Gorgeous Honey and Lemon Winter Cake Recipe

I hate to admit it, but the inspiration for this cake came from my sister catching the cold over Christmas. Everyone told her to drink honey and lemon to soothe her painful throat and I thought, oh that’d be a lovely cake. And here we are!

I made two cakes this week meaning I had to outsource the eating of this one to my friend who, after devouring it, compared me to a crack dealer because she couldn’t put it down and it made her sad to realise it was finished. Sorry babes!

All photo credit this week goes to Lynann Colligan (love you!). Please make sure to check out her work here.

Ingredients

Serves 10-12

Cake

8oz self-raising flour

8oz sugar

8oz butter

4 eggs (lightly beaten)

Toppings

6oz butter

15oz icing sugar

Juice and zest of 2 lemons

2 tbsp honey

Method

Line two, 6-inch cake pans.

Cream together 8oz sugar and 8oz butter until pale and fluffy.

Slowly, add in 4 eggs while still whisking. If the mixture starts to split, increase the mixer speed and add 1 tbsp of flour, whisking until it comes back together.

Gently fold in 8oz of self-raising flour until fully combined, be careful not to overwork. Split the mix evenly between the two lined pans and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C/160fan for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. While the cakes are baking, heat 2tbsp of honey and the juice of 1 lemon in a pan until just simmering. When the cakes are baked, prick all over with a skewer and drizzle the lemon and honey mix evenly over both. Be careful to prick the cakes all the way through to make sure that the drizzle reaches the bottom. Leave to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

When the cakes have completely cooled, whisk together, 6oz butter, 15oz icing sugar and the juice of 1 and zest of 2 lemons. I find frosting always varies slightly depending on the butter and icing sugar used so if it’s a little thin, add more icing sugar and if it’s a little thick, a splash of milk works great.

Cut the cakes into 2 layers each and pop on top of each other with a little frosting between. You can add a layer of frosting to the outside like I have, or you can leave it naked, it’s totally up to you, there’ll be no slut shaming your cake on my watch. If you do decide to frost the outside, apply a thin coat first and pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes before adding a top coat, this way it can firm up and not bulge out the sides.

I used this cracking wee recipe for my Mary Poppins inspired cake, if you'd like to see it, you can find it here.