Almond honey cake topped with honey sweetened mascarpone and an assortment of fresh citrus segments.
Are the winter blues bringing you down? A slice of this citrus honey cake is sure to brighten your spirits and bring on some spring cheer!
This easy to make almond cake contains no refined sugar! It is sweetened simply with honey and fruit!
Table of Contents
Honey Almond Cake
While February is unofficially the month of chocolate (thank you, Valentine’s Day), it’s also the best time to incorporate citrus into baked goods and desserts.
Take advantage of the abundance of grapefruits, oranges, and blood oranges available during this time of the year. The bright colors and bright flavors are perfect during the cold winter months.
This cake is very simple to put together. It’s a standard one layer cake topped with a luscious cream and adorned with a variety of citrus segments!
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Cornmeal: Dried corn kernels ground to fine, medium, or coarse texture. It comes in yellow, blue, or white variety. Yellow cornmeal is the most popular and most widely available. Cornmeal is different from cornflour or cornstarch.
- Almond Flour: Also called almond meal, it is finely ground almonds. It is available blanched (no skin) or unblanched (with skin). Blanched almond flour is generally preferred for baking because because of its pale color, smooth texture, and fluffy consistency.
- Butter: Use unsalted butter. If you choose to use salted butter, omit adding salt to the cake batter.
- Honey: Honey adds sweetness and depth of flavor. There are hundreds of types of honey to choose from, ranging from light and mild flavor to dark and pungent. Pick a sweet, floral honey such as clover and orange blossom honey.
- Milk: Use any milk or non-dairy milk alternative of your choice. The milk helps to thin out the almond honey cake batter.
- Mascarpone: Smooth and rich triple-cream cheese. It is softer than cream cheese. Most popularly used in tiramisu. If you can’t find it, sub in cream cheese.
- Heavy Cream: Also called heavy whipping cream, this product doubles in volume when whipped. It adds body to the mascarpone whipped topping.
- Citrus: Orange juice and citrus segments are used. Use one citrus or a combination of grapefruit, orange, and blood orange segments.
Honey Soaking Syrup
This cake has no sugar. All of it’s sweetness comes from honey. The cake itself is pretty dense due to the mixture of cornmeal and almond flour.
To bring moisture to the cake, after baking it is soaked with an orange juice-honey syrup. This syrup also imparts an amazing floral scent and flavor.
To make the soaking syrup, simply heat together honey and orange juice until honey has dissolved. Poke warm cake all over using a toothpick or fork tines. Brush soaking syrup all over warm cake. Then, cool cake to room temperature on wire rack.
Cake Assembly and Serving
- Brush warm cake with soaking syrup.
- Top with whipped mascarpone mixture.
- Arrange fresh citrus segments over whipped topping. If desired, garnish with chopped almonds and fresh lemon thyme.
- Enjoy immediately!
This almond honey cake does not hold up well. Once the whipping topping and fresh fruit is added, it should be eaten within the same day. Overtime, the topping will separate due to the moisture of the fruit.
If you have leftovers, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. Let sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before eating.
It you need a break from the chocolate madness of February, give this citrus almond honey cake a try. It’s a definite departure from the rich, decadent, and sinful desserts out there right now.
Plus, this is the kind of cake that is totally suitable for breakfast!
Almond Honey Cake with Citrus
Ingredients
Almond Honey Cake:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cornmeal
- ¼ cup ground almonds (almond flour)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup honey
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup milk, room temperature
Soaking Syrup:
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 Tablespoons orange juice
Toppings:
- ½ cup mascarpone, or cream cheese
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- segments of 1 grapefruit, 1 orange, and 1 blood orange
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325℉. Grease 9-inch round cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment (or using an hand mixer), cream butter until smooth. Add honey and continue to beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until thoroughly combined.
- Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed. Mix in milk followed by the remaining half of flour mixture. Mix until there are no longer any dry streaks of flour. Transfer batter to prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before unmolding.
- SOAKING SYRUP: Heat honey and orange juice over the stove until honey has dissolved.
- Poke warm cake all over using a toothpick or the tines of a fork. Brush soaking syrup all over warm cake until absorbed. Allow cake to cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
- TOPPING: Before serving, whisk mascarpone until smooth. Add heavy cream and honey. Beat to soft peaks. Spoon over cooled cake. Top with citrus segments. Enjoy immediately.
Notes
- Cornmeal is dried corn kernels ground to fine, medium or coarse texture. Cornmeal is different from cornstarch or cornflour.
- Almond flour, also called almond meal, is available blanched (no skin) or unblached (with skin). Unblanched almond flour will create a speckled cake due to the skin.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!More Citrus Dessert Recipes
- Triple Citrus Shortbread Bars
- Grapefruit Strawberry Gooey Butter Bars
- Citrus Zingers Sugar Cookies
- Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Disclaimer: This post was first created in partnership with BHG’s Delish Dish Blog.
I just made this and it was very nice! I like my cream to be a bit sweeter though, so im going to add more honey to the cream next time. I also might let the cake and cream in the fridge before assembling. Very yummy cake though!
Thanks for trying out the recipe!
So naturally beautiful, this could be my birthday cake! Love this!!!
Love that there’s no sugar in this cake! I always feel so guilty after pouring 1 whole cup of sugar into the mixing bowl whenever I’m baking desserts. Presentation of this cake is on point!!
This cake looks amazing!!!! Love that gorgeous citrus :D
This cake is glorious! It just sings of spring and sunshine! I love that it is sweetened entirely with honey. A friend of mine is an apiarist and his honey is so lovely that it deserves to be the star of the show in this cake. I’ll be making this as soon as the next batch comes in!
i love tightly crumbed cakes (i’m still not into the super fluffy and light asian cakes), so this is right up my alley! on a semi-unrelated note, have you tried honey butter almonds? my friend brought some back from korea recently, and they’re just as tasty as they sound.
What a truly beautiful cake! I am so impressed with the gorgeous fruit and your absolutely stunning photography!