05 Jun Honey Bee Cake

I’ve got so much honey, the bees envy me.

Central Texas Wildflower Honey, that is. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

I absolutely love simplicity in my food. While it’s fun to make cupcakes covered in buttercream and sprinkles and filled with curd/jam/whatever-craziness-I-can-come-up-with, nothing really makes me happier than a recipe that uses a few high quality ingredients and presents them in a way where each shines through yet complements the others perfectly. This cake feels that way to me.

What is more simply beautiful than honey?  It’s nature at it’s finest. Flowers bloom, honey bees feed on the nectar, thus pollinating the flower and allowing it’s cycle of life to continue, the bees work some biological magic in their tiny bee bodies and and voila, we have honey. Ok, so it’s not quite that simple {you can read the details here}.  But how cool is that?

Before making this Honey Bee Cake, I knew there were different kinds of honey, but I didn’t realize just how many varietals there are. That teddy bear jar you have in your pantry is just the tip of the ice berg. There is a whole world of honey waiting to be explored under the surface. The flavor of the honey is dependent on the nectar that the bees are feeding on. There are over 300 varietals in the U.S. alone! Of course, this sparked my curiosity and I decided to do a taste test.

After some research, I found out that we have some really great honeys that are produced locally in the Austin area. A variety unique to the area is Central Texas Wildflower honey. This basically means that the bees roam the countryside during wildflower season and feed on the nectar of a variety of species. If you’ve ever been to Texas during wildflower season, you know why the name alone was enough to sell me. In the springtime, Texas country roads are blanketed with Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrushes and a variety of other wildflowers. It’s truly the most beautiful time of the year. Drive down any highway and you’ll see families pulled over taking portraits in the flowers. A landscape that beautiful has to make some magical honey, right? I think so.

I purchased Goodflow Honey Co.‘s Texas Wildflower honey as well as Burleson’s Orange Blossom Honey. Orange Blossom honey is a fairly popular varietal with a mild flavor and notes of citrus, which make it very popular in baking. Both honeys were excellent but the Texas Wildflower won me over. The Orange Blossom was light in color, and had a clean, fresh taste. If I were baking something with a lot of different flavors, I would use this honey to avoid overpowering the other ingredients. Since honey is the primary flavor in Honey Bee cake, I wanted something that would stand out. The Wildflower honey was perfect for this. It had a more complex, floral flavor and a deeper, richer color, perfect for a gorgeous honey glaze.

As you can tell, I’m having quite the love affair with honey.

Now, I don’t expect you to have access to Texas Wildflower honey. I do however, encourage you to explore your local market and find a variety of honey that is local to your area for use in this cake. It may be a little more expensive, but it’s 100% worth the additional dollar or two. It will add that little special something that makes this cake so amazing. And of course, I always promote supporting local artisans.

Let’s get to the baking.

Source: Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson

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