Chocolate Surprise Cake

The surprise in this cake, which, for me, is a total surprise that I really like it, is not really new, I’ve heard of it before; it’s adding beets to a chocolate cake. This recipe comes from the book Better Food for Kids, from which we’ve made a few recipes. As you might have guessed, I find this cake to be quite delicious, moist, and, the best part, it does not taste like a beet cake with chocolate, rather it is a good-tasting moist chocolate cake. If the idea of beets doesn’t turn your fancy, you can always substitute the beets with 4 bananas and 1/2 cup of milk. But, try the beets! The decoration on this cake, done wonderfully by my beautiful Bride, is for my young daughter’s birthday. We used natural colours, beet red (how appropriate!), turmeric yellow and blue from red cabbage. They worked out well, though are not so bright as the artificial colours.

Chocolate Surprise Cake
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 19 oz can beets, drained and puréed
1 cup granulate sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

Combine beets, both sugars, oil, butter, eggs and vanilla extract in a stand mixer. Beat on slow until blended, then on high for 1 to 2 minutes, until thoroughly mixed. Add flour-cocoa mixture in small batches and mix on low.

Pour batter into greased baking pan and bake for 40 minutes (check doneness by inserting a toothpick in the centre of the cake). Cool on a wire rack.

Royal Family Pineapple Cake

We found this Taiwanese brand of pineapple cake in this little Taiwanese store on The Chase in Streetsville, we wanted to compare it to the more ubiquitous Love's Flower ones.

I think that they taste quite good, at least as good as any packaged ones I've tasted. Certainly, these ones tasted fairly fresh. I wonder if they are supposed to be special, called Royal Family.

Mango Honey Cake

I had the idea of using mango puree for this dish, but decided at the last moment that it would add too much liquid to the cake, and instead used a cup of Philippine Mango Powder; I think that I should have gone with my original idea in addition to the mango powder, certainly the mango-ness was lost in the honey flavour. Don't get me wrong, it was still very tasty, we just couldn't taste the mango.

Mango Honey Cake
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
1 cup mango powder
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Allow durian flesh to thaw.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Mix mango powder well into the flour mixture with a whisk.

Pour into the greased pan and bake for 50-55 minutes or until cake is golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Warm 2 Tbsp honey in a small saucepan and brush over the top of the cake to glaze. Leave to cool.

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes

The other cupcake I made comes from a recipe provided by Magnolia Bakery, the New York City landmark. This one turned out a little dryer than the previous, but still quite good tasting; it again pairs well with the buttercream, the recipe for this also comes from Magnolia Bakery.

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes
adapted from a recipe from the World Famous Magnolia Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen
3/4 cup self-rising flour
5/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Buttercream (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. In a small bowl, combine flours; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla, and scraping down sides of bowl in between each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about three-quarters full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool in tins for 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tins, and cool completely on rack. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Serve at room temperature.

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Buttercream
adapted from a recipe from the World Famous Magnolia Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 to 4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, 3 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 3 to 5 minutes. If needed, gradually add remaining sugar, beating for about 2 minutes after each addition, until icing reaches desired consistency.

Honey Chocolate Cupcakes

At the second of two baby showers, this one held by my sister and sister-in-law, I was requested to make some dessert, so I decided to make some cupcakes, which my beautiful Bride could decorate beautifully. No pictures of the decorated cupcakes, my camera went on the fritz, but they did taste really good, the combination of chocolate and honey made for a moist cupcake; the pairing with the vanilla buttercream worked well.

Honey Chocolate Cupcakes
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup runny honey
1 egg, room temperature
1/3 cup skim milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until light; gradually add honey, beating until light and creamy. Beat in egg, vanilla and milk. In small bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, mixing until well blended. Spoon batter into 12 paper-lined or greased muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full.

Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven to wire rack. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Buttercream
adapted from a recipe from the World Famous Magnolia Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 to 4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, 3 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 3 to 5 minutes. If needed, gradually add remaining sugar, beating for about 2 minutes after each addition, until icing reaches desired consistency.

