This is a plain, honest honey cake - a golden sponge where the honey does all the sweetening and the warm glaze at the end gives it that sticky, golden top. It works beautifully with soft set honey, which melts down smoothly and evenly into the warm butter and sugar. Clear honey is a fine swap if that is what you have open, but soft set gives the crumb a little more depth.
Tips from Niamh: Brush the honey glaze on while the cake is still warm so it soaks right in and gives a good shine. Baking drives off some of honey’s finer aromas, so a milder soft set or clear honey is the right choice for the sponge and the warm glaze. I keep my heather honey back for no-cook uses - drizzled straight onto a slice of the finished cake, it is really something.
Ingredients
- 175g butter, plus extra for the tin
- 175g soft set honey (or clear), plus 2 tbsp for the glaze
- 50g soft brown sugar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 200g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
Method
- Heat the oven to 180 C. Butter and line a 20cm springform tin.
- Gently melt the butter, honey and sugar together in a pot, stirring until smooth. Let it cool for a few minutes.
- Beat in the eggs a little at a time.
- Fold in the flour and baking powder until just combined. Pour into the tin.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until risen and a skewer comes out clean.
- Warm the 2 tbsp honey and brush over the top while the cake is still warm. Cool in the tin.
If you are curious about why soft set honey behaves differently to a runny jar - why it spreads instead of drizzling and melts so smoothly into a batter - there is more on that in the soft set vs runny honey post.