Honey Cake

For Rosh Hashanah I decided to make a honey cake.  A chocolate, pink peppercorn, and honey cake. I developed this recipe for a contest--then I read the rules--the recipe could only have 5 ingredients--so I didn't enter the recipe, but I came up with a pretty tasty cake.

Pink Peppercorn Chocolate Cake

1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 c flour
1 1/4 tsp ground pink peppercorns
3.5 oz 70% cocoa chocolate
1 c water
3 Tbl cocoa powder
1 c butter
1 c honey (12 oz bear)
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs

1. Heat oven to 325 F.
2. Line 9 inch sprinform pan with parchment paper and butter pan and paper.
3. Sift together baking soda, salt, flour and pepper.
4. Melt chocolate.
5. Bring water, cocoa powder, and butter to a boil, whisking occasionally.
6. Pour water mixture into a large bowl.
7. Add melted chocolate, honey, and sugar to hot liquid.
8. Mix until well combined.
9. Add eggs one at at time.
10. Gradually mix in dry ingredients.
11. Pour into prepared pan.
12. Cook for 50 minutes. If cake isn't done cook for up to 10 more minutes.  Watch closely--top may burn.

This cake goes great with whipped cream, ice cream (especially Amy's), and apparently White Russians.

I Love You Honey

In Italy last year I bought a small, 40g jar of chestnut honey for 1 euro. Oh, it is so scrumptious. Yesterday I had some on challah for break the fast. The little sample size jar is almost empty, so today I started looking online for some chestnut honey. I found a few varieties and then tonight we went to Central Market. I found one I wanted (Italian), but the jars were all expired. I ended up buying a French chestnut honey (the one pictured). I will try it out tomorrow with butter on some challah.

I have also recently become interested in bee keeping. I happened to see a bee keeper on the show of the woman whose name shall not be spoken. The beekeeper showed how the honey is extracted from the honeycomb. It was fascinating. I definitely want a bee hive some day. It costs a bit to get started, so I don't think I'll be doing it any time soon. I'm not sure what kind of honey I'd get, but it sure would be cool to have my own bees and honey supply. In the meantime I think I'll be sampling different kinds of honey from CM.