Cake of the Week!

I have begun to cook again! I use an exclamation as this is incredbly exciting for us all.

I used to cook a lot (my mother might/will disagree), it soothed me. Then I stopped. I don't know why. And then last Thursday I had the strongest need to bake cupcakes. Which is odd as I'm not a huge fan of the humble cupcake. They're tasty, don't get me wrong. And if offered a freebie I'd be pushing aside young and old to get my patty treat. But in my mind they're at their best when raw or fresh out of the oven. And usually because I've eaten so much raw cupcake even the freshly baked, whilst being yummy and warm when first eaten, can make me feel a little ill approximately 2.7 minutes later.

But! In my househould over the weekend this has led to a roast chicken dinner, a roast pork dinner, a pie, chocolate dipped strawberries (why not eh?), and this here cake! I love this cookbook. Apples For Jam by Tessa Kiros. It's too pretty to use, but too good not to. It's pretty, and did I mention it's pretty?

Now, I won't lie to you. I'm not a massive foodie. The idea of a honey cake had me very excited. It sounded so homely and yummy and lip lickingly tasty! The idea of rosemary in this cake had me confused. Like, chips and beeswax? Lamb and Winnie the Pooh? And then the lemon!? I was CONFUSED! I acted totally cool. 'Yeah, mum, making a honey cake. Yep, has rosemary in it. What? You don't know how those flavours will match? Pfft. Obviously AWESOMELY. Yeah.' Outside moi, cool as a cucumber (which just by the by falls apart if your cucumber has been taking a break in the sun), inside moi, hoping not to serve weird-flavour-confused cake to the lovely Elise coming over for tea and weird-flavour-confused cake.

However, dear reader, there is a happy ending to this somewhat convoluted story! It tastes delish! Which OBVIOUSLY dear Tess knew when she put in in her pretty cookbook. It would be a little awkward if it did not. And not only is it quite the tasty little morsel, it's fun to bake! The raw cake is goooood.

So bake, bake away my lovelies! It's nicely soothing.

Ingredients...

150g butter

115g dark brown sugar

175g honey

200g plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary leaves

2 eggs, beaten

Lemon icing

250g icing sugar

100g butter, softened

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Grease and line a 22cm springform tin. Put the butter, brown sugar and honey in a small saucepan and add 1 tablespoon of water. Heat gently, stirring once or twice, until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool for 15 minutes. Preheat the over to 180 degrees.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and add the rosemary. Add the honey mixture and eggs and beat until smooth.

Pour into the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when you poke it through the centre. Leave in the tin to cool completely.

To make the lemon icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the butter, lemon zest and juice and 1 tablespoon of water and beat until smooth. You might like to add a few more drops of lemon juice after tasting it. Spread over the top and side of the cake. The cake softens as it sits and will keep for well up to a week in a cake tin.

Recipe from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros (Murdoch Books)