As regular readers of my blog will know, the Ealing and District Beekeepers Association is really a tea-and-cake association. Everyone turns up on a Saturday afternoon for a bit of cake at the apiary table washed down by a very good cup of tea. Occasionally, there is some beekeeping too. Yesterday I baked a chocolate bundt cake that disappeared very quickly. It is easy to make.
Ingredients:
- 200g (7oz) butter
- 200g (7oz) caster sugar
- 300g (10.5oz) self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 4 medium eggs (beaten)
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 100ml (4oz) semi-skimmed milk
- 3 dsp assorted chocolate sprinkles
- icing sugar
- 22cm (8–9in) bundt tin
- large mixing bowl
- wooden spoon
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (338°F) and grease the bundt tin with butter and a light dusting of flour. Also whip the eggs and put to one side.
2. Mix the butter and sugar in the large mixing bowl until the mixture is golden and creamy
TIP: I use a wooden spoon for all my mixing.
3. Gradually fold in the whisked eggs.
TIP: a teaspoonful of flour added each time helps to stop the mixture from curdling.
4. Fold in the flour and baking powder, then fold in about half (50ml / 2oz ) of the milk until the mixture is soft and easy to stir.
5. Stir in the cocoa powder and chocolate sprinkles, then keep adding a drop of milk until the mixture is soft and dropping again.
TIP: I find that I never need to use all of the milk.
6. Pour the mixture into the bundt tin and smooth it around the tin using the back of the wooden spoon.
7. Bake the mixture in the oven at 160–170°C for about 30–40 minutes.
TIP: the cooking time depends on your oven and how much time it takes to prepare your mixture. (Yesterday I got distracted by a woodpecker visiting the garden.)
TIP: insert a skewer to test that the cake is cooked (if it comes out clean).
8. Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes then turn out on a wire rack and leave to cool for 20 minutes before dusting with icing sugar.
It wasn’t my intention, but when I first started experimenting I found that baking in a bundt tin sometimes makes the cake mixture crack as it rises. (This can be fixed by reducing the temperature of the oven.) However, I liked the effect. The ‘crater’ makes the ‘hole’ in the ring-shaped cake look like a volcano’s caldera – inspiring the name chocolate volcano-ring cake!
Stan cut the cake at the apiary using a hive tool and I took one slice for me and one slice to crumble for the robin. It was a busy day in bee-world. Tom was giving a beginner session on queen-rearing, John was taking off the honey from his hives, and Emily and I had our own queens to visit. You can read about that in my next post.
Mrs Apis Mellifera 
Yum! I can only imagine drizzled with fresh honey!
Everything is wonderful drizzled with honey! 🙂
Clearly you should try replacing the sugar with honey….
Chocolate-honey volcano cake does sound tempting…
Reblogged this on Lincoln Life Blog.
Thanks so much! 🙂
your welcome, great post
Oooh… Now that looked a yummy cake Emma.. Wonderful.. I am just watching at the same time Country File on BBC and good to see them getting children interested in Bees too.. 🙂 Wonderful.. Hope you all enjoyed eating the cake.. Love and Hugs your way Emma xxx ❤
Hello Sue! I’ll have to catch up with Country File during the week, especially if it has bees. I made another cake on Sunday it was so good xxx
It looks good Emma.. and yes do catch up, it was lovely to see them getting young children used to Bees and tasting honey from their hive.. Worth a watch.. 🙂
I remember my niece’s face when she first saw the bees – wonderful!
I was so pleased the younger generation were getting involved.. Did I tell you we have a wild bees nest between our sheds.. The bumble bee sort.. 🙂 we were very happy to see them.. 🙂
Everyone has a bumble bee nest but us! 😉 I would LOVE to have a bumble bee nest in our garden. Left out houses for them and everything 😉 Very glad they have found their way to your garden. xx
One Queen had started to make a nest nside the shed.. Hubby spotted it in the Very early stages and moved her and her nest to a sheltered spot between the sheds in a dry space beneath the shed. We prayed we had not disturbed her too much ,, It took a while for the other bees to find her, but they did, and they are well established now a constant hum is heard.. 🙂 We have to remember not to sit in their flight path lol.. haha.. but they are no problem and most welcome.. 🙂
Good thinking by hubby! Do they forage much in your garden or go further afield? The bumble bees love the cotoneaster in our garden 🙂
No its mainly our garden as far as we see, the raspberries, blackberries all in flower have been humming with them.. 🙂
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I never realised that beekeeping can be so delicious! – Kourosh
Eating cakes is the best part of beekeeping, Kourosh! 🙂
That looks delicious and will help me use up my self-rising flour, which I seem to only use once a year to make oliebollens.
Yes it’s a good way to use up self-raising flour! I usually experiment with recipes about a couple of months before my cupboard stocks go out of date so that I can use them up without waste, and it’s fun 🙂
I’ll have to look up oliebollens!
Sorry. Dutch, deep-fried deliciousness.
Nice yaffle! (Thanks for including it. I’m off cake)
A yaffle! Thanks for naming our woodpecker RH. I rather like him although he doesn’t visit often. Sorry you’re off cake – perhaps biscuits next time 🙂