Honey Mead Beehive Cake
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 90 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- 3.5 cups cake flour
- 1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup oil
- 1 cup mead (you can also use cider or a soft drink)
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
For honey syrup
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup honey
For honey buttercream
- 170g/6ozs. butter, softened
- 750g/26.5ozs. icing sugar mixture
- 5 tablespoons honey
- Pinch salt
- 4-5 tablespoons water
- Yellow food colouring
For decorating
- Small piece of rice paper
- Black edible paint
- Fine paintbrush (only used for food)
- Yellow fondant
- Flaked almonds
Step 1 - Grease and line a pudding basin with parchment and preheat oven to 160C/320F. In a large bowl whisk the flour, bicarb, salt, sugar and cinnamon. In a jug measure the oil, mead, honey and buttermilk and whisk in the eggs. Make a well in the flour and slowly mix in the wet ingredients slowly using a large balloon whisk.
Step 2 - Pour into the baking tin carefully and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until the centre is done. Cool completely. Trim the cake so that it has a flat top (which will end up being the bottom of the cake).
Step 3 - Make the buttercream. First beat the butter in a mixer until smooth. Then on low speed add the icing sugar, honey, salt and water and beat until combined. Then increase speed to medium high and beat for 5 minutes. Add the yellow colouring to make a yellow buttercream. Make the honey syrup by whisking the water and honey together.
Step 4 - Cut the cake in three parts across and place the largest disc on the serving plate. Brush with honey syrup and then spread with buttercream. Repeat with the other two layers and then spread a thin crumb coat of buttercream around the cake on all sides. Place in the fridge for 1 hour.
Step 5 - Cut out a small door in the rice paper and affix this to the cake while it is in the fridge. Also make the bees. Roll out a pea sized amount of yellow fondant and shape into a small log. Paint stripes and a face on the bees in black gel and then insert the almonds as wings while the fondant is still pliable.
Step 6 - Place some buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a #11 thermo tube plain nozzle and start piping a round from the bottom. I find this easiest to do on a cake turntable so that you don't break the piping. Repeat until you get to the top. Place in the fridge to set for 30 minutes. Attach bees to the cake and then draw little bee lines.
Step 7 - Draw a little honeycomb pattern on the "door" of the beehive