Life with Bees

The flu - it gives you a special appetite. You want nurturing, slightly lambent soft food. In my case, I ate red- and orange-flavoured jelly cups like thirsty man at an oasis, in wobbling gulps. I even enjoyed wielding the little plastic spoon that came embedded in the jelly.

TK generously made me a whole fridge shelf full of raspberry Aeroplane jelly, somewhat incongruously set in fancy-pants Le Creuset crockery. As the flu appetite departed, the jelly became less a soothing panacea to my ills and more a boring batch of wobbly red.

Enter Maggie Beer. A scoopful of her burnt fig, caramel and honeycomb ice cream tipped onto the smooth face of the red jelly and you have a luscious, wobbly faux trifle. The ribbons of figgy caramel running through the ice cream are offset by the unpretentious tartness of the Aeroplane raspberry. Let the ice cream melt a little and it clings sweetly to the blobs of light jelly.

The Maggie Aeroplane Trifle is bizarre but it works for me. More bizarre is the fact that TK's favourite Aeroplane flavour is quandong - but they don't make it anymore! If you know where to find some, he is very keen.

We saw this on Nigella Feasts or Nigella Summer (or perhaps Nigella Eats, Shoots and Leaves). The cake is very dark but the sticky honey gives it a strong, earthy sweetness. I'd cut down on the honey next time. The bees are made from yellow-coloured marzipan with almond flakes for wings. The stripes are drawn on with the point of a skewer dipped in the chocolate glaze. TK even gave them little almond stingers in their tiny marzipan butts. It just looked far too cute to eat - but we managed, somehow.

I can't quite be bothered altering Nigella's recipe for the joy of being able to post it here. Besides, credit where credit's due.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/honey-bee-cake-recipe/index.html