Honey and Ginger Bundt Cake

I decided to make a cake for my Grandpa's birthday this weekend, as the family were all having a get together on Saturday to celebrate. I love the 'get togethers' that we have in our family - they remind me of such happy childhood times - my grandparents have a gorgeous farmstead between Derbyshire and Sheffield, and my childhood was filled with walks in the countryside, summer days 'helping' bring in the hay, and big meals surrounded by aunties and uncles, pets, and cousins. Sadly they don't happen as often now as they used to, and with my generation now all in our twenties and scattered across the country, it is rare that everyone is in the same place at the same time. 

'Honey to the Bee' Honey and Ginger Bundt

When I came to deciding what cake to make for this occasion, I decided I wanted to create something that represented my Grandpa, rather than going all out with fancy icing and decoration, which I knew he wouldn't appreciate. I knew that this cake therefore had to be about taste, rather than style. I must also add that my Grandpa was a baker, and a cook in the armed forces during the war, so knows a thing or two about a good bake. No pressure then. 

Now I do know that he is partial to a little ginger from time to time, and equally that he always takes his tea with honey, not sugar, so when I stumbled upon this gorgeous Honey and Ginger Bundt recipe on Dolly Bakes blog during a late night browsing session, I knew it was meant to be!

I have added the recipe below, and made no variations - full credit to Rachel at Dolly Bakes - the cake went down a treat, everyone loved it, including my youngest cousin who, at the age of 11, I thought might not appreciate the ginger taste. My Uncle was straight up for second helpings, closely followed by my Mum - which is unheard of! My Grandpa complimented the moistness of the cake contrasted with the slightly crisp edges, and said that there was 'just enough' sweetness with the glacé icing and honey drizzle. And of course, everyone loved the fondant bees! They make me smile whenever I look at them! 

To make the bees, colour a small amount of fondant or marzipan to a pale orange colour. Break of a grape sized amount, roll into a ball, and then squash to a more oblong shape. Melt a small amount of dark chocolate, and pipe over the bee bodies in lines. Press two even sized flaked almonds into the body to make the wings whilst the chocolate is still setting, to avoid it cracking. Finally, using a cocktail stick dipped in brown food colouring draw on the eyes and mouth.

Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 350g plain flour
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 200ml thick honey flavoured yogurt 
• 50ml local honey
• 100g crystallised ginger cut into small chunks and tossed in flour

To make the cake, pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees. Grease the bundt tin, and sift a little flour in. This is to help easy release of the cake from the tin. (On an aside - I only have one bundt tin at the moment, which is a springform universal tin, much easier for removing the cake, but probably frowned upon by the bundt experts!)

Soften the butter, then cream in the sugar a stage at a time. Then beat in the eggs one at a time.

Combine the flour, mixed spice, ground ginger, salt and bicarb of soda into a large bowl.

Measure the yoghurt and honey into a jug, and mix. Then add a third of the dry mix to the butter and eggs, followed by half of the yoghurt and honey. Another third of the dry mix, the remainder of the liquid, and then the remaining dry ingredients, and fold gently. 

Finally add the ginger tossed in flour - coating the ginger pieces in flour helps to keep them dispersed throughout the cake, rather than all sinking to the bottom of the tin. 

Place in the oven and bake for an hour and 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Take out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. 

This cake would be delicious served as it comes, however as mine was for a birthday cake I added a little decoration. I mixed some icing sugar with water to form a glace icing, and poured it over the cake allowing it to run down the sides in a natural way. I drizzled a little honey over the top of the icing, and then arranged my fondant bees and a few sugarpaste blossoms across the top.