Honey spice cake
Indulge in the exquisite flavours of our Honey Spice Cake – a harmonious blend of warm spices and delicate honey sweetness. This recipe guides you through creating layers of moist cake, infused with fragrant grapefruit zest. The lavish buttercream icing, enriched with pomegranate concentrate, complements the tangy grapefruit glaze that elegantly adorns this masterpiece.
Honey spice cake
Ingredients
- The cake
- 1 ½ cups butter
- 2 ¼ cups brown sugar
- ¾ cups honey
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla essence
- 6 eggs
- 5 ¼ cups flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 ½ tsp mixed spice
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1 ½ tbsp grapefruit zest
- 1 ½ cup buttermilk
- ¾ cup strong rooibos tea
- Buttercream icing
- ½ cup butter
- 3 cups icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tbsp milk
- 2 tsp pomegranate concentrate
- Grapefruit icing
- 2 tbsp grapefruit juice
- 1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
- To serve
- 10–12 dried grapefruit slices
Instructions
For the cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease three 20 cm cake tins.
In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, honey and vanilla until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined.
In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and bicarb together, and add spices and grapefruit zest. Stir until combined.
Mix the buttermilk and tea together.
Gently fold the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture into the honey and sugar, alternating between each until the batter is thick and smooth.
Divide the batter evenly between the three tins and bake for 30–35 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
For the Buttercream icing
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and icing sugar. Add the milk a teaspoon at a time until a thick and fluffy consistency is reached. Add the pomegranate concentrate and stir until combined.
For the grapefruit icing
Gradually add the grapefruit juice to the icing sugar until a pourable consistency is reached.
To serve
Using the buttercream, ice the tops of two cake layers and stack them on top of each other. Thinly ice the outside of the cake (not the top).
To achieve the drip effect, ice the top of the cake with the grapefruit icing and pour teaspoons of icing along the edge, allowing drips of icing to run down the side. Top with grapefruit slices.
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ALSO SEE: Vegan chocolate recipe
RECIPE & STYLING: Kate Turner
