Wednesday 17 January 2018

Pine nut and choc chip honey cake

best honey cake


We woke up this morning to a miserly smattering of snow. On the way to school, I grabbed my camera, hoping to find a bit of snow, but the amount of frost was minuscule.
Sash is feeling poorly these couple of days and staying at home with high temperature and cough, and I am not feeling my best either. He is hardly eating anything, and I decided to bake a cake to tempt him to eat a little bit. He loves pine nuts and chocolate chips, so these would go in the cake for Sasha.

A couple of years ago I bought a WI Big Book of Baking for less than £3, and have bookmarked a few recipes to try. One of my non-resolutions for this year is to use my cook books a bit more.

This is my adapted version of a recipe for Honey and Pine Nut Cake.

best honey cake


Pine nut and choc chip honey cake
Ingredients:
zest of 1 orange
2 medium eggs
100g caster sugar
50g honey (I used chestnut honey for flavour)
50g polenta (I use Polenta Valsugana)
175g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
4tbsp pine nuts (2 for batter and 2 for topping)
3tbsp chocolate chips
2tbsp natural yogurt
120g butter, melted

In a deep mixing bowl zest an orange, and beat two eggs with sugar and honey. Add polenta, sift in flour and baking powder.



Scatter 2tbsp of pine nuts and chocolate chips, and mix in well. Add yogurt and melted butter, and mix again.
Line a round spring cake tin with a parchment paper and slightly oil. Scoop in the cake batter.



Scatter the remaining pine nuts.
Place the cake tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Cook for about 40-45 minutes. The cake is ready, when a wooden toothpick comes clean. To prevent the pine nuts on the top of the cake from burning, cover the cake with a foil half way though cooking.

Eat warm or cold, with tea or coffee. It is very tasty,

honey cake, best honey cake


As I used the Italian chestnut honey, the aroma was absolutely amazing. Chestnut honey has a distinct flavour and smell, so if you're using plain honey, or mildly flavoured, like acacia honey, then you might want to add a tablespoon of cinnamon, or vanilla paste.

Yogurt was used to loosen the cake dough, but milk would be another option. I've seen a new Early Man competition on Yeo Valley products, so most likely will be buying their promotional products a lot, and will be using yogurt as much as possible too.




2 comments:

  1. This looks prefect for winter days and has two fabulous ingredients which I love!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Fede! I love honey and pine nuts too. :)

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