Rosemary and Honey Cakes Recipe

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Rosemary and Honey Cakes photo
Rosemary and Honey Cakes photo
(Image credit: Rose Prince, The Pocket Bakery)
Makes16 squares
By
published
in Recipes

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Ingredients

  • 115g/4oz softened butter
  • 55g/2oz soft light brown sugar
  • 6 eggs, beaten
  • 150ml/5½oz heather honey
  • 12 fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
  • 125g/4½oz self-raising flour
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 teaspoon mixed spice
  • 100g/3½oz ground almonds

To glaze:

  • 4 tablespoons honey
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 16 small pieces of honeycomb

You will need:

  • 20cm/8-inch square cake tin, 5cm/2 inches deep, with loose base; base lined with baking parchment, buttered and dusted with flour

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6. Put the butter and sugar together in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Gradually beat in the eggs then add the honey and rosemary leaves. Sift the flour, salt and spice together and fold into the mixture with the ground almonds until you have a smooth, golden batter

  2. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 35–45 minutes, until the cake feels springy to the touch or a skewer inserted comes out clean. The cake will not rise very much; it has a lot of inner moisture and the ground almonds tend to weigh it down. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a rack

  3. When cool, cut the cake into squares. To make the syrup, put the honey and the lemon juice in a pan and boil together for 1 minute to reduce. Paint the cakes all over with the syrup. Decorate with a little piece of honeycomb on each.

Top Tip for making Rosemary and Honey Cakes

I use a strong-scented honey, like heather or lavender honey for flavour, which is even better accentuated with the aroma of rosemary.

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