Honey Bread - "The Best Hot Cake in the World"

Or so say my sons!

As I said previously, we are mustering at the moment and this recipe is an all time favourite for morning smoko during mustering, or indeed any other time! This morning I was sent home from the paddock early just so I could have some ready by the time the rest of the crew returned.

I first tasted this simple yet scrumptious loaf cake about 25 years ago when Rossco and I were travelling around Australia and staying with my aunt and uncle at Ebor, in the high country of north eastern NSW. So thanks Aunty Lib, I hope you don't mind me sharing!

As it is inexpensive to make, this recipe is ideal for feeding hard working farm/station workers or a sporting team (post game!)....although you would have to quadruple the recipe to feed a team. And it is so easy it is a good recipe for kids (and cooking challenged adults) to follow.

If you are short on cooking time, as I was this morning, you can either make pikelets, by dropping spoonfuls of the batter into a hot buttered frying pan and cooking until brown on one side before flipping over and cooking the other side, or you can pop some patty pans into a muffin tin, fill them to three quarters with the batter and bake in a 160 deg C preheated oven for about 20 minutes. These ones look a little pale but they are actually cooked through. My boys like to gouge the middle out and fill with butter...should I admit that??
 If you are planning to make it you must promise me that you will serve it with butter -definitely not margarine - because without butter it just wouldn't be the same.

I have no idea if this is actually Belgian, but that's what it's called on my 25 year old handwritten  recipe and I'm not about to argue!

Belgian Honey Bread

1 cup milk

125g brown sugar - you can use light or dark brown sugar, the light brown will make a paler cake. I use about 80g of sugar because I always use less than the recipe states in baked goods.

255g Self raising flour or plain flour with 1 and 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder added

2 tablespoons honey

Heat half of the milk and beat together with the sugar and honey. Add the sifted flour and remaining cold milk alternately, stirring as you go. This is quite a runny batter compared to most cakes. Bake in a loaf tin* at 180 deg C for about 40 minutes, or use one of the methods described above.  Serve hot with butter.

*My loaf tin is 23cm x 13cm and this mixture fits nicely.

Bacon post next, I promise!