Honeycombcake Recipes

Steps:

• First glaze: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bring all ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat.
• Cake: Butter and flour an 8-inch hexagonal (or round or square) cake pan. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and sage. Beat eggs and brown sugar on medium-high until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in honey, milk, oil, and zest. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in 2 batches; beat until just combined.
• Spread batter in pan. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Remove from oven; poke holes with toothpick all over cake. Remove zest strips and sage from first glaze; brush over top. Let cool completely in pan.
• Final glaze: Whisk together honey, confectioners' sugar, and lemon juice. Remove cake from pan and brush final glaze over top; continue until all is used. Garnish with sugared sage. Cut into wedges with a serrated knife, wiping knife between cuts; serve.

Steps:

• Caramelize sugar over low heat in a saucepan until its golden brown, Stir at all times.
• Add water to the caramel. Be careful as the hot caramel will splash when water is added.
• Melt butter in hot syrup.Let cool.
• preheat oven to 180 Celsius In a mixing bowl lightly beat eggs with hand whisk. Add condensed milk and mix well.
• Sift flour and baking soda into another bowl. Pour egg mixture into egg mixture and mix well.
• Add cooled syrup into batter. Pour into a greased 8 x 3 cake pan.
• Leave batter aside for 5 minutes to enable baking soda to react. It will be runny.
• Bake cake for 1 hour until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean.
• Let cake sit for 5 - 10 minuts before turning it out. Cool before cutting.

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, gently combine the sugar and water then add the honey and corn syrup. Boil until amber colored and the sugar looks like caramel. Add the baking soda, and with a wooden spoon, stir in gently. It will foam up a lot. Pour the mixture onto a silpat or a piece of parchment paper on a sheet pan, and let cool. Break into pieces.

Steps:

• Butter a 20cm square tin. Stir the caster sugar and golden syrup together in a deep saucepan over a gentle heat until the sugar has melted. Try not to let the mixture bubble until the sugar grains have disappeared.
• Once completely melted, turn up the heat a little and simmer until you have an amber coloured caramel (this won't take long), then as quickly as you can, turn off the heat, tip in the bicarbonate of soda and beat in with a wooden spoon until it has all disappeared and the mixture is foaming. Scrape into the tin immediately - be careful, the mixture will be very hot.
• The mixture will continue bubbling in the tin, simply leave it and in about 1 hr-1 hr 30 mins the honeycomb will be hard and ready to crumble or snap into chunks.

Steps:

• Line a baking dish with parchment paper, measure out baking soda in a small bowl, and have a heat-proof spatula ready before starting.
• Whisk sugar, corn syrup, honey, and water together in a saucepan with a candy thermometer attached. Heat over medium heat until mixture is thinner but still cloudy. Let bubble until mixture is clear and thermometer registers 300 degrees F (149 degrees C).
• Remove from heat. Whisk in baking soda until just incorporated. Switch to a spatula and very carefully pour into the lined dish. Do not spread it out with your spatula or compress mixture at all, or the bubbles will deflate. Let cool completely, at least 30 minutes.
• Remove candy from the pan by lifting out the parchment paper. Rap against the counter and use your fingers to break it into individual pieces.

Steps:

• First make the malt sponges. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the bases of 2 x 20cm cake tins with baking parchment. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well between each addition. Tip the flour, malt and baking powder into the bowl with ¼ tsp salt and fold together, then add the yogurt and vanilla, and give everything a final stir. Divide the cake mixture between the 2 tins, level the tops and bake on the middle shelf for 25-30 mins or until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Cool for 10 mins, then remove from the tins, peel off the baking parchment and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Wash the tins.
• Now make the chocolate sponges. Grease and line the base of the tins as before and boil the kettle. In the same bowl (don't worry about washing it), cream the butter and sugar as before, adding the eggs, one at a time, and mixing until combined. Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder with ¼ tsp salt. Fold the mixture together, then add the yogurt, melted chocolate and 100ml boiling water. Stir until combined, then divide between the tins. Bake for 25-30 mins, testing with a skewer as before. Cool in the tins for 10 mins, then turn out, remove the baking parchment and cool completely. The sponges can be made up to 2 days before being iced, cooled and wrapped tightly in cling film.
• Make the honeycomb. Grease a baking tray with a little butter or oil. Put the sugar and golden syrup in a large pan. Warm over a medium heat and leave to bubble to a liquid caramel, but don't stir. When you're happy with the colour (the darker it gets, the more intense the flavour will be), add the bicarbonate of soda and quickly stir into the syrup. Before the bubbles die down, pour the foaming mixture onto the baking tray, then set aside for 30 mins to cool and firm up.
• Make the icing. In your largest mixing bowl, beat the butter with half the icing sugar, the malt and vanilla until smooth. Add the remaining icing sugar and the cream cheese, and beat again until well combined - don't overmix or the icing may become runny.
• You're now ready to assemble. Put one of the sponges on a cake stand or cake board, sticking it down with a small blob of icing. Use ¼ of the icing to stack the cakes, alternating between the malt and chocolate sponges. Place the final sponge on top, flat-side up. When assembled, use a palette knife to cover the entire cake with a thin layer of the icing, filling any gaps between sponges, but don't worry about completely covering the sponges at this stage. This is called a crumb coat and ensures that your final layer is crumb-free. Make space in your fridge and chill the cake for 30 mins to firm up the icing.
• Once the icing is chilled, use the remaining icing to completely cover the cake. This is easiest if you pile the icing on top of the cake, then use a palette knife to ease it over the edge and down the sides. You can make it as smooth or as rough as you like. Chill for another 30 mins.
• Make the drizzle. Meanwhile, put the dark chocolate in a bowl and heat the cream in a small pan until just steaming. Pour the cream over the chocolate and leave to melt for 5-10 mins. Stir to make a glossy ganache, then set aside to firm up a little - you want the ganache to be pourable but not too runny, to make drizzly droplets down the side of the cake.
• When the ganache is the correct consistency, remove the cake from the fridge and spoon the ganache over the top edge of the cake, encouraging it to drizzle down the side with your spoon - start at the back of the cake to get the hang of it. Fill in the middle of the top of the cake with chocolate too.
• Break the honeycomb into tall shards and stack them on top of the cake. Finish with whole and halved Maltesers, adding a few around the base, along with some honeycomb crumbs. The cake is best served within 2-3 hrs of assembling, but will still taste delicious for up to 3 days. Store leftovers in the fridge and allow to come back to room temperature before serving.