German Hazelnut Marble Cake

I often make Marmorkuchen for my Dad, he enjoys it a lot. My beautiful Bride tried Marmorkuchen for the first time the other day, and enjoyed it, and so I wanted to make one for her. But also, I wanted to try and improve it. And, of course, immediately thought of adding hazelnuts. I settled on 1/2 cup, which would mean that the regular recipe would call for 1 cup of hazelnuts, as this is half the recipe compared to the other, but you can play with that. I used spelt flour, you need to add a little more than if you were to use all-purpose flour, due to the lower gluten content; this makes the dough come out much darker in colour, so, if you prefer more yellow, use all-purpose. 1/2 Packet Dr. Oetker Vanilla Sugar and Baking Powder translates to about 1 and 1/2 tsp, maybe a little more. This tasted really good, of course it tasted the best just after being cooked, it was a little dry later on.

German Hazelnut Marble Cake
125 g Butter
125 g Sugar
1/2 Packet Dr. Oetker Vanilla Sugar
2 eggs
1-2 Tbsp Frangelico
some salt
250 g all-purpose flour/ 270 g spelt flour
1/2 Packet Dr. Oetker Baking Powder
125 mL of milk
15 g cocoa
12.5 g sugar
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, ground fine
1-2 Tbsp. milk

Stir the butter until it is smooth, then alternately add the sugar, vanilla sugar and eggs. Add the rum-aroma and salt last. Mix the baking powder with the flour, then add it through a sieve, alternately with the 1/8 L of milk (only add enough milk so that the dough falls stiffly from the spoon). Transfer about 2/3 of the dough to a greased Springform pan. Add the cocoa and sugar, again sieved, to the remainder of the dough. Add the ground toasted hazelnuts. Add enough milk to make it of a consistency that it falls stiffly from the spoon. Add the chocolate dough on top of the yellow dough, then draw a fork through the underside dough, twisting the dough in a spiral so that some of the yellow portion comes to the top. Continue this technique all around the Springform pan. Bake at 350C for 75 minutes, the last 10 minutes with the oven off.

Taiwanese Cakes

The Fo Guang Shang Temple of Toronto had a Lunar New Year Fair, with lots of things for sale, sweets, baked goods, foods, crafts, flowers and food, we picked up several things, these Taiwanese cakes were some of them.

These were green tea flavoured. Quite tasty, with a chewy green tea intererior.

These were strawberry flavoured. Also good, but it seemed to taste more like pineapple than strawberry.

Blood Orange Hazelnut Cake

I would say that I was seduced mostly by the picture in the recipe book, Christmas Family Gatherings, which features recipes and ideas for Christmas. The picture looked so delicious, there were sugared cranberries and candied orange peel, and the cake contained blood orange juice, whose juice and pulp is reddish in colour, that I had the idea that the cake itself would turn out reddish in colour. Well, it didn't. I don't think my substitution of hazelnuts for the walnuts, and yoghurt for the sour cream, had anything to do with this, but I swear the cake looks reddish, and perhaps because of this tastier and more interesting, in the picture.

Regardless of my preconception of how it would taste, it did end up tasting good, the combination of blood orange and hazelnuts is quite different and interesting.

Blood Orange Hazelnut Cake
Adapted from a recipe in Christmas Family Gatherings
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp finely grated blood orange zest
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups self-rising cake flour
1/2 cup yoghurt (or sour cream)
1/2 cup fresh blood orange juice
1 cup finely chopped hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine the butter, granulated sugar, blood orange zest and nutmeg. Using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the flour. Stir in the yoghurt, blood orange juice and hazelnuts.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake the cake until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and peel off the parchment. Let cool completely.

