Almost all of the hundreds of people who have attended one of my “Beekeeping For Beginners” courses will have enjoyed my wife’s wonderful biscuits or cake at morning tea. I get requests from people for the recipes, so I am delighted to be able to share them with you now. You will need to modify the recipes to suit your own ovens, but that is all part of the fun; you have to keep trying and tasting!! My wife likes to add a little sugar to the top of the biscuits to add a little crunch and a little extra honey to keep the centres softer. With the cake she pierces the top of the cake once cooked with a wooden sate skewer and drizzles in a little extra honey to keep the centre of the cake really moist.
SPICED HONEY BISCUITS
INGREDIENTS
- ⅓cup brown sugar
- ½cup honey
- 50g butter
- 1 tblsp milk
- 1⅓cup plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarb soda
- ½ tsp mixed spice
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
METHOD
- In a saucepan, heat the brown sugar, honey, butter and milk until the butter melts.
- Stir the flour, bicarb soda, mixed spice and cinnamon into the melted mix and stir to form a soft dough.
- Wrap or cover the dough and place in the fridge for 30 minutes or until the dough is cold and firm.
- Preheat the oven to 180*c.
- Use a teaspoon to scoop portions of dough, and roll it into balls.
- Place on lined baking tray, allowing several centimeters between each ball for spreading.
- Bake for 12 minutes or until golden.
- Allow to cool on the tray before removing
DEVONSHIRE HONEY CAKE
- 250g raw honey, plus about 2 tbsp extra to glaze
- 225g unsalted butter
- 100g dark muscovado sugar
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- 300g self-raising flour
- Preheat the oven to fan 140C/ conventional 160C/gas 3. Butter and line a 20cm round loosebottomed cake tin. Cut the butter into pieces and drop into a medium pan with the honey and sugar. Melt slowly over a low heat. When the mixture looks quite liquid, increase the heat under the pan and boil for about one minute. Leave to cool for 15-20 minutes, to prevent the eggs cooking when they are mixed in.
- Beat the eggs into the melted honey mixture using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour into a large bowl and pour in the egg and honey mixture, beating until you have a smooth, quite runny batter.
- Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour until the cake is well-risen, golden brown and springs back when pressed. A skewer pushed into the centre of the cake should come out clean.
- Turn the cake out on a wire rack. Warm 2 tbsp honey in a small pan and brush over the top of the cake to give a sticky glaze, then leave to cool. Keeps for 4-5 days wrapped in an airtight tin.