Almond and honey cake
A perfect almond and honey cake to celebrate blossom season for 2021.
Ingredients
Cake
- ½ cup polenta
- 1 cup milk
- 1 2/3 cups plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ½ cup almond meal
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 150g butter, softened
- ½ cup caster sugar
- finely grated zest of 1 orange
- 3 eggs, separated
- 1/3 cup Beechworth Almond Blossom Honey
- 1/2 tsp salt
- ¼ cup finely chopped blanched almonds
Almond Honey Syrup
- ¼ cup water
- Juice of 2 oranges
- 1/3 cup Beechworth Almond Blossom Honey
- 4 cardamom pods, bruised with the back of a knife
- ¼ tsp almond essence
Garnish
- zest of 1 orange, zested into fine long strips using a mandoline or zester
- ¼ cup toasted flaked almonds
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C or 160C fan forced. Grease and flour a 23cm bundt pan or ring tin.
- Place the milk in a small bowl and microwave until just warm, about 30 seconds.
- Add the polenta to the warm milk. Stir and set aside until needed.
- Place the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, almond meal and cardamom into a bowl and stir well with a spoon or whisk to combine the ingredients thoroughly. Set aside until needed.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer place the butter, caster sugar and zest. Beat until pale and creamy. Add the egg yolks and the honey and beat to combine.
- Using a spatula, mix in the milk and polenta mixture until well combined.
- Fold in the flour mixture until just combined. Add the chopped nuts and fold in to combine.
- Using a clean bowl and whisk, place the egg whites and the salt in the bowl. Whisk until firm peaks form.
- Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture, 1/3 at a time, folding gently to combine and ensuring no white lumps or streaks of egg white.
- Gently spoon the cake batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula.
- Place in the preheated oven and bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, to make the Syrup, place all the syrup ingredients in to a small saucepan over medium to high heat. Stir to combine the ingredients and bring the mixture to the boil.
- Continue to boil until the syrup in reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat, strain through a fine strainer and set aside until needed.
- Stand the baked cake in the tin for about 10m minutes before turning out on to a wire rack. Whilst still warm, spoon over the syrup to cover the cake. Sprinkle the fine strips of zest and the flaked almonds over the top to crown your cake.
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