I must admit, we are slightly addicted to baking supplies. We have a growing collection of cookie cutters and cake tins. We love speciality baking tins as they can really make your cake shine. Our baking tin kitchen drawer is over flowing so we have now spread our collection amongst two additional tubs in the bottom of the pantry. We should have the perfect tin for any cake we want to make.
The Honeycomb Pull Apart Pan (by Nordic Ware) is a fun, honeycomb design, which features 19 pull apart sections for easy sharing. The sections are decorated with bees or a honeycomb design. The great thing about this cake tin, is that the cake just needed a glaze and no other decorating was necessary.
Sarah baked a delicious cake with a honey glaze. The cast aluminium baking tin promoted even browning and rising, and it fell out of the tin easily. The sections were very easy to pull apart and it is a good cake to make for a group. She used the recipe that came with the baking tin. (Developed for Williams-Sonoma).
We served ours with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream as a dessert.
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2½ cups (315 g) cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 250 g (2 sticks) butter
- 375 g (1½ cups) sugar
- 160 ml (2/3 cup) milk
- 60 g (1/2 cup) ground almonds
- Honey Glaze
- 60 g (1/2 stick) butter
- 60 g (1/4 cup) brown sugar, firmly packed
- 185 ml (1/2 cup) honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 2 tbs water
- Preheat oven to 180 deg C (350 deg F). Grease and flour honeycomb pull apart pan. Tap out excess flour.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, and vanilla until blended. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Gradually add the sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Reduce the speed to medium, add the egg mixture and beat until well combined, about 1 minute.
- Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk and beating after each addition until just incorporated. Gently fold in the ground almonds.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.Bake for 35 - 40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Honey Glaze: In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter with the brown sugar, honey, vanilla and salt. Stir occasionally until sugar is dissolved, 2-3 minutes. Add the water, bring the mixture to a simmer and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep warm.
- Gently tap the cake pan on the counter top and invert on to a wire rack. Turn cake right side up. Place the cake over baking paper. Brush top and sides of cake with the glaze, including between the pull apart section. Let cool completely before serving.
* Honeycomb Pull Apart Pan – we bought our pan from Williams Sonoma online Australian store in Dec 2013. We noticed that they are no longer available but you may be able to find them on eBay.
You can find more of our honey recipes here.
Those little cakes look divine! It would be great to make for a special occasion! 🙂
I agree Sandi! The cakes are covered with a honey glaze and the nice shaped pan means they don’t really need any other decoration.
I love the shapes this tin creates! What a fun treat. I might have to find that tin and try this recipe.
It is a fun tin Terri! It creates 19 little cakes which are perfect for a large gathering. We popped the extras int eh freezer and they have been equally good in our lunch boxes this week. We can’t resist baking supplies:)
That looks very delicious, I love honey! And I love the tin, I have never seen one like that, lovely!
Thanks Suzie! Such a sweet tin – I think we will be using it a lot.
LOVE IT !
Thanks Dora 🙂
I just made this, except in a silicone pan, and it’s so good! Except I think I used too much cake batter because it wasn’t flat and more rounded lol if that makes sense. I also wasn’t sure if I should have put it on a metal cookie sheet since my pan was silicone. So next time I’m going to try a few things differently. It was still so good, especially the glaze! My very picky kids loved it too! I will definitely be making it again!
The silicone version of this pan is available on Amazon and it’s much less expensive that it’s metal counterpart. I used it today for the first time to make this cake for the farmer down the street who is letting us put our beehives on his farm. The cake itself is delicious and so is the glaze! I should have checked to see if there were different baking instructions for the silicone pan though because the segments in the center didn’t cook as nicely as the ones on the outside.
Again, this is a great recipe, tastes amazing! Thanks for sharing.
I didn’t realise there was a silicone pan available now – glad you enjoyed it. How wonderful to have your own fresh honey.
I bought this pan (the metal one) from Nordicware on Amazon, so I guess it’s back in production. Your recipe looks much better than the one that comes with the pan. I am a little confused by the information with the recipe, though. It seems as though you baked the recipe that came with the tin, is that the one pictured? It doesn’t appear to have a glaze, or perhaps it was absorbed? I want to make this, but won’t have time to test it out first, so I just want to be sure that if I make the recipe you list here, with the ground almonds, etc., that it works in this pan. Thanks so much!
Hi Beth – The honey glaze was absorbed into the cake and it tastes amazing! My daughter has baked this cake several times and it always works out well. The tin makes the cake look fantastic and it always gets lots of comments from people. Happy baking!
Perfect, thanks so much. I’ll post back after I’ve made it.
Has anyone tried this cake without the almonds?
Hi Jamie – I haven’t tried it without the almonds – sorry, Lisa
What would you change, if anything, for baking without the honeycomb pan? Would it work in a bundt pan?
I haven’t tried this recipe in other tins – you could experiment but you may need to change the cooking time.
