Beehive Cake

Ingredients (Serves 12) 225g baking margarine 110g caster sugar

110g strong-tasting set honey, such as heather 4 medium eggs

250g plain flour

15g baking powder 500g lemon butter icing Yellow food colouring Sugar flowers and marzipan bees. to decorate Preheat the oven to 180°C (160° fan oven, Gas Mark 4). Grease and line a deep 15cm round cake tin; grease and flour a 15cm diameter pudding basin.

Put the margarine and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk together until light and creamy. Whisk in the eggs and a quar ter of the flour.

Sieve the remaining flour and baking powder on top and gently mix all the ingredients together until well blended. Divide the mixture equally between the tin and basin, smooth the tops and bake for about 45min, until risen, golden and firm to the touch. Cool for 5min then turn on to a wire rack to cool completely. Slice both cakes in half through the middle. Mix the butter icing with sufficient food colour to make a pale yellow icing. Spread icing over the cake rounds, and layer up with the rounded cake on top. Cover the cake completely with a thin layer of icing and chill for about 30min until firm. Spread the remaining icing thickly over the cake to cover it and then run the bowl of a teaspoon round the edge of the cake, at inter vals, to create a ridged effect. Transfer to a ser ving plate and decorate with flowers and bees to ser ve.