A cake that is wonderfully balanced with sweetness and spice, and so simple to prepare. This honey and mixed spice loaf cake is made almost solely from storecupboard ingredients and topped with a simple icing. It's a wonderful cake to make when expecting guests, or simply enjoy it as a teatime treat to yourself!
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Yields:
8
Prep Time:
20 mins
Cook Time:
50 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 10 mins
Cal/Serv:
393
Ingredients
2Tbsp.
runny honey
200g
unsalted butter
80g
dark brown soft sugar
2
large eggs
200g
self-raising flour
11/2tsp.
mixed spice
100g
icing sugar, sifted
Directions
Step 1
Put honey, butter and brown sugar into a pan; melt together over low heat. When sugar has dissolved, turn up heat. Leave to bubble for 1min. Take off the heat and leave to cool for 15min.
Step 2
Preheat oven to 160°C (140°C fan) mark 3. Line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment. Mix the eggs into the butter pan. Next, sift the flour and mixed spice into a large bowl and add the butter mixture. Mix well, then pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-50min or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Step 3
Leave cake to cool for 5min in the tin, then take out and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
Step 4
When cake is cool, make the glaze. Put icing sugar into a bowl and whisk in just enough water to get a runny consistency. Drizzle over cooled cake; leave to harden a little. Serve in slices spread with butter, if you like.
Keep cake in an airtight container for up to two days.
Try adding citrus zest to the icing for an added zing, if you like.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
