Delightfully Simple Honey Cake

Sometimes simple is best and when you just need a delicious slice of cake to serve with an afternoon cuppa, things like creams, toppings and fillings are not always what's wanted. This perfect and simple honey cake is for those occasions and because of its simplicity the sweet honey flavours really shine through. It uses just a few common ingredients that you might have in the cupboard already. This cake will stay moist and tasty for around 5 days in an airtight container.

If you've never baked a cake before then this recipe is a great place to start, it's easy to make and there is very little that can go wrong.

To make this simple honey cake you will need:

• 165g of Just Bee honey
• 150g of unsalted butter
• 40g light brown soft sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 200g self-raising flour
• 1-2 tablespoons of extra honey to glaze the cake (optional)

• A medium size saucepan
• A mixing bowl
• A loaf cake tin around 13cm x 24cm
• A baking tray
• Baking paper for lining the tin
• A sieve

Time to make and bake: Around 1hr 15mins

1: Mixing the wet ingredients.

Take your medium sized saucepan and add the honey, sugar and butter. Cut the butter into chunks before adding to allow it to melt easier. Over a low hob, gently heat the ingredients until they are all melted and mixed together. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula.

Once done, remove from the heat and put aside to allow the mixture to cool for at least 15 minutes. This is important as we'll be adding the eggs to it later and the last thing you want is lumps of cooked egg in your cake! I recommend setting a timer for 20 minutes after you take it off the heat.

Top tip: The easiest (and least messy!) way to weigh out the right amount of honey for recipes is to weigh your pot of honey first. For this example we'll use a new pot of Just Bee Honey - and it weighs 285g. We need 165g for this recipe, so we simply subtract the 165g from 285g, which gives us 120g. So all we need to do is spoon the honey into the saucepan until the pot of honey weighs 120g and we know there is 165g in the saucepan!

2: A bit of prep!

While the mixture is cooling, line the cake tin with some greaseproof baking paper. Snip diagonally into the corners with a pair of scissors to help it fit. A little butter will help it stay in place but don't worry too much, once we add the cake batter it will sort out any places where it's not behaving! Once you are happy, put the tin aside for now.

Next, sift the flour into the mixing bowl using the sieve... then put that aside too!

3: Get the oven on now!

We need to pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 or 180c, reduce to around 160c if you have a fan assisted oven.

4: Beat the eggs.

Crack the eggs into a small jug, large mug or something similar and give them a good beating using a fork, you can also use a small whisk if you prefer.

5: Check the timer!

Check to see how long the hot honey mixture has been cooling for, if it's only been 10 minutes then make yourself a cuppa! When the 20 minute alarm sounds there's no rush, if you leave it cooling for another few minutes it won't hurt.

6: Finishing the cake mix.

Once you've finished your cup of tea (or the honey mixture is cool enough!) then we can finish making the cake batter. Simply add the eggs into the mixture in the saucepan and beat until combined. Then pour all the wet ingredients from the saucepan into the mixing bowl with the flour, and beat until you have a nice smooth batter. If it looks runny then that's exactly how it should be!

7: Baking to perfection!

Pour the cake batter into the lined baking tin. Use a silicon spatula to get as much out as you can. The batter should be runny enough to self-level so there will be no need to poke around with it once it's in the tin.

Pop the tin onto a baking tray to aid removal later and bake in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes.

8: Check the cake!

Check the cake is well-risen, golden brown and has a springy feel when pressed. I always do the skewer trick (or the 'chopstick trick' in my case) before committing to removing a cake from the oven. If you push a chopstick into the centre of the cake and pull it out it should come out clean- if there's any kind of sticky cake mixture on it then it needs a little longer. If the cake isn't fully cooked return to the oven for another 5 or 10 minutes until it is done.

9: Finishing touches.

Once your cake is cooked remove it from your cake tin by lifting the ends of the baking paper, it should lift out easily. Put the cake on a wire rack to cool. This cake has a better texture once cooled fully, so leave it for an hour or two before cutting slices.

If you want to add a sticky honey glaze to the top, just warm a tablespoon or two of honey and spread over the top while the cake is still warm. Leave the cake in its paper while you do this and it will stop the honey running down the edges.