Dan Lepard's honey and treacle cake recipe

Nestling somewhere between a parkin and a pound cake, this honey and treacle mixture is heavy with spices, glacé peel and a little orange. It's the sort of loaf cake that you'd eat with a shot of coffee mid-afternoon, to help ward off the slumps. The spices and flavours I've used here are eminently adaptable, so if you fancy, say, allspice, cardamom or caraway instead, then by all means switch them around as your taste and mood dictate. Rye flour gives the crumb a slightly sticky texture, much as it does normal bread, and it also adds a welcome hint of acidity. If rye flour is hard to find round your way, a good, dense wholemeal will do the job just as well. 125g honey 50g black treacle (or molasses) 100g dark muscovado (or molasses sugar) ½ tsp ground black pepper ½ tsp each ground clove, cinnamon and mace ½ tsp ground ginger 150g unsalted butter, fridge-cold and cut into knobs 3 medium eggs Finely grated zest of 1 orange 200g chopped mixed peel or glacé fruit 175g rye flour ¾ tsp baking powder For the orange glacé icing 100g icing sugar 3-4 tsp orange juice Fine shreds of orange zest Line the base and sides of a small, 17cm-long loaf tin or similar with nonstick baking paper. In a saucepan, warm the honey, black treacle, muscovado and spices until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is almost simmering. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until it melts. Beat in the eggs until smooth, then stir in the zest, mixed peel, flour and baking powder. Spoon the mix into the tin and bake at 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4 for about an hour, or until a skewer comes out with only a few crumbs stuck to it. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, beat together the icing sugar and three teaspoons of orange juice until smooth, then stir in a little more juice until gently runny. Add the zest, beat again, then spread over the top of the cold cake. danlepard.com/guardian