Bank holiday weekend and we have had some glorious sunny days, for me this signals a need to go out into the countryside to walk and to forage, then to bake, this weekend was no exception. Hubby and I seem to of fallen into a pattern of, while he watches the F1, I bake, then we get our lovely Pup and go for a nice long walk.

Jenson our 8 months old Pup is just like me, he would rather be outside and if thats in the countryside, even better. This weekend we headed up the North Downs. It was gorgeous and well worth the walk to the top, on a clear day you can see for miles and every where is so lush and green. Spring is so late this year, normally during half term, Luca and I start to collect Elderflowers for cordial and champagne making, but so far there isn’t a flower in sight. I am sure Jenson won’t mind another excuse to go out for a forage.

The idea for todays recipe came from the flowers that I collected out on my walk and Luca and mine’s love of honey. If you really love honey, this truly is the cake for you, a wildflower honey & edible flower cake with spelt flour is my idea of a heavenly cake.

I decided the cake had to be as pure, natural and as nourishing as you can possibly make any cake, lets face it, cake is always going to be a little bit of a naughty treat, but my philosophy at the moment is, by carefully thinking about your ingredients you can make a difference.

So I made the cake using spelt flour, using only unrefined golden caster sugar, which I reduced the amount of by adding a gorgeous honey and used lovely organic yoghurt and other organic ingredients.

The flowers I found were all either in my garden or in fields, away from roads and unsprayed.

This is not a cake for the faint hearted, if you do not love honey, then it is not the cake for you, but it is so summery and so delicious. I think the ring mould I used to bake it in did not do it justice, so I have ordered a new bundt tin. I will bake this again soon and will post the new and improved photos.

A quick word on honey… the honey I used was rather dark and with the unrefined golden icing sugar made the icing a little dark, if you want a lighter icing, look for a lighter honey, I highly recommend Rowse’s English Wildflower Honey, light and delicate, you can’t go wrong. Plus Rowse are an English company and support British Beekeepers, as we have seen so often in the press lately, our bee population is in decline, we need to look after our bees!!!

I am a huge bee lover, I sit for ages in the summer watching them work, I even wear a little bee around my neck, a present from Hubby and my dream is to have my own beehives.

So give this beautiful cake a try, cover it with edible flowers of your choice, sit in the garden with a nice cup of tea and watch the lovely little bees hard at work.

Buon appetito

For the cake
150g unsalted butter, softened
180g unrefined golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g Wildflower Honey (you can use any honey of your choice, but I love the one in the link below:-
http://www.rowsehoney.co.uk/#our-products/?product=654
3 large free-range eggs (mine are courtesy of my lovely friend Fiona)
280g organic Greek natural yoghurt
300g white spelt flour, sifted
2 teaspoons organic baking powder

For the icing
60ml lemon juice
6 teaspoons of Wildflower Honey
250g unrefined icing sugar

To decorate
Edible flowers of your choice and that are in season, I used a mix of lilac, daisies, violets, wild strawberry flowers, apple blossom and dandelions.

Preheat the oven to 160C.

Grease and flour a 24cm non-stick bundt tin.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and honey until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Add the yoghurt and stir until thoroughly combined. Fold through your spelt flour and baking powder.

Scrape the mixture into your bundt tin and bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Carefully remove the cake from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool.

Whilst the cake is cooling, you can prepare your glaze and collect your chosen flowers. In a medium bowl, mix the lemon juice with the honey until thoroughly combined, then whisk in enough of the icing sugar to make a glaze that is pourable and fairly thick. Place your cake onto your chosen serving plate or cake stand and spoon over the glaze, allowing a little to dribble down the sides. Now decorate with your chosen flowers. I filled the centre of my cake with Lilac and sprinkled the rest of the cake with my chosen flowers, whatever you do, this will be too pretty to eat and is a true wow centrepiece to any afternoon tea or picnic.

Tip: Serve once the icing has set, I advise that if there is any cake left and you wish to store it, remove any left over flowers, they will be ok, but just do not look as pretty the next day when they are all wilted and looking sad.