Spiced Dutch Honey Cake

Spring has sprung here in not so sunny Ballarat, and although many may associate spring with flowers, I associate spring with bees, so naturally, today I’m baking with honey. Every time I walk through the international section at the supermarket I eyeball the Dutch Honey Cake, but I always opt to leave it, because the version available in the supermarket always looks overly processed, dense, and dry, so today, I made my own! And I can assure you that it is neither overly processed, dense, nor dry! It even got the tick of approval from hubby! But, that was because he thought it tasted like ginger kisses, even though there is not a spec of ginger in this Spiced Honey Cake recipe. I don’t know, don’t ask me! I just couldn’t taste it.

This Dutch Honey Cake recipe is super simple, there are no eggs to beat, no butter to cream, just wack all the ingredients together in a bowl, mix it up, and get a killer arm workout at the same time. At first, you may scoff and think it’s not too bad… but wait for it, before all the flour has been mopped up by your yoghurt and honey concoction, you will feel the burn! It’s well worth it though, the finished product (and even the unfinished product... I did eat my fair share of batter before it made it into the bundt tin) is heavily spiced, smells of heavenly honey, and apparently, tastes like ginger kisses! What’s not to love.

Also, a massive shout out to my local The Source, because the Raw Local Grey Box honey I bought specifically for this recipe is by far the most delicious honey I have ever eaten! Slightly floral without being too sweet (I often find that honey that boasts a floral flavour is overly sweet), and it made this bake! So I highly recommend splurging on some fresh local honey for this bake, it’ll make for one hell of a honey bundt cake. I will however say, steer away from orange blossom honey, it’s SUPPPER sweet, and it’ll just overpower everything in this cake, slightly floral, but still strong, raw honey flavours are the way to go.

TOP TIPS FOR MASTERING THIS BAKE

1. If you’re worried about your cake sticking to your bundt tin, you can go one step further after greasing it, and also dust it with flour. However the flip side is that this will effect your end product, as the bundt cake will come out of the tin with a layer of flour on the outside. If it means not sticking though, maybe that’s worth it. I was using a brand new bundt tin, so the likelihood of it sticking was very low, so it really depends on the tin as to how many precautions you should take to prevent it.
2. Ensure that your honey is heated. Even if it’s coming out of the jar/tin/squeeze bottle easily, you need to microwave your honey to ensure it’s as thin as possible, otherwise you’ll have a hard time mixing the batter. Even with warm and very malleable honey, the batter quickly becomes thick and difficult to mix.
3. If you’re opting to not use a bundt cake tin, be extra vigilant with your skewer test as it may take longer to bake through that the recommended 45 minutes. Also, bear in mind that because this batter is so thick, sometimes the skewer test can be unreliable, so ensure you also press down on the centre of the cake to assess if it is ‘bouncy’ or not. You want the cake to feel springy. If it’s not springy, the centre needs a little longer to cook

WANT TO BAKE THIS YOURSELF? CLICK THE LINK BELOW: