Honey and Almond Slice

Image 1: Cubes of Honey and almond slice with mandarin

Food Synopsis: Honey and almond slice is a very simple cake made of honey and almond meal. It is dense and sweet, can be eaten straight from the fridge, at room temperature or warmed in the microwave. Whilst most cakes become more stale with time, the flavour of this one improves significantly. The cake becomes more moist the longer it sits in the fridge, probably due to the high concentration of simple sugars in the cake. These simple sugars, being polar molecules, attract moisture from the air, bringing it into the cake and making the cake more moist as time goes by.

In the freshly baked product, there is a crunch to  the edges, but as you bite in, the soft, nutty flavour of the cake is so delicious that the burn from the hot, sweet honey doesn't prevent you from taking the next bite. 

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I wanted to try out a new mix master this afternoon - purchased from Aldi for $27. As you might be able to conclude, I was slightly apprehensive about the quality of the machine, with a range of evidence to support it...

Firstly, it came in a cardboard box (like usual), but it was very light (bit strange for a normal mix master). Upon opening, I found the base to hold the bowl and machine wasn't solid. It was hollow with a few rubber suckers to help it suck on the bench... And if you turned it upside down, it would hold quite a lot of water (even though the manual says never to immerse the base into water. I guess its because of a small nail holding the bits together will probably rust in no time)...

Next, the machine itself was rather difficult to attach onto the stand. The button that clips the machine part on also controls the tilt of the beaters in the bowl... so some difficulties in making sure the machine would stay on the stand when moving the beaters down into the bowl.

Thirdly, this mix master doesn't automatically turn when mixing. i.e. you have to turn the bowl yourself...!

What's more, the manual clearly states that the machine should not be used for more than 5 minutes a time.

At least it worked, for the first use anyway! The machine and bowl did its job, whilst the base was great just for propping up the machine without dripping batter everywhere.

The end product what this: the tried and true 'Honey and almond slice'. One of my high school lunch box staples, usually for what I still call 'play lunch'. Yummy!

Having shared the cake with friends at lunchtime, I have had so many requests for the recipe. Unfortunately it's a secret recipe, crafted after by months of experimentation, tweaking ingredients and eating the dodgy ones. You'd think I would be sick of the honey and almond combination in cake form after all those months experimenting, but I just can't seem to get enough of it still.