Durian Honey Cake

This is probably the oddest of the cakes I have made from this master Honey Cake recipe. Durian is not really a popular fruit, at least in Western culture, and not so much even in Asian culture. You either like it, and so far I do, or you don't, more than likely because you can't stand the pungent smell. I haven't really been exposed to the smell much, more from thawing frozen durian in supermarkets, not from fresh fresh durian, just off the tree, though I do not dislike that muted smell at least, and actually look forward a little to smelling what little I encounter. This cake turned out really great, the smell of durian comes out distinctly, but it taste more like honey cake than predominantly durian.

Durian Honey Cake
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
225 g frozen fresh durian
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Allow durian flesh to thaw.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Mix durian flesh well into the flour mixture with a whisk.

Pour into the greased pan and bake for 50-55 minutes or until cake is golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Warm 2 Tbsp honey in a small saucepan and brush over the top of the cake to glaze. Leave to cool.

Dark Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes

I wanted to make a dessert for my family's Christmas Eve meal, actually I got a request to make one, and so I selected this one, found somewhere long ago on the 'Net. The original recipe called for the cupcakes to cook for 18-20 minutes, I found I needed about 32 minutes for it to be fully cooked through. For the cocoa, I used this powder I found called Ruddy Red, it was certainly reddish in colour, and made the cupcakes dark brown. They turned out moist and very chocolatey, a quite dense cupcake. My beautiful Bride decorated them quite wonderfully.

Dark Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups lowfat buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350F. Line two 12-count cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat mixture on low speed until batter is moistened; scrape bowl well. Increase speed to medium and beat 1-1/2 minutes until smooth; scrape bowl well. Mix additional 30 seconds if needed.

Fill cupcake pans 2/3 full with batter and bake 30-33 minutes, just until tester inserted in center of cupcakes comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes in pan 2 minutes. Carefully remove from pans and cool on rack 1 hour before topping with your favorite frosting.

Chocolate Blueberry and Chocolate Ginger Honey Cakes

This is a hard one, I don't know whether I like ginger or wild blueberries more. And, after tasting several of them, I still don't quite know, other than that I like both of them, for different reasons. This is yet another variation on the honey cake theme, I think it makes a versatile and great tasting cake, with lots of combinations. My beautiful Bride preferred the blueberry one. I must admit, it does taste great together, chocolate and blueberries. I had already seen chocolate and ginger together in so many recipes, that I knew that combination would work. Use the best chocolate that you can; I used chocolate chips, as that was what I had on hand.

Chocolate Blueberry and Chocolate Ginger Honey Cakes
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup good chocolate (chips or broken bars)
1/4 cup crystallized ginger pieces
1 cup wild blueberries

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease two 12 cup muffin tins or fill both with paper muffin cups. Whisk flour and cocoa together until well mixed.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Add chocolate to caramel; mix to combine. Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Divide batter into two equal portions. Stir crystallized ginger into one portion of batter, wild blueberries into the other.

Pour into the muffin tins and bake for 55-60 minutes or until cakes are golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Leave to cool.

Stone Circle Cake Method

When I made the Chocolate Toffee Honey Cake for our Wedding Reception, I decided to change the way that I mixed the skor pieces in the batter. This time, I decided to stand the Skor pieces up, and selected a pattern that resembled a stone circle, one of my passions.

It worked out quite well, as, in my previous method, most the toffee migrated to the bottom of the cake; in this way, it melted more in place.

Individual Wild Blueberry Honey Cakes

I really love blueberries, especially the wild variety, they have more flavour and are more nutritious than their domesticated cousins. I find the larger farm variety to be less flavourful, they are merely bigger than the wild kind and don't always have a corresponding increase in flavour. The honey cake is just another variation on the honey cake theme that I have been on for a long while, this time I tried them as individual cakes, not really muffins. I essentially halved the recipe for a honey cake, this calls for 1-1/2 eggs, to get the 1/2 an egg, just whisk a whole egg, then take out as close to half as you can. These turned out very good, quite tasty, I'm pleased with how they worked out.

Wild Blueberry Honey Cakes
112.5 g sweet butter (1 stick)
125 g runny honey
50 g dark muscovado sugar
1-1/2 large eggs
150 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
1 cup wild blueberries

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with paper
muffin cups.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Mix blueberries carefully into batter.

