Orange Blossom Honey Cake #TheCakeSliceBakers

January 20, 2023

Orange Blossom Honey Cake #TheCakeSliceBakers

Hello, 2023!

It's a new year and a new book for the Cake Slice Bakers!

Each January, we choose a new cake-centric book to bake through during the year. This year's choice is Gateau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes -- and I am excited (or "Je suis excité" if I still remember anything from my high school French class)!

The premise of this lovely book is that the French bake -- a lot. But cakes don't have to be fancy (or fussy) to be special. When you're lucky enough to live in the "Land of Patisserie" with fabulous desserts in the windows of shops around the corner... there's no reason to try and compete. The cakes in this book are the kind that everyday Parisians might bake and enjoy after dinner.

For my inaugural 2023 Cake Slice Bake, I chose this Orange Blossom Honey Cake. Check out the links at the end of this post to see what the other lovely bakers picked!

Now, I love me a fancy cake.

And I like to challenge myself with recipes that stretch my technical baking skills and cake decorating chops.

But you can't argue with simple and tasty!

And this cake was exactly that.

With honey and almond flour, this cake was moist and filling. And the addition of citrus and orange blossom water added bright, floral flavors to le table. (Yes, in the next few blog posts I *might* randomly throw some of the 20? French words that I still remember. Où est la bibliothèque?)

After baking, a baklava-esque syrup made of butter, honey, lemon juice and orange blossom water is poured over the warm cake.

If you've never had orange blossom water, it's very floral and fragrant. I bought some for this recipe at my local international foods market. It's common in Middle Eastern and Persian cooking and is potent stuff. However, it was nicely balanced with the lemon and honey.

The cookbook author, Aleksandra Crapanzano, suggests serving the cake with a dollop of creme fraiche. I only had yogurt, but it complemented the sweetness perfectly.

So give this Orange Blossom Honey Cake a try! It's a sweet way to start out the New Year ;)

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.