Degustabox Selection

 I always enjoy opening the subscription food boxes from Degustabox, as I love surprises. Degustabox Selection is one of their best yet.

Degustabox is a monthly food and drink subscription box. It's an excellent way of discovering new products which have only just appeared in the shops, or those whoch have been around in a while but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Thanks to Degustbox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise.

Each time the monthly box arrives, its contents are a total surprise. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.

Degustabox Selection is a premium selection of 10-14 high-quality fine food and drink items. It gives you a unique unboxing experience of exploring exciting new products and flavours. Only limited quantities are available and this offer will not be repeated. Give yourself or someone you love a well-deserved treat today!

What did we get in Degustabox Selection box?

Aspall Premier Cru Cyder (£2.20) is the product of the month. Crafted at the original Cyder House in Suffolk, Aspall Premier Cru is a refined and elegant cyder with a fresh apple taste and long dry finish. It has floral notes and presents a perfect balance of acidity and soft tannins. Recommended to be served with roast pork, spicy tagines, Red Leicester and White Stilton.

It is vegan friendly and naturally gluten free.

If you enjoy cider (cyder) based cocktails, how about a Cider Sangria or a Snakebite cocktail?!

Available in all major supermarkets and at Majestic.

Odysea Extra Virgin Olive Oil (£8.99): both Greek Early Harvest and Kalamata PDO are produced with hand-picked olives from groves in the Peloponnese, an area known for its fine oil. The oil is cold extracted within hours of the olive harvest to ensure exceptional quality and flavour.

Greek Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil is produced with hand-picked Megaritiki olives and sourced by Yannis Sellas from groves in Corinth. It's a complex medium to robust oil, with notes of green herbs and salad leaves. 

As I go through litres of olive oil, cooking all kinds of meals, I was delighted with this product. 

You should receive 1 od 2 items in your box.

Available on odysea.com, Amazon, at Sainsbury's and Wholefoods.

Hilltop Hot Honey (£3.50 for 340g) is a honey infused with chillies. It's an inspired combination of sweet and spicy. Hilltop signature honey is infused with chillies for an innovatory and sophisticated taste. 

Free from additives and bursting with flavour. It works great as a base of marinade for meat or drizzled over vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beetroot). Add sweet heat to ice-cream, pizza, cocktails and more.

It is more suitable for people who love spicy food. My younger son didn't quite appreciate a crumpet with this honey.

I used it to make a salad dressing, and also drizzled over the roasted vegetables.

Available at lovehilltop.com

Lyons Coffee Bags (Go-Joe/Rockadero/Perkadilly or Decaf Dreams, £2.20) are compostable coffee bags which can go in the food recycing or green waste bin. The bags are a convenient way of enjoying a freshly roasted ground coffee, without a mess.

You will receive 1 of 4 flavours in your box.

When you buy a box of Lyons coffee bags, they make a donation to Project Waterfall, which is committed to providing a sustainable source of safe water and sanitation for coffee growing communities around the world.

Geeta's mango chutney is one of my favourite products. And their lime pickle is excellent too. I was delighted to see a couple of items from Geeta's extensive range.

Geeta's Sweet & Spicy Mango Sauce (£1.50) is inspired by the family-favourite mango chutney recipes. This versatile sauce is made with juicy Indian mangoes, a pinch of chilli and a selection of aromatic spices (cumin, cardamom, black pepper and nigella seeds).

Use it as a dip for vegetable sticks, a drizzle over your favourite salad or jacket potatoes, a marinade for kebabs, both meat-based and vegetarian, or in a stir fry.

Available at Ocado, Amazon, and Geeta's online shop.

Geeta's Tandoori Marinade (£0.75) helps create a delicious North Indian dish from Punjab, which is simple and easy to prepare. 

Ingredients include paprika, salt, roasted cumin powder, dried ginger, dried garlic, roasted fenugreek powder, dried mint, chilli powder, black pepper powder, dried mango powder, dried fenugreek leaf, dried lemon juice powder, cardamon powder, cinnamon powder, cloves powder, cumin powder and bay leaf powder.

