MAPLE SYRUP OR HONEY CAKE

Having worked at reducing my family's sugar consumption I have found the following recipe useful to use as a special occassion cake, such as when celebrating family birthdays or for a honey cake to celebrate a feast like Rosh Hashannah. It uses honey or maple syrup as the sweetener. I use wholemeal or spelt flour for most of my baking, so this recipe uses plain wholemeal or spelt flour.

For a lighter cake half the flour could be replaced with plain white flour.

MAPLE SYRUP OR HONEY CAKE

Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
Prepare a 8" (20cm) round cake tin, lined with baking paper, grease with butter if necessary.In a saucepan large enough to hold and mix all the cake mixture,
 put:- 1oz (25g) butter7-8 oz (200ml) Maple Syrup or HoneyPut the saucepan over a low heat
.Gently heat and stir until melted.
Remove the saucepan from the heat.
Add:-6oz plain wholemeal or spelt flour1 pinch of salt1/2 tspn Mixed Spice1/4 tspn Ground Cinnamon1/4 tspn Ground Nutmeg
With a wooden spoon stir all together in the saucepan.
Add:-1 egg - Stir into mixture.Into a small bowl
put:-3 tbspn Milk1 tspn Baking Powder (see * below)
Add to cake mixture and stir.Remove saucepan from heat.
Pour mixture into prepared cake tin.Bake in oven 25 -35 minutes until golden and firm to the touch.
Remove from oven.
Allow to cool for a few minutes.
Turn out onto a wire rack.

When cold it can be decorated with a topping of your choioce, or with a Cream Cheese Topping like the recipe below:-

Into a bowl put:-
200gm Soft Cheese
2 Tbspn +
1 tspn of honey

Beat them together with a whisk or electric whisk until mixture goes stiff enough to hold its shape.
Spread on top of the cake.

This can also be used as a filling between two cakes if you make and bake two batches of the cake mixture.
* I use a homemade baking powder as I find it tastes less bitter than most readymade baking powders.

Homemade Baking Powder Recipe:-

2 parts Arrowroot
1 part Bicarbonate of Soda
2 parts Cream of Tartar
Mix together well and store in an airti!ght container

Thank you to

 Mrs. Catherine Gallacher, Wiltshire, England.

for providing this recipe