When I was a kid, I loved Winnie the Pooh. I named my childhood cat Tigger when we got her (I was around 5 or 6), and she wasn’t even orange! I just loved Winnie the Pooh that much. I still have to say, the vintage old school Pooh art is just adorable, and it will always remind me of my early childhood. I don’t know many people who wouldn’t know/don’t know who Winnie is, but just in case:

Winnie-the-Pooh, commonly shortened to Pooh Bear or simply Pooh, and once referred to as Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children’s verse book When We Were Very Young (1924) and many more in Now We Are Six (1927). All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard.

This past year for my birthday, I got a very cute card from someone special who knows me well & knows how much I like to bake… and it was a Winnie the Pooh card. With the old drawing of Pooh, and inside… it had a recipe! Yes, a recipe for honey cake. It was one of the cutest cards I’ve ever gotten, and I kept thinking of that honey cake randomly ever since. Of course, I misplaced the card (typical), but I remembered a few basic things that were in the recipe in the card, and I combined that with some other honey cake/honey cupcake recipes I found on the internet to make these. I frosted them with an orange-honey buttercream frosting made by just adding orange extract and a tablespoon of honey to a regular buttercream (if youcan’t figure that out and are in desperate need of the exact recipe, let me know and I’ll send it your way). Thank you to Couture Cupcakes for the inspiration too.

In case you’re unaware, Pooh loves his “hunny.” You’ll usually see him carrying a pot of it around, one paw drenched in honey.

Seeing as how there’s more snow on the way, and I’m longing for spring, I really needed these spring-y cupcakes tonight. Sadly, my camera died, so there’s only one picture. But they say a picture speaks a thousand words, right? I also overestimated how much confectioner’s sugar I had, so I couldn’t make the little orange blossoms on top that I so wanted to do. Oh well. You’ll have to imagine how cute it would have been! I wasn’t about to go out and get some in this weather.

HONEY CUPCAKES (OR POOH’S HUNNY CAKES)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• zest and juice of one orange
• ¼ tsp orange extract
• ¼ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup milk
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup honey
• 2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt; set aside. In a small bowl, combine orange zest and juice, extract, sour cream and milk; set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Add honey and sugar; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time.
4. Add half of the reserved dry ingredients to the butter mixture; mix on low until just combined. With mixer running on low, slowly add the orange mixture.
5. Add remaining dry ingredients until just combined.
6. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.

I got exactly 12 of these. I have to say, they were mighty delicious. Light and airy with a different kind of sweetness, not too overpowering. I’m not a big honey person, I don’t care for by itself, in cake or cookies it’s usually okay. But I really liked how these were sweet without being artificially sweet, and you can really taste the honey. And the orange adds an extra sweet/tartness. This would make a sweet cake too, or even just a loaf with no frosting. Speaking of sweet things… Brianne, a.k.a. Iron Chef Mommy’s brand new dot com is officially open! Featuring some wonderfully amazing (if I do say so myself) logo design by none other than me. I’ve been doing loads of blog logo work lately, two out of three are up and running now. There’s one more to go *cough*Jeanine*cough*!

Those liners are from sweet estelle’s baking supply on Etsy.

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