Please can you give me cup measurements in grams please I’m from the UK . THANK YOU
This recipe is the best! I like the ground almonds. It is different than the recipe that came with the pan, which I did not care for as much. I took this to our oneg (delight – an after worship potluck lunch) and it was all gone in a flash! One of the servers cut each segment in half so you couldn’t see the little bee on top as well.
I had about 1/3 cup of the glaze left, and I am not sure that I would add much more to saturate the tops.
Thank you ladies! I was wondering it I would ever use the pan again, and now I will! The pan is still available from the manufacturer on line at https://www.nordicware.com/catalog/product/view/id/2542/s/honeycomb-pull-apart-pan/category/41/ AND in their factory store if you plan to be in the Minneapolis, MN area, the factory store is great fun.
L’Shanah Tovah Tikatevu
Hi …I baked this cake today and it was just Wow… I just added lemon zest and two tablespoons of lemon juice… and half tbs of ground cardamom…. thank you for the amazing recipe
All was great – Instructions and recipe but I didn’t get the impressions – bees and hives 🙁
I used Baker’s Joy — spray flour . Do you think that was the problem or first time I used it???
This cake is wonderful, I have made three in less than one week. Family and friends love it.
HI,
this looks adorable!
Would love to make it, but dont want to make it dairy,
Ever tried it not dairy?
what can i substitute with?
thanks
does it come out good with the silicone pan?
Lovely recipe but despite grease and flouring the pan half of it it stuck to the pan when I tipped it out 15 minutes after taking it out of the oven. Family loved cake but I’m going to try again with a different recipe. If anyone has any hints to avoid sticking I’d appreciate it.
Same here. Looking for advice on how to get the cake t release. I greased and floured well.
I read on the nordicware site that you should use butter or shortening to grease the pan – not cooking spray. I am having the same problem so I will try that next.
Hi! Could anyone inform me if the butter in this recipe should be salted or unsalted? Thank you 🙂
I just got this pan (Amazon) and via a web search found your recipe. Love it! Unlike many American recipes, this one isn’t overly sweet. It makes such a difference when you’re applying a sweet glaze. This cake absorbs the glaze and balances it very well. Plus, the bee and honeycomb details are nice and sharp. I tried the recipe that came with the pan (a honey-lemon), but found the cake tasted “floury” and the details were not distinct at all. I did have some holes in my cake, but I’m sure that was on me, I might have overmixed. At any rate, the cake tastes good enough to keep trying until I’ve achieved perfection. Thank you for this recipe, it will be my go-to for this pan!
Made this today (June 24th 2020) for my late summer solstice celebrations and it turned out delicious!!
I received the honeycomb cake pan as a Christmas gift and after scouring the internet for recipes, I chose this one because I had some leftover almond flour to use up. I followed the recipe almost to the T and it came out flawlessly! There were two things I did differently. First, I didn’t have cake flour so I had to make my own and I sifted the flour more than the recipe called for, just because. Second, I did NOT flour the pan. Instead, I stuck a stick of butter in the microwave to soften it enough for me to use a pastry brush and brush every nook and cranny with the softened butter. I patiently spent a good 10-15 minutes brushing. I made sure no spot was left unbuttered and the end result was a cake that plopped out very, VERY easily 🙂 I didn’t even have to wait for the cake to cool down. I hope this little tip helps others!
Thank you for the tip Monica. The cake tasted amazing but stuck to the pan for me using the recipe instructions.
I was given the pan as a gift. The cake turned out Awesome. I substituted poppy seeds for the ground almonds. Will make this cake again 😋
This was legit the best cake I’ve ever made. I used a silicone honey comb pan from Amazon, and it worked perfectly. Thank you for this awesome recipe!
Can you make this without the almonds, I have a few friends who are allergic to nuts?
Just baked this and it came out perfectly. Melted butter, carefully brushed in the mold, then floured. Added a splash of rum to the glaze and lemon zest to batter. Used the metal NordicWare mold.
have anyone use a silicone mold instead of the tin?
Made this cake last week. The batter was super thick (it actually peaked!) and the cake was more a bread-y muffin type. I was wondering if this was more of a pound cake type of recipe?
I just baked this recipe. I used the pan as shown, except mine is silicone. The recipe made enough batter to make 1 pan PLUS 46 mini cupcakes! Essentially, you would need 2 of these pans to handle the amount of batter in the recipe. I filled my pan enough that it rose to just above the rim so it’s not like I under-filled my pan.
The cupcakes are beautifully soft and melt-in-your-mouth. I used roasted almonds for the ground almonds. I can’t say I can really taste the almonds. They add a bit of texture though. The flavor of the cake itself is mild to almost non-existent. I used wildflower honey for the honey glaze and it is a very strong and unique flavor. I would use milder honey like clover or some other mild honey for the glaze in future.
I used soft butter to rub into the silicone pan, and then floured it, and the cake turned out of the pan just fine. I used regular shortening for the mini cupcake pans and they turned out of the pan very well also.
The cake recipe works very well for the pan!