The Late Night Gourmet
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A coworker friend of mine is a beekeeper as a part-time hobby. He sells giant mason jars of honey reasonably cheaply. But, most importantly, it's beautifully fresh...fresh from the hive.
With Valentines Day coming up, I found this recipe, which uses 2 cups of honey. As I started to make it, I soon realized that there was far more batter than I needed for the simple heart-shaped cake I was making, so I poured it into a bundt cake pan...and there was still more, so I made 12 muffins. Fortunately, the recipe is delicious.
I've just updated the picture to show one of the cakes I made. The bundt cake is about half gone, and the muffins are just muffins. But, I think this turned out pretty well.
Ingredients
1 cup vegetable oil, plus additional for greasing pan
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup freshly brewed strong coffee
2 teaspoons grated zest from 1 orange (I only had mandarin oranges, so I used 2 of them)
1/2 cup (about 3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups (about 8 1/4 ounces) packed dark brown sugar
3 1/2 cups (about 17 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups honey, divided
3/4 cup apple cider (I was out of apple cider, so I squeezed an equivalent amount of oranges)
1/3 cup whiskey or bourbon (also out of both, and out of rum, so I used apple schnapps. This seems like a heresy, but it really worked well)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
Directions
1. For the Cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Brush tube pan with oil. (I also dusted with flour and tapped away any excess, since this works incredibly well to free cakes from pans)
2. Combine cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and ginger in large bowl. Stir in hot coffee. Set aside and cool to room temperature. Rub orange zest into granulated sugar (I used a whisk) until sugar is damp and no strands of zest remain. Add brown sugar and stir to combine.
3. Whisk together flour and salt in medium bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups honey, 1 cup oil, cider (or orange juice), and whiskey (or apple schnapps) to coffee mixture and whisk to combine.
4. With electric mixer on medium speed, beat together eggs and sugar mixture in large bowl until well combined, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, then add honey mixture and mix until blended, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture and mix just until combined.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan (batter will be thin) and bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Transfer to rack and cool cake in pan 15 minutes, then invert directly onto rack and cool completely, about 1 hour.
NOTE: making 12 muffins and 2 smaller cakes at the same time meant that the muffins were done after 22 minutes, the heart-shaped cake was done at 35 minutes, and the bundt cake was done after 42 minutes.
6. For the Glaze: Warm remaining 3/4 cup honey in microwave or small saucepan. Brush the sides of the cake, then drizzle remaining honey over cake. Serve.
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