaspoonful of blackcurrant jam on the top of each cake and bake for 16 minutes or until well risen and firm to the touch.12 tsp blackcurrant jam
- Place on a wire rack to cool.
- Mix the icing sugar with enough rose syrup to form a slightly runny icing.2 tbsp icing sugar, 1 tbsp rose syrup
- Drizzle this over the cakes whilst they’re still slightly warm.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I am entering these blackcurrant rose honey cakes into Alpha Bakes as N is for Nonnettes. Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes take it in turn to host.
As October is such a great time to preserve Autumn’s bounty, Kate of What Kate Baked has cleverly chosen preserves for this month’s Tea Time Treats. TTT is co-hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage.
Chris over at Cooking Around the World has started a new challenge Bloggers Around the World. Sadly I didn’t manage to join in last month with Germany as the selected country. This month it’s France, so I’m submitting these Nonnettes.
As these honey cakes are eggless, I’m also sending them to Cook Eat Delicious Desserts where the theme is honey. It’s hosted this month by Nivedhanam.
I don’t think I’ve ever paired honey with blackcurrants before, but I like the sound of that! Lovely little cakes.
Those honey cakes have been on my list to make again ever since I first made them.
An impressive multi blog challenge entry. They look absolutely amazing!! I love the flavour combinations and nonnettes is a brilliant N for AlphaBakes.
Thanks Ros 🙂
I really must get round to making nonnettes, you always make them look so good – I’ve just found a jar of honey in my cupboard BBE July 2012 – wonder if it’ll still be ok to use?
Thanks C. Your honey will be absolutely fine.
What a lovely Autumnal recipe! I too have never heard of nonnettes, but I can see why they must be super popular! Thank you for such a wonderful entry into TTT!
Thanks Kate – I think I shall be posting about nonnettes here until everyone is thoroughly sick of them 😉
Can’t believe that I lived in France for a year and have been going on holiday there all my life and yet have never come across nonnettes! What have I been doing all this time? They look and sound divine and the flavours you’ve used are inspired! Gorgeous!
Thanks Katharine – I’ve never come across them in France either and I’ve been a fair few times. But now I know about them I shall be on the look out 😉
I like the soft brown sponge, and the blackcurrant jam topping: sharp and sweet, a tea time treat! PS I haven’t heard of nonnettes either…thank you for introducing me a new cake!!
Thanks Rita. Traditionally they are cooked with marmalade so again you have the tart bitterness to offset the sweetness. I am now a big fan, though I have never tried an authentic one from France.
Oooo, I haven’t heard of nonnettes either. Anything that involves jamy business and licking sticky fingers has got to be a good thing though.
They really ought to be better known because they are very good. Plenty of sticky fingers with these.
Lush little nonettes! And I love the jammy topping too…….thanks so much for an inspired tea time treats treat! Karen
Mini nonette? How does that go nonetteettes?
Oh these look delicious. I have to really compliment you on the photos here. The colours are beautiful and the light is crisp and clear. Any changes to what you normally do? The little nonnettes are jumping out of the screen to tempt me! Another great recipe xx
Thanks for the compliment, always welcome, but it was more luck than judgement. Must have got just the right light.
I’ve never heard of nonnettes before, but the certainly look delicious x
Miss C, you’ve missed an absolute treat and they are doubly good if you want to bake and don’t happen to have eggs in the house.
Lovely. I’ve seen blackcurrants used in nonnettes before but the combination of flavours with the rose syrup is inspired. I’m pleased to see that someone is keeping the nonnette flag flying. I recently saw some in Picardy which had a sharp, almost savoury sounding filling – I didn’t get a chance to sample them but I must try making some more when I get the chance.
As you know Phil I’ve become a big fan of Nonnettes and it’s all down to you. I’m still waiting for you to write your cookery book of little French cakes though – I’m sure there are plenty of other delights out there waiting to be discovered.
Where have I been living?? I’ve never heard of nonnettes before, this is quite the revelation for me. They look lovely and colourful.
Chele, where have you been looking? This is the third Nonnette recipe on my blog 😉
oooh, they look quite sexy!… love the jammy topps, very nice. (now regretting the sexy comment because looking at them again you may think i’m being pervy..)… ((and now regretting that even more because you probably think i’m filthy!))… oh well x
Dom, your, errr, secret, is safe with me 😉