I should say that I have met Deborah in real life, I love her blog (Romancing the Bee) and she has dedicated one of her recipes, Honey Lavender Gelato, to Emma and me, on account of one of our past queens being named Lavender. So I am a little biased; still this really is my favourite book of honey recipes I’ve found so far!
Despite being a beekeeper, and often busy making lots of cake for hungry beekeepers, until recently I hadn’t done much cooking with honey. This book looks very likely to change that. It has all sorts of dishes within – salads, main courses, cocktails, cakes, puddings… So far this week I’ve tried out two of Deborah’s recipes, photos below…
Kentucky honey jam cake
So this bouncy beauty is Kentucky honey jam cake – Deborah’s recipe here. I happened to have some home made blackberry jam my manager had given me in the fridge, and was intrigued by the idea of putting the jam in before cooking.
As you can see, my version is much more homely than Deborah’s! I don’t think it matters as the cake tasted gorgeous. A subtle, warm spice flavour comes through, and every so often you get the nice surprise of a sweet raisin or date.
I used two layers rather than three as I don’t have three pans all the same size. I also didn’t have time to make the caramel icing, so just sandwiched the cake together with strawberry jam. I altered the method slightly too, mixing in the flour and eggs together a bit at a time to cut down the risk of the mixture curdling.
Emma kindly bought me this amazingly creamy white Leicestershire honey at the London Honey Show. It almost looks like butter!
Leicestershire honey: white and creamy
Also made this week: courgette fritters (zucchini if you’re American). Deborah’s website recipe does not contain honey, but the book version does. Very tasty, and the recipe made enough to last me and Drew as a side for two meals. I am into fritters and often make a sweetcorn & halloumi version for our annual Ealing Beekeepers Christmas party.
British readers: bear in mind that the recipe ingredients are measured in cups. I happen to have a set of cups given to me as a present by a lovely American friend, but if you don’t, you’ll need to buy some or convert the amounts yourself.
Related posts by Deborah:
- ‘My visit to the Ealing apiary‘ – we loved having our visitor from Ohio!
- ‘Cooking with Honey has been published!‘ – where to buy Deborah’s book. I used Amazon.co.uk.
By the way, if you choose to buy this book or indeed any other items from Amazon, please consider going through the Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s Fundraising page. Each time you access Amazon.co.uk via their link and make a purchase this brilliant charity receives a donation worth 8% of your total purchase, at no extra cost to you.
Adventuresinbeeland's Blog 
The cake looks yum. Without a doubt beekeepers seem to be great cooks too.
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We are spoilt down at the Ealing apiary with the amount of goodies people bring, from cakes, pies and tarts to home grown fruit and veg from allotments.
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Yum. All the ingredients for yum.
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Yes 🙂
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I’m so happy you liked the book! You must come visit me soon!!
xo Deb
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Thanks Deb! I have been to Ohio before and enjoyed it, such grand houses and gardens. Looking foward to trying out more of your recipes!
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Reblogged this on Romancing the Bee and commented:
It was difficult for me to wait until today to reblog this!!
A lovely book review by a lovely friend!! 🙂
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Beekeeping. Cake. Classic symbiotic relationship, apparently…
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Yes, the bees work hard making the honey and then us lucky beekeepers get to put it in cakes and eat it.
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Everything looks delicious! Thanks for introducing me to yet another excellent beekeeping blog, too!
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No problem! There are so many great beekeeping blogs to choose from, I enjoy finding out what beekeepers around the world are getting up to.
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Yum. Yum. Yum! I’ll have to get this book!
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Yum indeed!
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So how are these recipes for sugar? The primary reason we got into beekeeping is that my wife can’t do sugar, so we’re always looking for recipes that use honey instead of sugar. If this is full of sugar-free recipes, I’ll be buying a copy for Christmas!
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Hi Dave, sorry for the delay replying. In some of the recipes Deborah has managed to replace all the sugar with honey, but in others some sugar still remains. Most of the recipes are up on her blog at http://romancingthebee.com, if you start following you’ll get an idea of her recipes and also she’s very friendly if you get in touch with her.
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Book = bought. Thank you for sharing this!
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Yay, hope you enjoy it!
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Um…sweetcorn and halloumi fritters – sounds like my kids idea of heaven. If I fry them with halloumi, I can even persuade them to eat leeks. (Cumin seeds and lime juice too – very nice.)
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Yep, everyone loves a good fritter. Leek and halloumi does sound very appealing.
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