Cakes and Cupcakes
Manuka honey orange pound cake with honeyed cream cheese filling
Manuka honey orange pound cake with honeyed cream cheese filling – an incredibly easy layer cake that will wow everyone!
- Serves 215 cm (6in) layers
- Prep 10 minutes
- Cook 35 minutes
- Total 45 minutes
I was updating my newsletter today and realised, looking back at recent posts, that I haven’t posted any cake recipes recently. That’s just unacceptable and I am making up for it today with this manuka honey orange pound cake with honeyed cream cheese filling. This cake is so easy to make – you can whip it up in about 10 minutes – but it tastes incredibly delicious and deserves to grace your table this Mother’s Day.
The cake has a wonderful lingering taste of Manuka honey – used in the batter, used to soak the sponge and added in the cream cheese filling. Manuka honey has, of course, many uses outside of baking. I love adding a small spoonful to smoothies or my porridge, it definitely helps soothe a sore throat and can even be used as lipbalm (in a pinch).
But not all Manuka honey products are created equal. One way to ensure you are getting authentic Manuka honey from New Zealand is to look out for the 
But let’s turn our attention back to this Manuka honey orange pound cake because it is spectacular and simple in equal measures. A pound cake is one of the oldest cake recipes and contains equal ratios of flour, butter, eggs and sugar. Originally it was a pound of each, hence the name, but this is very much a scaled down version of the recipe. I have added a little orange juice and zest to the batter along with the Manuka honey and added some honeyed grilled orange slices as decoration.
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Recipe
Manuka honey orange pound cake with honeyed cream cheese filling
Manuka honey orange pound cake with honeyed cream cheese filling - this simple pound cake requires minimum effort but yields spectacular results!
- Serves 215 cm (6in) layers
- Prep 10 minutes
- Cook 35 minutes
- Total 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 6 oz (170g) softened unsalted butter
- 6 oz (170g) superfine sugar ((= caster sugar))
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tbsp Comvita Manuka honey
- 1 tsp Comvita apple cider vinegar with Manuka honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 ¼ oz (150g) plain (all purpose flour)
- 1 level tsp baking powder
- zest of an orange
- To brush on layers and drizzle on cake
- 3 heaped tbsp Comvita Manuka honey
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- For the frosting & decoration
- 10 oz (280g) cream cheese
- ½ cup (120ml) double (heavy cream)
- 3 oz (85g) powdered sugar ((= icing sugar))
- 2 tbsp Comvita Manuka honey
- one orange (or blood orange sliced thinly + 2 tbsp Comvita Manuka honey to decorate)
Method
- 1
Preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C). Grease two 6-inch (15cm) cake tins and line with baking paper. Dust with flour shaking out any excess.
- 2
Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl
- 3
Put the butter, sugar, zest and vanilla in the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat for about 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy, stopping the mixer to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- 4
Add the eggs, one at a time, together with a tablespoon of flour. Stop and scrape the bowl again if needed.
- 5
Add the orange juice, cider vinegar and remaing flour and beat together on low speed until combined and the batter is smooth. Do not overbeat.
- 6
Divide between the cake tins and level with a palette knife. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the cakes are risen and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- 7
Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes then carefully turn out.
- 8
Heat the honey and orange juice in the microwave for 10 seconds then brush over the still warm cake layers. Keep any excess to drizzle over the frosting.
- 9
Heat the grill to 400°F (200°C) and brush your orange slices with a little honey (warm it up to make runny first). Place on the tray with a grill rack and grill until the slices are softened and slightly caramelized.
- 10
Beat all the cream cheese, icing sugar and honey together until just combined. Gradually add the cream and beat until you have firm peaks.
- 11
Sandwich the cake layers together with a generous amount of frosting. Spread or pipe the rest of the frosting on the top.
- 12
Add the grilled orange slices as decoration and drizzle a little honey over the cake, letting it drip down the sides.
