This moist delicious cake is one of the Park Hyatt Auckland's executive pastry chef's go-to recipes, which he sometimes eats for breakfast with crispy bacon, but it's equally good with a cup of tea in the afternoon.
Ingredients
| 500g | unsalted butter, chopped (for the burnt butter) |
| 3 | large sprigs rosemary |
| 8 | sprigs thyme |
| 270g | honey |
| 125g | milk |
| 2 eggs | lightly beaten |
| 10g | vanilla extract |
| 300g | self-raising flour, sifted |
| 1 tsp | baking soda |
| 100g | caster sugar |
Swiss buttercream icing
| 200g | egg whites (approx 7 eggs) |
| 250g | caster sugar |
| 425g | butter, at room temperature |
Directions
- For the Swiss buttercream icing: Place the egg white and caster sugar in a mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water and whisk until the mix is hot, the sugar has dissolved, and the egg mix is fluffy.
- Place the bowl on the mixer with a whisk attachment and whisk until the mix is thick fluffy and then cool.
- Once the mixture is cooled, start to add your cubed butter slowly. The mixture will drop and look like a hot mess but keep adding the butter and your buttercream will come around and end up being thick fluffy and ready to use.
- For the cake: Preheat the oven to 160C .
- Prepare a 20cm cake tin or a good size loaf tin.
- Place butter, rosemary and thyme in a pot and turn into burnt butter stage – strain straight away and discard herbs.
- In a large bowl put 100g of the burnt butter, honey, milk, eggs, and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar and whisk until smooth.
- Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40 to 50 minutes (don't open oven for the first 40 minutes). Once baked, take out and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Bring the remaining butter to a simmer and pour or brush over the top of the cake. Once the cake has cooled flip on to a cake rack. Spread the Swiss buttercream icing on the top. Best eaten at room temperature.