Honeycomb Cake with Apricot and Mascarpone Cream

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Honeycomb Cake with Apricots and Mascarpone

Hello everybody! Today I am sharing with you my latest recipe creation: a Honeycomb Cake with Apricot and Mascarpone Cream. This is my own brain-child but I absolutely love the results! A light, fluffy sponge cake, lightly flavoured with orange extract and specked with pieces of homemade honeycomb. The cakes are sandwiched with a light mascarpone cream filling and some apricots to cut through some of the sweetness! There is more crushed honeycomb between the cake layers and on top – I LOVED IT (although I say so myself…). Please let me know if you give it a try and send me a picture – I’d love to see the results!

My Honeycomb Cake – A Cake with Three Components

HOMEMADE HONEYCOMB

Making your own honeycomb is really fun! I actually only wanted to give making honeycomb a go, but then I was wondering what I would do with it once I had made it. And that’s when I decided to make a honeycomb cake! I have uploaded a baking basics posts on my blog explaining some of the science behind making honeycomb as well as the basic recipe. You can check it out here: How to make Honeycomb | Baking Basics #14. The honeycomb has to be completely cool before you cut into it, so it is best to prepare this at least 2-3 hours in advance. The honeycomb can be kept in an airtight-container in a cool place for 1-2 weeks, so you can already make it a few days ahead of time if you wish!

FLUFFY SPONGE CAKES

The base of these sponge cakes is the same as for most basic cakes: equal amounts of butter, eggs, sugar and flour. The cake is made using the easy all-in-one method. Works every time and gives the most amazing results – why make life difficult for yourself when it can be so easy? The special twist on my basic sponge for this recipe lies in the addition of orange extract and honeycomb to the sponge. For the best results, you should use a quality orange extract, I use this one by Nielsen-Massey. It’s a bit more expensive, but worth the investment as you don’t need to use too much, and it will last you a while. It’s the same brand as I use for my vanilla extract and I think the flavour is really good.

I also added some crushed honeycomb to my sponge mix before baking. It melts in the oven creating some sugar-specks in the cake which looks really nice. Just make sure when you are filling the cake batter into the tins that you push the bits of honeycomb down so that they are completely covered by the batter and not to near the edges of the cake. Otherwise they might burn slightly in the oven.

MASCARPONE CREAM FILLING

The mascarpone cream filling for the cake is very light and not overly sweet, creating the perfect balance to compensate for the sweetness of the cake. It is made by folding some whipped double cream into lightly sweetened mascarpone. I also add a little orange extract to the mascarpone cream filling for that added je-ne-sais quoi.

The cream is then used to sandwich the cakes together, and some chopped apricots and crushed honeycomb are added in between layers, too.

Mini Fondant Bee Decorations

Besides decorating this Honeycomb Cake with some apricot slices and crushed honeycomb, I also made some mini fondant bees to decorate. Yes, I am an idiot and no, I did not have the time really to do it, haha. If you are equally as sad and boring as I am, then here’s what to do: First of all, you’ll need some fondant icing (I used shop-bought) and some yellow, red and black gel food colouring. You can also just by coloured fondant which would be a lot easier, I just used what I had.

Colour a large chunk of fondant yellow, and smaller bits in red and black by kneading in the food colouring. Then I just shaped the yellow fondant into little rounded, oblong balls to create the body of the bees. I then rolled out small black bits of fondant for the stipes, two small balls for the eyes and some red fondant for the mouth. Dab your finger in water and slightly wet the fondant to help things stick. Finally, I used a sharp knife to create two thin slits on either side of the bees’ body and stuck in some flaked almonds to create wings. It took me about 2 hours to make 10 of these! One thing’s for sure, if I’m ever on Bake Off, I am not making fondant decorations…

More Cake Recipes

There are so many amazing cake recipes on my blog that you could go and check out! I don’t even know where to start, so I have just listed a few of my favourites below for you:

Honeycomb Cake with Apricot and Mascarpone Cream

Recipe

Ingredients:

FOR THE HONEYCOMB:

1 quantity of honeycomb, check out the recipe here

FOR THE CAKE:

4 large eggs
180g caster sugar
45g soft light brown sugar
225g butter, softened
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 tsp orange extract
30g honeycomb (from the batch you made), crushed

FOR THE MASCARPONE CREAM:

300g double cream
500g mascarpone
2 tbsp honey
50g icing sugar, sifted
½ tsp orange extract
1x tinned apricots in syrup, drained

TO FINISH:

Honeycomb, crushed and broken into shards
Mini fondant bees (optional, see above)

YOU WILL ALSO NEED:

20x20cm (roughly) baking or roasting tin (for the honeycomb)
3 20cm round sandwich tins (I buy them for 3 pounds each at Morrisons)
Large piping bag

Method:

Start by preparing the honeycomb. You will have to do this at least a few hours in advance, but you could do this up to a week before as the honeycomb keeps really well in a plastic container. Follow the recipe in my Baking Basics Post – How to make Honeycomb here to make it and leave to cool completely before using.
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Then lightly grease three 20cm round sandwich and line the base with baking paper.
To make the cake, place all of the ingredients, except the honeycomb, into a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer (or a wooden spoon) for 2-3 minutes until all of the ingredients are well combined and the batter is smooth. Finally, fold in the crushed honeycomb.
Divide the cake batter evenly between the three tins (about 300g per tin) and level the surface. Make sure to push down the honeycomb so that it is fully covered with cake mix (see tips above). Bake in the preheated oven for 18-22 minutes, until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for 10 minutes, before removing them and placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.
Chop the apricots into small chunks reserving a few slices to decorate the top of the cake. Roughly crush the remaining honeycomb, leaving a few larger pieces for decoration. Set aside until needed.
To make the mascarpone cream filling, start by whisking the double cream until it just starts to form firm peaks. Be very careful not to over-whisk the cream or it will turn into butter! In a separate bowl, whisk the mascarpone, honey, icing sugar and orange extract. Then carefully fold in the whipped cream in two batches.
Transfer the mascarpone cream into a large piping bag (see this post for tips how to fill a piping bag). Snip off the end of the piping bag to create a hole roughly 1.5cm in diameter.

Assembling the cake…

To assemble the cake, place the first sponge onto your serving plate. Pipe dots of the mascarpone cream around the edges of the cake, trying to keep them all a similar size. Pipe about 3-4 tbsp worth of cream into the middle of the sponge, then smoothen out using a small palette knife to cover the surface of the cake. Scatter half of the chopped apricots and crushed honeycomb over the top of the cream, leaving the piped rim clear.
Carefully place a second sponge on top, pressing down gently. Repeat the previous step. Set the final sponge on top of the cake with the base facing up to create a flat surface. Pipe the remaining mascarpone cream in small blobs across the whole of the top cake.
Decorate the cake with the reserved apricot slices, remaining honeycomb and mini fondant bees (optional).
Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.