A Little Bit Of Purple Sting …

So the artwork for our little business, ‘Purple Sting’, has been completed!

These are just some quick pics I took, and there have been a few small changes made here and there, but you get the idea…

We wish to use the business as a springboard to produce a wide variety of organic, sustainable and ethical things – not just honey.

I felt very flattered and special when the artist said she was inspired by my Instagram account in the drawing of the bee – I was also a little embarrassed but John was so happy with the drawings that we decided to stick with this image at this stage!

On With The Cake!!

So part of my “brains trust” – my daughter – suggested that I make cake kits under the label of Purple Sting.

This delicious recipe is one such cake, full of healthy goodness and soo moist and moreish – you won’t be able to stop at one piece!!

The recipe combines wholemeal flour, almond meal, eggs, Greek yoghurt, honey, olive oil, almond essence and lemon to make a most scrumptious repast!!

There are lots of variations of this recipe, as you can well imagine and I will suggest them as we go along.

Organic, Sustainable, Ethical…

I started by preheating my oven to hot and then whipped my egg whites unit they were quite stiff, lightly mixing in the egg yolks – it’s good to have the eggs whipped like this as it helps to lift the cake when baking because the olive oil can weigh the ingredients down, making the cake a bit flat and heavy.

In a separate bowl I mixed my Greek yoghurt, honey, extra virgin olive oil, almond essence, lemon zest and juice – this is where you can start substituting if you wish! Maybe you would prefer less strongly flavoured olive oil or even butter, orange instead of lemon, milk instead of Greek yoghurt, sugar instead of honey …

I have made this cake differently, and it turns out great, although this original recipe makes it very rich and flavoursome with a real depth of texture and is good enough for an impressive dessert for a dinner party.

The wholemeal flour and almond meal is mixed together with a couple of teaspoons of baking powder and added in two portions with the wet ingredients and gently folded together, but not over mixed.

The batter is quickly placed in a well greased and sugared medium sized bundt or ring tin and placed in the hot oven, which is immediately turned down to moderate… Why? To get the cake rising quickly but not to burn it.

I have said before when writing out my cake and slice recipes that I prefer them moist, so I tend to underbake them so that they don’t dry out.

Thus the cake is in the oven for only 25 minutes ish .. but you may prefer your cakes drier …

Of course, the finish is the drizzle of lemon icing and walnuts atop this baby!!

Ingredients:

11/2 Cups Self Raising Wholemeal Flour

1 Cup Almond Meal

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

3 Large Free Range (not caged) Eggs

1 Teaspoon Almond Essence

1 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil or 150grams Butter

1 Cup Greek Natural Yoghurt or a Cup of Milk

1 Lemon, Juice and Zest or 1/2 a Juicy Orange and Zest

3/4 Cup Purple Sting Honey (lol) or 3/4 Cup Raw Sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 210°C

2. Grease a medium sized bundt or round tin and sprinkle some raw sugar around the edges and place some almonds or walnuts around the bottom of the tin

3. Separate eggs and put yolks aside and whip whites until soft peaks form

4. In a separate bowl, mix together honey, Greek yoghurt, olive oil, almond essence, lemon juice and zest – put aside

5. In another separate bowl mix together the self raising wholemeal flour, almond meal and baking powder

6. Lightly mix egg yolks and gently fold through the whites

Quick Tip!! Remember: the egg whites are essential to ensuring the cake does not “flop” so gentle and little folding!!

7. Add half of the dry ingredients, gently and quickly folding through the egg mixture

8. Add half the wet ingredients, gently and quickly folding through the egg mixture

9. Add the last of the dry ingredients, gently and quickly folding through the egg mixture

10. Add the last of the wet ingredients, gently and quickly folding through the egg mixture

11. Pour the fairly runny mixture into the cake tin and try to make it even on top

12. Place in the middle of your hot oven and turn the heat back to 180°C and bake for 25ish minutes, depending on how dry you like your cake!!

13. Turn out after about 10 minutes

Lemon Icing:

14. Add 11/2 Cups icing sugar to the juice and zest of one lemon and pour over the still warm cake and add almonds or walnuts.

Enjoy!! With a cup of tea, like we did, or with some coffee or as an after dinner dessert with some whipped cream!!

These boys would’ve loved some of this delicious cake, I’m sure …

Thank you for joining me in my little corner of the web and tell me what you think of this cake as a kit or whatever… I’m on Instagram too! I’m going to have to get on Facebook for the business and maybe even make some videos of my recipes for YouTube but technology isn’t my strong suit – just running this blog is a trial so we shall see what will happen!

Donna 🧚🏻‍♀️❤️🐝