Honey Bee Cake

This was my youngest son's choice of cake for his 6th birthday - the Honey Bee Cake from 'Feast'. It's quite easy to make, very chocolatey and fun to decorate!

Put all the cake ingredients (except hot water) in a food processor if you have one and whizz till smooth. Pour in the hot water while the processor is running. Pour the runny mixture into a springform tin and cook at 180 C for around 1 1/2 hours. Cover with foil after half an hour to avoid the top burning.

Mine rose more than I expected and touched the foil, which is why a bit of the top is missing. Maybe I processed the mixture for too long and added too much air to the mixture?

Put the cake on its serving plate and put strips of baking paper under the sides to keep the plate clean - these can be removed before serving.

For the honey glaze, heat water and honey in a medium pan (I was a little sparing with the honey as there are a few of us who are not too keen on it and I didn't want it to overpower the cake), then add chopped up chocolate. Swirl the mixture around to start the chocolate melting, then whisk until smooth. Gradually stir in seived icing sugar, then pour it over the cake.

This was the fun bit - making the bees. I coloured some marzipan with some yellow food colouring, then the children made lots of cute bees by painting on stripes and eyes with the left-over glaze, and sticking in flaked almond wings.

As my cake was a little rounded at the top and the icing was runny, our (quite hefty) bees kept sliding down to the sides. Next time I shall probably slice a little off the top of the cake to avoid this problem! And making slightly smaller bees would help too.

Add the bees to the cake - I forgot to take a photo of the cake all alight with candles but it looked really sweet, especially to a newly-six year-old who had helped make the bees!

The cake was very delicious, and I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate cake. The sponge part was soft, moist and fine, and there was only the slightest hint of honey which was good for those of us who are not so keen.

Recipe here on the Nigella Website