Deep, rich, and moist, this chocolate honey cake is naturally sweetened with honey and topped with a strawberry jam glaze. Supremely decadent, yet at the same time full of whole food ingredients, this cake is a beautiful treat.
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I have had chocolate and strawberries on my mind. Also, my husband and I will celebrate our wedding anniversary tomorrow! So I wanted to make something special for us. Plus, I always like to bake something sweet for the kids for Valentine’s Day. This cake is the solution for all those things!
The recipe, like many recipes, is a combination of different sources. I adapted the cake recipe from an old favorite cookbook of mine, Mollie Katzen’s The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. (My husband and I went to her restaurant, the Moosewood Restaurant, when we lived in Ithaca, New York! Very delicious!). When I made the cake this time, I used Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder instead of classic cocoa powder, and it turned out great. For the glaze, I got inspiration from the blog dessert for two. The glaze is super-easy to make (just whisk strawberry jam, powdered sugar and milk together), and it adds so much flavor and is such a pretty pink color! We have some of my mom’s delicious homemade strawberry freezer jam in the refrigerator, so the glaze is packed with intense strawberry flavor that goes with the deep flavor of the chocolate beautifully. To be honest, it was hard to finish photographing this cake because I wanted to take a bite so badly!
In addition to our anniversary and Valentine’s Day coming up, it has been an intense week. We have all been working really hard. We all need chocolate from time to time (some of us need it more often than others 🙂 ), and we have earned this treat. Maybe chocolate cannot save the world, but it can definitely do a lot of good for the heart and soul! I hope you all have a great weekend, and stay warm! I will be joining the virtual potluck Fiesta Friday, co-hosted this week by Ai @ Ai Make It For You and Petra @ Food Eat Love.
Chocolate Honey Cake
for the cake:
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (plus a little more for greasing the pan), at room tempterature
- 1 ounce (1 square) of bittersweet chocolate
- 3/4 cup of honey
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder)
- 1 cup of unbleached white flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
for the glaze:
Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup of powdered sugar
- 2 heaping tablespoons of strawberry jam
- 4-6 tablespoons of milk (adjust depending on the consistency you want)
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an 8 x 8 inch square baking dish.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over low heat until just melted.
Pour the honey into a medium-sized mixing bowl. With an electric mixer or a hand mixer, beat the honey for about two minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Then stir in the vanilla extract.
In another medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Stir well with a fork.
Beat the melted butter/chocolate mixture into the honey/egg mixture. Then fold in the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine well. When everything is incorporated, spoon the batter into the prepared baking dish.
Bake in your 350 degree oven for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
While the cake is baking, you can prepare the glaze. In a large bowl, combine the powdered sugar, strawberry jam, and milk. Whisk the ingredients together vigorously until a glaze forms. Adjust the consistency if you wish by adding more milk or powdered sugar. When you are ready to serve the cake, spoon or pour the desired amount of glaze over each piece of cake. Enjoy!
