First posted May 2012
No 27 - Honey Fruit Cake
The bees have been looking for new homes. We ran out of hives to put them in. Meanwhile someone from Mr B’s beekeeping class, having had a run of bad luck with his bees, decided that perhaps this was not for him and offered us his three hives – sans bees of course, but still laden with stores that his bees had put away before departing his ‘care and control’ (if bees could ever be said to be within anyone’s control; as we have discovered).
The honey contained in these frames was set completely solid so the only way to ‘extract’ it was to cut the whole lot from the frames, pile it into a cauldron and heat it very gently. At about the halfway mark I have bottled up about 6-8lb of very dark rich honey, and set aside a couple of good sized slabs of wax for soap making. Because the honey has been heated I will keep it all at home for baking and making mueslei.
(NB 2024: I originally got this recipe form the website of NorthHants Beekeepers. Their website no longer seems to have a recipes section.)
I modified this recipe to use only Mixed Dried Fruit, then doubled it, and I boiled my fruit (which was a bit hard and dry) in a whole 440ml can of Guinness, and proceeded from there. The cake is definitely rich, with strong honey flavours and just a hint of Guinness. Even sliced up and packed in a large plastic box it survived the motorbike ride in my backpack.
Honey Rich Fruit Cake
4oz. Mixed Dried Fruit
4oz. Sultanas
4oz. Dates
2oz. Dried Apricots
2oz. Cherries
¼ Pint Beer (Guinness)
4oz. Butter
6oz. Honey
2 Eggs
4oz. Plain Flour
4oz. Whole Self-Raising Flour
½ Tsp Spice
Cream butter and honey together. Beat eggs and add alternatively with sifted flour and salt to creamed mixture. Add fruit and enough beer if necessary to give a dropping consistency.
Turn into well greased 7 inch round tin (or 2lb. loaf tin) and bake on middle shelf for about 1¼ - 1½ hours in a pre-heated oven (300°F/150°C)
Allow to cool a little then turn out onto wire cake stand and leave to cool.
Oh dear, F. I am trying to lose at least 5lbs after my holiday. This blog post isn't helping!
ReplyDeleteJayCee - you can't eat a blog, and you won't gain weight looking at pictures of food. 5lbs is nothing - just get a lighter pair of shoes.
DeleteThat looks like the perfect snack to carry in one's bicycle bag!
ReplyDeleteCheers, Gail (about to head out for the Thursday bike ride, weather 'uncertain', again...)
Also perfect for yacht racing snacks in the middle of Winter on the Solent. We have a Good Friday ride scheduled and a weather forecast of 60% possibility of rain. I had to point out to Mr B that this means a 40% possibility that it won't rain.
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteMmm mmm tasty. Not one for the air fryer, though, I fear. YAM xx
Was it as sticky as it looks? Very tasty, though:-)
ReplyDeleteProbably sticky - I honestly can't remember now and have not baked anything like it since Mr B got his diabetic diagnosis.
DeleteWe both love fruit cake and this looks Devine. Neither of us has had fruitcake for 7 years now. I gave up sugar Jan 26 2017 and told my Sister in law, who made fruitcakes and mailed them to us each year in November to remove us from her list. how creative to use the honey like that, I would never have thought of boil dry fruit or melting hard honey.. one slice of this would not hurt, but it is on my trigger list, eat one slice and finish that cake in a few days.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the Brack J often makes. " Cup of tea and a slice of cake". Wurzel Gummidge.
ReplyDeleteI've never tried putting beer or honey in a fruit cake but now that I think about it, it makes sense.
ReplyDelete