On Saturday afternoon I decided to make honey waffles for this week's challenge, so I picked a recipe and went to the kitchen. Waffles ready and hot, pictures taken, it was time to taste. It was good, fluffy, thin - blame my regular (not belgian) waffle machine. But it was just good, not delicious or oh-my-goodness-this-is-crazy-awesome, so I chose not to post them for you. I'll be posting some honey recipes I think will make you drool, instead. You're welcome.

How 'bout this Honey Rolls, from The Pastry Affair? Yes, please.

Or these Honey Biscuits from The Average Foodie?

Oh my, I could eat this Honey and Orange Cornmeal Cake for lunch! From Eat Good 4 Life.

Popcorn! Do I need to say more? From Cherry Tea cakes

Now clean the drool from your keyboard and go bake something with honey. It's healthy. ;)

Honey

I don't know what I was thinking when I suggested honey. It was so hard to find a recipe with honey as the main ingredient. I was feeling like making honey buns, but I kept finding honey bun cake, and you know what? Honey bun cake does not contain an ounce of honey-I don't get it. Anyway, from the relatively few recipes that I found online, I chose Old German Honey Cookies from allrecipes.ca. There have been good reviews from people who have baked these cookies, so I decided to try baking these for myself. I had to cut the amount in half because the quantity was enough to feed an army, but these cookies turned out surprisingly well. When I was making the dough, I thought about sprinkling some coarse cane sugar on top to add taste and texture. If delicate had a taste, these German honey cookies would be it. Without the cane sugar, they are light, fluffy, and pair quite perfectly with a warm beverage.

-Ann

Old German Honey Cookies

1 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup of coarse sugar (optional)

Directions

1. In a saucepan over low heat, melt together sugar, shortening, and honey. Let it cool.
2. Mix together eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and ginger. Gradually add to cooled honey mixture.
3. Slowly add 4 cups of flour to mixture. Stir until well blended. Drop by teaspoon onto cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
4. Sprinkle some coarse sugar on top of each cookie. Bake at 350ºF/180ºC until golden (10-12 minutes).

Bundt Cake

This Marble cake didn't turn out the way I wanted. I mean, tastewise it was great. Light, fluffy, moist, yumy, but the marbled effect I wanted failed. =( It was my fault, though. I didn't follow Donna Hay's directions on how to get the marbled effect. I just put the plain batter and then dropped a few tablespoons on top and swirled with a toothpick. Oops. Next time I will stick with the directions. =)

I loved  these mini cakes, though. The pink batter is so cute! I'm in a girly girl mood these days. ^^

I halved the recipe and got 6 cute  mini cakes. Below you will find the full recipe from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2.

-Ana

Marble Cake

250g (8oz) butter, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract - used essence

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

Pink food colouring

1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC (325ºF). Place butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy.

2. Gradually add the eggs and beat well.

3. Sift the flour and baking powder over the butter mixture and fold through with the milk. 

4. Divide batter in half. Colour one half with pink colouring.

5. Grease a 25 cm (10in) fluted (bundt) cake tin. Drop alternate spoonfuls of pink and plain cake mixture into the tin.

6. Swirl a butter knife through the mixture to give a marbled effect.

7. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on wire rack.

~Serves 8-10 ( or 6 in my case)

Bundt Cake

Things have been pretty crazy on my side of the earth for the past week or so, so making time to bake and blog was difficult, however I as much as I enjoy doing this blog, I did not enjoy making this next recipe which was a sponge cake. It has to be one of the hardest cake I have ever made. Two years ago I bought the summer 2009 Canadian Living Special Cookbook Issue. There was this one recipe that caught my attention which was a Blueberry Citrus Sponge Cake. It sounded delish, and the picture of the cake was mouth watering, so had set aside a steamy summer afternoon to make this cake and the process was not fun. I have eczema, which is a skin problem where I develop rashes all over my hands, and anything acidic that touches my skin burns. Because this is a citrus cake, it requires zesting and squeezing lemons and oranges. I tried to handle the fruits without actually touching the juice, which didn't work. Next, was the separation of eight egg whites, which was really messy, and frustrating since I couldn't separate them. Although the cake did not turn out bad at all, I did not enjoy making this cake at all. You would think that after making this cake two years ago I would change my mind about this cake, or even improve on the baking method, but I haven't on both accounts. When I was making this cake last night, I screamed so much I was afraid the neighbours may have considered calling the police. If separating egg whites is no feat for you, then be brave and try baking this cake. In my opinion it requires a lot of effort, but the results pay off-if you follow the recipe correctly.

  -Ann

Blueberry Citrus Sponge Cake

2 cups sifted cake and pastry flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/3 cup orange juice
2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon vanilla
8 egg whites (oh the horror!)
2 cups blueberries (I used one cup, but that's only because I didn't read the instructions properly and I bought enough to make one cup only) Glaze: 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup orange juice

Directions
1. In large bowl, whisk together cake and pastry flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt.
2. In separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange rind and juice, lemon rind and juice, and vanilla; beat into dry ingredients until smooth and thick.
3. In another bowl, beat egg whites until foamy; beat in icing sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until stiff glossy peaks form. Fold 1/3 into batter; fold in remaining whites. Fold in blueberries.
4. Scrape into greased and flour dusted 10-inch (3 L) bundt or tube cake pan. Swirl knife through batter to remove air bubbles.
5. Bake in 350ºF (180ºC) oven until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack for 30 minutes.

Glaze
 Meanwhile in small saucepan, bring sugar and juice to boil, stirring; boil for 1 minutes. Let cool. Loosen cake from edges of pan. Invert onto rack; brush with glaze. Let cool.

~Makes 12 servings.