These sticky Greek honey-cake golden squares are as magical as their key ingredient.
The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and even the Babylonians couldn’t get enough of this sweet, sticky, golden substance! Made by bees from flower-foraged nectar, honey was not only used as a sweetener, but it was also used to cure almost everything in ancient times. Turns out, it was with good reason! It’s reported that this liquid gold’s antibacterial properties were far superior for burns and wounds than those of the other two widely used remedies of the day: dung and rust. What’s more, it appears that honey never expires, as was discovered by archaeologists who found still-perfect
2 000-year-old bottles of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs.
Greek honey-cake golden squares
Ingredients
Honey cake
- 150g cake flour
- 7,5ml (1½ tsp) baking powder
- pinch salt
- 2,5ml (½ tsp) ground cinnamon
- zest of ½ orange
- 150g butter, softened
- 160g sugar
- 3 eggs
- 60ml (¼ cup) milk
- 100g walnuts, roughly chopped
Syrup
- 375g honey
- 180ml (¾ cup) water
- juice of ½ lemon
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line the base of a 25cm square baking tin. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and orange zest in a medium bowl and set aside until needed. In a large bowl and using electric beaters, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and milk to the butter-egg mixture and, using a spatula, gently fold through to combine.
Fold in the walnuts and pour the batter into the prepared baking tin. Bake in the preheated oven until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, about 35 – 40 minutes.
For the syrup (while the cake bakes), combine all of the ingredients and bring to a simmer, 3 minutes. Pour the syrup over the cake just as it comes out of the oven.
Allow the cake to cool, about 30 minutes, before cutting it into 4cm squares.
