And we’re live!

Hello and welcome back to Local is Lovely! We’ve had a bit of a face-lift here and I hope, you will all find the new design a bit cleaner, fresher and easier to navigate (please also have some patience with me while I get the hang of WordPress…). I still have a few pages to work on, dates to add to the workshop and events page etc, but essentially we are back in business! And speaking of being in business… if you are, and are at all interested in working with me as a potential partner here, please do get in touch (sophie_hansen(at)me.com). I even have a flash new media kit I can send you!

And to celebrate, I made a cake for afternoon tea. It’s a honey and spice one and is super good on a rainy, wet day like this. Especially with a mug of strong tea. I’ve also put together a little e-book of winter baking recipes just like this baby, and it’s free when you sign up to my new weekly newsletter (which will be going out every Monday from next week onwards) and all you lovely existing subscribers will receive your digital copy this Monday.

Honey, orange and spice cake

With gentle spices, tangy orange and a cracker of a buttercream filling, this cake is exactly my cup of tea. Or rather exactly what I love to have with a cup of tea. Ha ha. If you want this loaf to last a little longer, don’t bother with the buttercream filling, just wrap tightly in foil and serve either plain or toasted with a little smear of butter and jam the next day.

100g butter
1/2 cup honey
3 eggs
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup plain flour
3/4 cup wholemeal or spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
Zest of two oranges
1/2 cup natural yogurt or cream

For the buttercream icing: 150g butter, softened, 1/2 cup icing sugar and the zest of another two oranges.
For the orange glaze: 1/2 cup marmalade and the juice of two of your zested oranges.

Preheat your oven to 180C and grease and line a long loaf tin (or a wide one, whatever you have handy). Melt the honey and butter together in a small saucepan then set aside to cool for a little while. Beat the sugar and eggs together until they’ve doubled in volume and are light and fluffy, then sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Fold the flour mixture into the sugar and eggs, then add the cooled honey and butter and finally, fold through the natural yogurt or cream until just combined.

Spoon mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth over the top, then bake for 35 minutes or until firm to touch and the cake is just beginning to pull away from the tin’s sides.

Once cooked, leave your beautifully aromatic loaf to cool completely on a wire rack. Then, to make the buttercream; combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale and fluffy (don’t be tempted to add the juice from all those oranges you’ve zested or the mixture will curdle, maybe just juice the oranges instead!). Once the cake is cool, slice in half lengthways using a bread knife and spread the buttercream over the bottom half, sandwich with the top and you’re off and ready! Finally, heat the glaze ingredients (marmalade and juice) together in a small saucepan and cook for a couple of minutes then pour, still hot, over the cake just before serving.

Thank you so much to Ms Sarah Davies who helped put this whole thing together. Among her other projects, Sarah consults with small businesses and people like myself to help them get the most out of their websites, blogs and/or social media platorms and I can’t recommend her highly enough. Sarah is an incredibly hard worker, is passionate about helping small businesses and turns things around in lightning fast time. All pretty amazing considering she’s also the editor and creator of online mag Tiny Tribe. Contact Sarah here. THANK YOU SARAH – YOU ARE THE BEST. X

And than you also to the team at Castle Design, who’s design we have used and love so much.