•  2 3/ 4 cups flour
•  1 1/ 2 teaspoons baking powder
•  1/ 2 teaspoon salt
•  1 cup butter, softened
•  1 1/ 4 cups sugar
•  1/ 3 cup honey
•  4 eggs
•  1/ 2 teaspoon vanilla
•  3/ 4 cup milk
•  2 tablespoons lemon juice

Cake Directions

Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease and flour Beehive pan; set aside.

In medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and honey, scraping bowl often.  Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture, alternating with milk, mixing just until blended. Blend in lemon juice.

Divide batter evenly among halves of pan, spreading batter to touch top edges of pan, so batter is lower in center. Bake at 300 degrees F for 50-60 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in pan. Invert onto cooling rack and cool completely.

Buttercream Directions

In medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, 1 tablespoon milk and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy, adding additional milk if necessary; cover with damp paper towel and set aside.  

Honeybees

In small bowl, combine egg white powder, powdered sugar and water. Beat on medium speed, 5 minutes, until icing forms stiff peaks.

Divide icing into thirds; leave one-third of icing white; color one-third black and the remaining one-third yellow.

Fill a piping bag fitted with a #3 tip with black icing. Pipe bodies and heads of honeybees onto parchment or waxed paper; let set 10 minutes. Fill a piping bag fitted with a #1 tip with yellow icing; pipe stripes onto bodies of bees. Fill piping bag fitted with a #3 tip with white icing; pipe wings onto bees. Let stand at least 2 hours, until hardened.  To make honey icing: In medium bowl, combine all honey icing ingredients; blend well, adding milk until icing is consistency of very thick cream.  

Assembly

Stand one-half of cake upright; using a serrated knife, level off the flat side of cake by trimming off rounded dome; repeat with other half of cake. Spread buttercream frosting over cut side of cake;  gently press cake halves together to secure. Place cake on serving plate. Spoon honey icing over cake, covering side seams. Decorate with honeybees. Makes 16 servings.