Get Well Soon Cakes

Pinch me, because I cannot believe it's October already!  *rubs eyes*  Outside, we're getting our first serious rain of the season, which I'm loving, and I'm already drinking large amounts of hot tea indoors.

Actually, this weather is a little difficult to believe because last week, we had our first real summer temperatures all summer, hitting 90+ degrees F in San Francisco proper for a few days on end--which is quite the rare happenstance!  Unluckily for me, however, my body decided that it was also the week to give myself a cold and a fever, so there I was, running around between meetings and work, in hot, hot weather, made all that much hotter from burning up from the inside.  (and to make matters even worse, it didn't help that I was wearing a sweater with no option to go home and change for the entire day either! ><)

At least now, the weather has decided to go back to the normal grey San Francisco status quo that I know and love, and I'm nearly 100% recovered from the cold.  Thank goodness.  But, I'm still obsessed with hot tea--and especially for colds, with chamomile tea, a drizzle of sweet honey, and a thin sliver of lemon--to nurse me slowly back to health.  Oh, that, and I've been chugging orange juice like there's no other liquid on earth for as much vitamin C as my body can handle (plus some).  Whatever works, I say!

Thinking about what we usually drink and eat when we're sick got me to thinking about whether or not I could pack the same complimentary flavors into cake form, since cake makes everything better, too.  :-P  (yes, I know I must be slightly delusional here, but let's just blame it on the fever, okay?)  I decided to go with a simple honey and meyer lemon pound cake, coated with a thin, subtle, and ever-so-slightly crunchy chamomile sugar glaze.  It's a cake that's moist and dense and lemony! but not too sweet, even with light flavor of honey wrapped inside. And, the mini bundt molds that I decided to use were so cute that I immediately started feeling better upon taking these cakes out of the oven.  :)  It's the small things!

[click on photo above for a larger image]

Anyways, welcome to October, all!  If it's truly going to be a long fall with rainy days and hot tea (and beautifully diffused light from the clouds), keep this recipe on hand--it's perfect for the occasion.

Oh, and go get your flu shots now!

Edit: My good friend reminds me after reading this post that these honey cakes are actually well-timed for Rosh Hashanah, too, when it's customary to eat honey cakes and the like. I guess so many people had been talking to me about making and eating honey cakes this week that it sort of just sunk into my subconscious!


Read on for recipe....

Honey-Meyer Lemon Pound Cake with Chamomile Glaze
makes 6-8 mini bundt cakes

for cake:
1/4 cup whole milk
1 Tbspn meyer lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/4 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn salt
13 Tbspn butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbspn meyer lemon zest
3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour mini bundt molds. Set aside.
2. Whisk to combine the milk, lemon juice, and honey. Set aside.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Set aside.
4. In a mixer bowl with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium high until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and lemon zest and mix for an additional 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.
6. Beat in the flour mixture in two additions, alternating with the milk and honey mixture. Do not overmix.
7. Pour the batter into prepared molds. Bake for 25-35 minutes until the cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out cleanly.
8. Remove cake from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing the cakes from the molds. Glaze warm cakes using recipe below.

for glaze:
6 Tbspn hot water
4 Tbpsn dried chamomile blossoms
3/4 cup (150gr) fine granulated sugar (not powdered)

1. Pour the hot water over the chamomile blossoms. Cover and let steep for 5 minutes.
2. Remove the chamomile blossoms, and stir the sugar into the liquid until thoroughly combined.
3. Glaze the cakes. Let dry completely before serving.

Note: if you don't have chamomile on hand, you can substitute lemon juice for the chamomile tea and make a lemon glaze for the cakes instead.




Enjoy!