Honey Cake- the food of the gods

First, a little lesson on honey- one of my most favorite things and, for me, a kitchen staple.

I have become a honey connoisseur as of late and my new favorite is PEPPER HONEY! :D

My old favorite was Avocado Honey, if you must know.

Lesson: honey is, in fact, bee vomit.  Its flavor, colors, and other properties are heavily influenced by the type of plants the bees have been pollinating.

I have the great opportunity to have local bee keepers in PA and NJ (I live in Philly) who can supply me with awesome local raw honey.  My favorite, however, are The Bee Folks in Maryland because they have SO MANY different varieties and, yes, they DO taste subtly different and ALL are delicious :)

Yum, yum, yum!

So the relevance is that made a Honey Cake and I used Buckwheat Honey, which is a thick, dark, almost molasses-y honey and so the cake tasted a little reminiscent of gingerbread cake, which I loved.

Usually I tweak a recipe to add a little healthiness, or at least subtract a little badness, but when it is a special occasion, I go ALL out!  For real, I had to buy tons of butter to do this, since I didn't have any cuz I'm not really down with butter...

So this is a recipe that my mom used and even though I am absolutely a chocolate woman, this is my FAVORITE cake recipe.  I believe it originated from Martha Stewart.

RECIPE:

INGREDIENTS:
(cake)
3/4 cup butter

3 1/4 cups + 2 T sifted flour

1 T baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

2 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

pinch of cloves

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

2/3 cup honey

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups milk

6 large egg whites

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

(Honey caramel glaze)

2/3 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup (5 1/2 T) butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

-Heat oven to 350'

-Grease the daylights out of a bundt pan because they are fancy

-Sift together the ingredients from flour through cloves into a bowl

-Cream together butter and sugar. Gradually add in honey and continue to beat until very light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla. Alternately add the flour mixture with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

-Whip egg whites and cream of tartar to stiff, glossy peaks.  Fold egg whites into cake batter.  This may take a little while, so don't lose hope and get rough with it.  Your cake WILL be dense, but this will help so its not a honey pound cake.

-Pour batter into pans. Bake 40 minutes.  Cover with aluminum foil and continue baking for 15-20 more minutes.  Test until cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool 15 minutes.

-Turn out cakes and cool on a wire rack. Once cool wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.

-In a small saucepan, bring honey, sugar and butter to a boil; stir until sugar dissolves.  Add vanilla; remove from heat. Cool 1 minute. Use immediately.

-Spoon warm glaze over the entire cake until it's completely covered.

DROOOOOOLLL...check out that honey-caramelly goodness...

I had some for every meal today.

I wish that^ was a joke.

Bonus: I had leftover caramel sauce which I put in a little bowl and dipped apple slices in!