Iced Honey Spice Cake

A traybake with attitude, this iced honey spice cake is warming, sticky and flavoursome. The lemon icing on top is a good foil for the sweet honey and spices. It’s easy to make and perfect for parties, potlucks and the colder months of the year.

What do you do with the letter I for goodness sake? This is the letter we are all to use for Alpha Bakes this month. Well there is icing of course, but that seems a bit of a cheat. Luckily Delia came to my rescue.

I’m doing a mammoth bake today (and yesterday) for a friend’s 60th birthday party. I was looking for a range of bakes with different colours and textures that could be picked up with one hand and eaten with minimum fuss and mess.

Leafing through my newest cookbook, Delia’s Cakes, for inspiration, I came across her Iced Honey & Spice Cake. Perfect: a spicy dark cake would make an excellent addition to the birthday feast and it was an official “I” for iced because Delia said so.

Iced Honey Spice Cake

Honey always gives cake such a lovely moist and slightly sticky quality. It also gives it a delicious flavour – assuming you like honey of course. Mention honey cake and I’m in.

Not so long ago, the New Zealand Honey Co sent me some honey to try. This iced honey spice cake seemed like just the right bake to showcase its distinctive oaky flavour.

I upped the quantities of Delia’s recipe, changed the method and added cocoa. Chilli, I reckoned, would be a good bet too. It gives additional interest and a bit of warmth. But mostly I wanted to use it because that is the choice for One Ingredient this month.

I had to try it, of course. So I cut a tiny sliver off, before slicing it up, which I shared with CT. It tasted like a good spice cake should do with a little hint of chilli to liven things up. We both thought the honey gave it a distinctive and unexpected flavour which lingered on the palate; CT likened it to whisky and was all in favour. 

Cornish Organic Eggs

Fortuitously, this big baking session coincided with being given two dozen local organic eggs to try. I was very pleased to have this opportunity. Since losing both our organic shop and our shop selling local Cornish produce last year, I have been struggling to source the ingredients I used to use.

I’m still lucky enough to get local duck eggs at our weekly Country Produce Market, but they are not organic.

Penbugle Farm produces organic hens eggs to Soil Association standards and they are only three miles down the road from Liskeard – hooray! I’ve written all about the farm and the eggs in this Breakfast Bites post.

Other Honey Cakes You Might Like

• Ginger & pear honey cakes
• Grapefruit & honey almond cake
• Honey apple cakes
• Honey madeleines
• Lavender honey cake with lemon & honey cream cheese icing
• Rhubarb honey cakes

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this iced honey spiced traybake, 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.

For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?

If you’d like more traybake recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Iced Honey Spice Cake. PIN IT.

Print Pin

5 from 2 votes

Iced Honey Spice Cake

A traybake with attitude, this iced honey spice cake is warming, sticky and flavoursome. The lemon icing on top is a good foil for the sweet honey and spices. It's easy to make and perfect for parties, potlucks and the colder months of the year.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time35 minutes mins

Total Time55 minutes mins

Course: Afternoon Tea

Cuisine: British

Keyword: cake, icing, spice cake

Servings: 16 slices

Calories: 240kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 100 g honey (I used NZ Beech Forest Honeydew)
• 140 g unsalted butter
• 275 g flour (half wholemeal spelt, half white)
• 25 g cocoa powder
• ½ tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1½ tsp ground ginger
• 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• 100 g golden caster sugar
• 1 small lemon
• 1 small orange
• 40 g marmalade
• 1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 4 tbsp water
• 2 medium eggs (preferably organic)

Icing

• 150 g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 16 pieces crystallised ginger

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

• Melt the honey in a small pan with the butter over a gentle heat. Leave to cool a little.
  100 g honey, 140 g unsalted butter
• Sieve the flours into a bowl along with the cocoa and spices.
  275 g flour, 25 g cocoa powder, ½ tsp ground cayenne pepper, 1½ tsp ground ginger, 1½ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground cloves
• Stir in the sugar.
  100 g golden caster sugar
• Grate in the lemon and orange zests.
  1 small lemon, 1 small orange
• Chop up any chunky strands of marmalade and stir it into the flour to coat.
  40 g marmalade
• In a small glass or cup, mix the bicarbonate of soda with the water.
  1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), 4 tbsp water
• Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the eggs, honey and butter.
  2 medium eggs
• Mix from the centre outwards, adding the water at the end.
• Spoon into a greased 23 cm sq (9") cake mould or lined tin and bake at 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4) for 35 minutes or until the cake is well risen and firm to the touch.
• Allow to cool completely, then turn out onto a board.

Icing

• Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add just enough lemon juice to make a very slightly runny icing.
  150 g icing sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Spread this over the top of the cooled cake.
• Place the crystallised ginger over the top then leave to set.
  16 pieces crystallised ginger
• Cut into 16 squares.

Notes

blah balh

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 240kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 39mg | Sodium: 114mg | Potassium: 69mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 295IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

Share on Facebook

Sharing

I is for Iced Honey Spice Cake. Alpha Bakes is a monthly challenge, hosted alternately by Caroline of Caroline Makes and Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker.

I’m a big fan of chilli and as Laura chose this as the theme for One Ingredient this month, I just had to enter. I was hoping to do a specific chilli bake; chilli and chocolate are just such a great pairing. But time is against me, so I’m hoping the addition of chilli to this iced honey spice cake will suffice. I am certain sure, it’s an improvement. This monthly challenge is hosted alternately by Laura of How to Cook Good Food and Nazima of Franglais Kitchen.