Spoon into individual muffin cups and bake for 50-55 minutes or until cakes are golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cakes onto a wire rack. Leave to cool.

Makes 12 honey cakes.

Banana Coconut Honey Cake

Later that same day, my beautiful Thai Bride asked me to make for her brother's birthday a cake, and seeing as I had said that I would use up some bananas which had ripened and gone brown, and that her brother likes coconut, we thought that this combination of banana and coconut with the honey would work well. To finish it off, I sprinkled some coconut over the honey glaze. It certainly smells wonderful coming out of the oven, and sitting there cooling.

Banana Coconut Honey Cake
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
1 cup desiccated shredded coconut
2 large ripe bananas (3/4 cup)
2 Tbsp honey
desiccated shredded coconut, as garnish

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line bottom with parchment paper.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Whisk coconut into batter. Mash ripe bananas; mix well into the flour mixture with a whisk.

Pour into the greased pan and bake for 55-60 minutes or until cake is golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Warm 2 Tbsp honey in a small saucepan and brush over the top of the cake to glaze. Sprinkle coconut over cake. Leave to cool.

Carrot Honey Cake

My beautiful Thai Bride expressed a desire to have carrot cake sometime, so of course I dusted off my standard honey cake recipe, which I have not used for several weeks, and made this new variation on the theme, with cinnamon and shredded carrots. And she liked it very much 8-), as did the people at work.

Carrot Honey Cake
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
2-1/4 cups shredded carrots
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line bottom with parchment paper.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Whisk self-rising flour and cinnamon together.

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Lastly, whisk shredded carrots into batter.

Pour into the greased pan and bake for 55-60 minutes or until cake is golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Warm 2 Tbsp honey in a small saucepan and brush over the top of the cake to glaze. Leave to cool.

Chocolate Ginger Honey Cake

Yet another variation on the theme that is the Devonshire Honey Cake, this one features the wonderful combination of chocolate and ginger. There are three forms of ginger within - ground ginger, grated fresh ginger, and crystallized ginger. Sitting far away from my kitchen, I could still smell that combo, wafting wonderfully throughout my place.

Chocolate Ginger Honey Cake
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
175 g good dark chocolate
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1-3/4 tsp ground ginger
1-1/2 Tbsp freshly grated peeled ginger
1/4 cup crystallized ginger
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line bottom with parchment paper.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Add chocolate to hot caramel and stir till melted and mixed through.

Whisk flour, cocoa and ground ginger together till mixed.

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Whisk freshly grated ginger into batter. Whisk crystallized ginger into batter.

Pour into the greased pan and bake for 55-60 minutes or until cake is golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Warm 2 Tbsp honey in a small saucepan and brush over the top of the cake to glaze. Leave to cool.

Chocolate Nutella Honey Cake

I have been in the mood lately to bake cakes rather than cookies it seems these days, I contemplated changing the name, just for a moment, to Filberts and Chocolate Cakes. I took inspiration for this version of the Devonshire Honey from Nigella Lawson's Nutella Cake, the amounts of Nutella, Frangelico (hazelnut liquor) and ground hazelnuts are from that recipe. To think, too, writing about hazelnuts, that this is only the second time I have mentioned Nutella, the beloved Italian spread made from hazelnuts, skim milk and a bit of cocoa, we've all seen the commercials, as part of a recipe. But there you are. This turned out quite moist in the center, which again collapsed, and drier around the edge (though perhaps I put it in for 5 minutes too long). All in all, quite delicious, and well received at work. Two things that happened, one is that one lady asked me if I was trying to make everyone fat, the other is when I got the empty container back, there was lipstick on the outside, I can only imagine that someone was so hungry -- well, I don't want to go there...

Chocolate Nutella Honey Cake
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
175 g good dark chocolate
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 jar Nutella (400 g)
1 Tbsp Frangelico or water
100 g (3-1/2 oz.) ground hazelnuts
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line bottom with parchment paper.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Add chocolate to hot caramel and stir till melted and mixed through.

