Happy Birthday Honey B Cake

Beehive cakes are absolutely adorable and very fitting especially if the birthday girl is named B. I call her honey bee which I am sure her parents thought of first. Darling, Beatrice Piper was born to parents Tim and Jenn, the hippest, happiest, healthiest parents on the block.

The cake was made with organic ingredients and clover honey that we picked up at our local farmers market. The cake was delicious, B absolutely loved it and I would make it again in a heart beat. Maybe suitable for Easter or B's 2nd birthday?

Tips: I know this recipe may seem like a lot but if you have all your ingredients in a row as I like to say, its not at complicated as it may seem. I would say this is level intermediate. You might want to keep some extra icing to serve with sliced cake.

This recipe requires a Nordicware Bee Cake pan. Make sure to greese it well and flour it before putting the batter in.

Honey Lemon Beehive:
16 Servings

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter softened
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 
• 1/3 cup honey
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla 
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tbs fresh lemon juice

For the honey icing drizzled on top:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbs honey
• 1-3 tbs milk

For the buttercream frosting for the cake center:

• 1/3 stick unsalted butter softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1-2 tbs milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla

For the royal icing for the bees:

• 1 tbs dried egg white powder or meringue powder
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbs water
• Yellow and black food coloring

Directions:

Have all the ingredients at room temperature.

Heat oven to 300°F. Grease and flour a beehive cake pan; tap out excess flour.

To make the cake, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat together butter, sugar and honey, scraping bowl often.  Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture, alternating with milk, mixing just until blended. Blend in lemon juice. Divide batter evenly among halves of pan, spreading the batter so the sides are higher than the center. Bake at 300 degrees for 50-60 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in pan. Invert onto cooling rack and cool completely. 

To make the buttercream, in a medium bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the confectioners' sugar, milk, vanilla and salt and continue beating until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes more. 

To make the honey bees: In a small bowl combine egg white powder, powdered sugar and water. Beat on medium speed, 5 minutes, until icing forms stiff peaks. Divide icing into thirds; leave one-third of icing white; color one-third black and the remaining one-third yellow. Fill a piping bag fitted with a #3 tip with black icing. Pipe bodies and heads of honeybees onto parchment or waxed paper; let set 10 minutes. Fill a piping bag fitted with a #1 tip with yellow icing; pipe stripes onto bodies of bees. Fill piping bag fitted with a #3 tip with white icing; pipe wings onto pees. Let stand at least 2 hours, until hardened - this is very important! 

To make honey icing: In a medium bowl, combine all honey icing ingredients; bland well, adding milk until icing is consistency of very thick cream.

To assemble the cake: Stand one-half of cake upright; using a serrated knife, level off the flat side of cake by trimming off rounded dome; repeat with other half of cake. Spread buttercream frosting over cut side of cake; gently press cake halves together to secure. Place cake on serving plate. Spoon honey icing over cake, covering side seams. Decorate with honeybees.

Bake on, 
Sarah