There’s nothing like a light and fruity honey cake to bring in the start of a new year and season. 

This simple cake is infused with the bright flavors of summer, and studded with a classic holiday favorite: sweet figs.

It’s 100% naturally sweetened with New Zealand Manuka blend honey, which imparts it with a light floral flavor and beautiful golden hue. As Manuka Honey is known for its strong flavour we have opted for our Manuka Blend Honey for this recipe. It combines both the rich Manuka and soft caramel flavours of native New Zealand bush honey. A match made in honey heaven!

Despite its grand appearance, this two-tiered honey fig cake is incredibly easy to put together. 

It’s full of ingredients you likely have on hand, such as flour, honey, eggs and olive oil, and doesn’t call for any fancy tricks in the kitchen. Just some good ol’ whisking, baking, and frosting will do! And if you’d like to amp up the fruitiness, you can brush the cake with a fresh orange-honey glaze while it’s warm. Doing so will also help keep it extra moist.

Manuka Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

Of course, no cake is truly complete without a generous swab or two (or three!) of frosting.

In keeping with the style of the cake, this Manuka Honey cream cheese frosting is richly flavored, rather than shockingly sweet.

Instead of icing sugar, flowery Manuka Honey is whipped with tangy cream cheese and a dash of vanilla. 

The result is a brightly-flavored, creamy frosting that you will want to eat by the spoon!

INGREDIENTS:

Manuka Honey & Fig Cake
125 g plain flour
125 g finely ground unsalted almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
160 ml Watson & Son Manuka Blend Honey
140 ml olive oil
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 packed teaspoon finely grated orange zest (~1-2 navel or valencia oranges) 140 g dried figs, chopped

Orange Honey Glaze
2 tablespoons (30 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice (~1 navel or valencia orange)
1 tablespoon (15 ml) Watson & Son Manuka Blend Honey 

Cream Cheese Frosting
250 g regular cream cheese
80 ml Watson & Son Manuka Blend Honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 C. Line the bottom of two 18 cm (7-inch) springform cake tins with parchment paper and grease the sides with butter.

2. Use an electric mixer to beat together the Manuka Honey, olive oil, vanilla extract and orange zest. Beat in the eggs, two at a time.

3. Add the dry ingredients, and fold them into the wet mixture until there are only a few small lumps here or there in the batter. Stir in the chopped figs (making sure they don’t  clump together) before distributing the batter between both tins.

4. Bake for ~22-27 minutes, until golden brown, bouncy to the touch and shrinking a little from the edges. Keep an eye on the cakes and cover them with foil if they begin to overbrown before they are finished (you can also turn down the oven by 5-10 C if needed). Once baked, allow them to rest for a few minutes in the tins before moving to a rack to finish cooling.

5. To make the glaze, stir together the Manuka Honey and orange juice in a small saucepan over low-medium heat until melted and combined (this will be very quick). Brush the cakes with the syrup while they’re warm. 

6. As the cakes cool, use an electric mixer to whip together the cream cheese, Manuka Honey and vanilla extract until creamy. Taste and add more Manuka Honey if you’d like. Frost the cakes once they’ve cooled down and reached room temperature, and don’t forget to drizzle a spoonful or two of Manuka Honey over each frosted layer!

Recipe inspired by/adapted from The Caker and Cookie&Kate!