This was a bit of an experiment but I’d thought I’d share it with you anyway. If I were to make it again I would use 3 eggs instead of 4 and 1/2 a cup of sugar in addition to the honey. Anyhow this is what I did this time:

Ingredients

Cake:

4 eggs (it is preferable for these to be at room temperature. However, if you’re like me you want to make a cake on a whim and all your eggs are in the fridge. No problem, just separate your eggs – whites in one bowl and yolks in another and leave them on the bench while you assemble all the other ingredients. We’re going to whip them before we do anything else so they’ll warm up any way.)

1/2 cup of fragrant honey. ( What I mean is a honey with a characteristic smell and flavour not your common or garden, in-house-label el-cheapo honey. I used Tasmanian Leatherwood honey which has a unique flavour.)

1/2 teaspoon Bicarb soda (baking soda)

1 3/4 cups of almond meal

1/2 to 1 tsp saffron fronds

1/2 tbsp milk

1/2tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

Syrup:

1/3 cup of water

1/4 cup of the same honey

1/4 to 1/2 tsp saffron

1 tsp rose water

Method

Cake

Separate the eggs. Beat your egg whites until frothy but not completely stiff. Add the saffron to the milk and warm in the microwave for 20 sec. Beat the yolks and then add the honey and beat until well mixed. Then add the saffron/milk mixture and beat some more. Add the baking soda and the salt and mix in well. Then add your almond meal and beat until thoroughly mixed. Then, with a plastic spatula, fold in the egg whites until well mixed and no lumps of white froth are visible.

Pour the mixture into a greased spring-form cake tin that has the base lined with baking paper. Bake on 150C 300F for 35 minutes or until the centre springs back or a skewer comes out clean. I have found the cooking time of this sort of cake a bit hit and miss. My  fan-forced oven tends to brown the outside very dark and the inside isn’t cooked with these type of cakes so after 30 minutes I lowered my oven 120C for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes then run around the edge with a round-bladed knife before removing the ring on the spring-form pan. When it’s cool remove the base and the baking paper and set on a plate ready for the syrup.

Syrup

Add all the ingredient sot a small pan and bring to the boil, while stirring continuously. Once it boils stir for a couple of minutes so that it thickens slightly then take it off the heat and leave to cool.

Prick the surface of the cake with a toothpick or fork and then pour the syrup over the top. Serve with ice cream.