Honey & Oat Cake

Imagine tucking your teeth into a moist, buttery, honey flavoured cake, that is melt-in-your-mouth soft. Well, you can now not only imagine, but taste it also!
This cake is the definition of comfort food in my book. It's a recipe I created after trial and error, when I was responsible for creating a honey cake that would be served to over 1.000 people at a charity event in Greece.

It had to be easy and fast to make, utilising the honey and oats that were kindly donated to us by contributors of the event. I am happy to say it was an instant hit and everybody loved this final version, as much as I did.
All you have to do to have a great outcome, is use the finest ingredients: fresh butter, good pure honey-Greek preferably-and the best oats. The only 'hassle' in making it is that you have to melt the butter with the honey over low heat but other than that, it's really simple to make.
I hope you make it your 'go-to' honey cake family recipe, as it is a favourite with adults and children alike in our family!


      INGREDIENTS

• 250gr unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup pure honey
• 1/2 cup demerara sugar
• 2 cups oats and some more to sprinkle
• 1 cup self raising flour 
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 4 eggs
• 2 sachets vanilla powder or 2 tsp vanilla essence 
• 1 tbsp olive oil

      METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. You will need two small loaf pans, or a big one. Coat each pan with half the olive oil and sprinkle with flour. Shake to remove any excess.
2. In a small saucepan combine the butter and honey. Melt over low heat, remove from the stove and add the oats. Mix and set aside.
3. In a bowl, mix the flour with the spices well stirring with a wooden spoon. At the same time, beat the eggs in the mixer bowl, adding the sugar and vanilla, for 2 minutes.
4. Add the warm honey and oat mixture gradually to the mixer bowl, mixing at low speed. When everything is well combined, add the flour and just beat until just combined. The dough will be quite sticky and runny-thats the way it should be! 
5. Place the dough in the prepared pans, sprinkle with extra oats and bake for approximately 30-32 minutes. (If using a bigger pan, bake for 40 minutes, lowering the oven temperature to 170° after the first 30 minutes.)
6. The cakes will be ready when they are light golden brown in colour. Remove from the oven and let cool completely inside the pans. Serve the cake in slices, drizzled with extra honey.