Whisk flour and cocoa together till mixed.

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Whisk ground hazelnuts into batter. Whisk in entire jar of Nutella, followed by the tablespoon of Frangelico into batter.

Pour into the greased pan and bake for 60-65 minutes or until cake is golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Warm 2 Tbsp honey in a small saucepan and brush over the top of the cake to glaze. Leave to cool.

Chocolate Toffee Honey Cake

I took my inspiration from these Giant Chocolate Toffee Cookies. Though there should be more chocolate and less cake compared to that recipe, I thought the combination would be great. I know, certainly, that the cookies are always a hit. This is another variation on the orginal Devonshire Honey cake recipe I've made, now, six different versions of. And again, the cake smelled wonderful coming out of the oven. After a few moments, the middle of the cake fell, and later, more dramatically, though I suspect it did because of both the chocolate and the large amount of toffee falling to the bottom of the cake because the flour could not support it. How did it taste? Very rich and delicious, and well received at work, one fellow said it was 'to die for', and had two pieces.

Chocolate Toffee Honey Cake
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
175 g good dark chocolate
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
5 chocolate toffee bars (like Skor® or Heath), broken into small pieces
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line bottom with parchment paper.

Whisk flour and cocoa together till mixed.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute.

Add chocolate to hot caramel and stir till melted and mixed through. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Stir chocolate toffee bar pieces into batter.

Pour into the greased pan and bake for 60-65 minutes or until cake is golden brown and springs back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Warm 2 Tbsp honey in a small saucepan and brush over the top of the cake to glaze. Leave to cool.

Chocolate Coconut Honey Cake

I like coconut and chocolate together as a flavour combination, these Chocolate Drop cookies are really good and easy to make, and I've talked about my favourite Tim Hortons' donut, the Chocolate White, a chocolate cake donut with coconut frosting on the outside, which I've wanted to make in the form of a cake for a long while. This is my first attempt, though it will not taste like the donut, as it is another variation on the Honey cakes that I have made many different kinds of in the past. The smell of the chocolate and coconut wafting through my place as it bakes is amazing. And the taste was great too, I ate a slice still warm from the oven, like I hoped it would be, chocolatey, and coconuty, too.

Chocolate Coconut Honey Cake
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
175 g good dark chocolate
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
1 cup sweetened coconut
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line bottom with parchment paper.

Whisk flour and cocoa together till mixed.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute.

Add chocolate to hot caramel and stir till melted and mixed through. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Whisk coconut into batter.

Pour into the greased pan and bake for 55-60 minutes or until cake is golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Warm 2 Tbsp honey in a small saucepan and brush over the top of the cake to glaze. Leave to cool.

Chocolate Hazelnut Honey Cake

This is another variation on the Devonshire Honey cake recipe, I decided to add some chocolate to the mix. Now, when I made this cake, I didn't add the cocoa powder to the flour, and thus it didn't turn out as chocolatey as I wanted. It still tasted quite good.

Chocolate Hazelnut Honey Cake
225 g sweet butter
250 g runny honey
100 g dark muscovado sugar
175 g good dark chocolate
3 large eggs
300 g (2-1/4 cups) self-rising flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
175 g (6 oz.) ground hazelnuts
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line bottom with parchment paper.

Melt butter, honey, and sugar slowly in a saucepan. Boil for one minute. Leave to cool (caramel will thicken).

Add chocolate to hot caramel and stir till melted and mixed through.

Whisk flour and cocoa together till mixed.

Beat in eggs one at a time in the saucepan. Whisk in flour into egg caramel mixture in two batches. Whisk ground hazelnuts into batter.

Pour into the greased pan and bake for 55-60 minutes or until cake is golden brown and spring back when pressed.

Turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Warm 2 Tbsp honey in a small saucepan and brush over the top of the cake to glaze. Leave to cool.