HONEY CAKE

It can be a bit of a gamble at times when you make a recipe to take to a dinner party and it is the first time you have ever made this particular recipe.  There can be some risks that the recipe won't work, the cake doesn't rise or it tastes awful.  This didn't happen for me when I made a new recipe for a honey cake.  The cake rose, it didn't crumble when taking it out of the bundt pan, the bottom was not burned, and it tasted wonderful.  I made a few changes with the ingredients.  I didn't have orange juice so I used 1/2 cup of whisky and 1/4 cup of lemon juice.  I cut down on the sugar and used 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup splenda instead of the full amount of sugar.  The original recipe called for 1.5 cups of white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar.  I also dusted the cake with icing sugar once it cooled down.  In fact I dusted the cake with icing sugar the following day after baking.  I baked the cake early one evening after work, I made sure it cooled down before wrapping it with saran wrap and the next day I sprinkled it with icing sugar before taking it to the dinner party we were invited to.  It is recommended to make honey cake the day before you serve it to allow for the flavours to develop.

Batter mixed and ready to be poured into the pan.

I used a bundt pan to bake the cake.

Cooling after coming out of the oven.

I dusted the cake with some icing sugar after it cooled down.

Serving sliced pieces of cake.

HONEY CAKE

INGREDIENTS:

cooking spray

3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 sp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup canola oil

1 cup honey

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup splenda

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup strong brewed coffee (decaf is fine)

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup whiskey

DIRECTIONS:

Place an oven shelf in an upper position in oven, and preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 10-inch fluted tube pan (such as a Bundt® pan) with cooking spray.

In a bowl, whisk together the unbleached flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg until thoroughly combined. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the canola oil, honey, white and brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, coffee, orange juice, and whiskey. With an electric mixer, beat the flour mixture into the honey mixture just until the batter is thoroughly incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake on upper shelf in the preheated oven until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs, about 1 hour.  Cool for 20 minutes in the pan before turning the cake out onto a serving platter.

Adapted from allrecipes.com