The recipe on the back of the sachet is for a Tandoori chicken, but it could also be used with king prawns or paneer.

I haven't tried it yet, as I plan to take it with us when we stay in a cottage on holidays.

Rustichella d'Abruzzo Penne (£3.49) is a product of Italy. This Durum Wheat Semolina pasta is bronze drawn, and dried slowly at low temperature. The pasta has a unique texture and a superior taste.

Rustichella d'Abruzzo was born in 1924 and after almost 100 years of history, this is the pasta brand used by the best chefs around the world.

Perfect with a tomato-based sauce, with fresh basil, and Grana or Parmesan cheese.

Available at odysea.com/brands/rustichella

Mr Filbert's Chilli & Fennel Gourmet Mixed Nuts (£1.75) is an exciting snack, made with 100% natural ingredients. It is gluten and dairy free, and contains nothing artificial. These mixed nuts (peanuts, cashews and almonds) are roasted to perfection, and flavoured with chipotle chillies and fennel.

A great little snack for when you're feeling peckish, or as part of a cheese and snack board.

Suitable for vegans, these nuts are a great source of plant protein.

Available on Ocado, Amazon and at www.mrfilberts.com

Mr Filbert's Classic Dry Roasted Peanuts (£0.99) are a twist on the classic recipe. Suitable for vegans and free from gluten and dairy, they contain no artificial flavours and preservatives. A good source of plant protein. 

Ingredients include 94% peanuts with sea salt, yeast extract, smoked paprika, ground celery seed, onion powder, rapeseed oil, garlic powder.

If you love peanuts, you will find them irresistible.

Avaialble at Ocado, Amazon and www.mrfilberts.com

Who doesn't love Bahlsen biscuits? Bahlsen Ohne Gleichen Milk (£1.79) are a delicious treat, great with a cup of hot chocolate, tea or coffee. You get a delightful praline cream sandwiched between two crisp wafers and topped with a square of creamy mild chocolate.

Nutritional information: 174kcal and 11g of sugar per 3 biscuits.

Available at Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Ocado.

Mackie's of Scotland Pickled Onion Potato Crisps (£1.70) are thick cut potato crisps made in Perthshire, Scotland, by the award winning family business Mackie's, who use the best varieties of potatoes and carefully selected seasonings, and never add any artificial colours and flavourings.

Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

These crisps have a great crunch and dry texture. If you love the taste of pickled onion, you'll be in a crisps' heaven with this pack.

Available in all major retailers, selected Scottish stores only.

The Original Black Garlic 1Shot Pate (£1.99) is described as "a flavour bomb, missing ingredient and superfood in one". Its flavour is a combination of sweet and savoury umami. This handy pate will add depth to a variety of dishes, from chilli to Bolgnese, from dressings to stocks, stir fries, risotto and sauces.

You should get 2 items in your box. Range is available at Sainsbury's. Ottolenghi, Planet Organic, Sous Chef and Spice Mountain.

And finally, the drinks - Double Dutch Drinks (Cucumber & Watermelon Mixer/Skinny Tonic Water/Pomegranate & Basil Mixer, £0.60 per can or £3.50 for a pack of 6).

Double Dutch founders Joyce and Raissa are passionate about all things flavour. Their inspired range of naturally flavoured drink mixers and soft drinks features among others such lovely flavours as Cucumber & Watermelon, Pomegranate & Basil and Skinny Tonic. These are great mixers for gin and other spirits.

You should receive 3 items in your box.

Use code DEGUSTASUMMER10 at doubledutchdrinks.com for 10% off your order.

Available at Waitrose, Ocado & Amazon.

What did I tell you?! A fantastic selection! 

Home Comforts Degustabox

 There may be cold mornings still this month, but we also have longer daylight and warm, sunny spells. Lovely season to go on long walks and look at all the signs of spring. And after a long walk what could be better than coming home to a comforting cup of tea, a jammy toast and a tangy Jaffa cake or two.

Home Comforts is the theme of the latest Degustabox.

Degustabox is a monthly food and drink subscription box. It's an excellent way of discovering new products which have only just appeared in the shops, or those which have been around for a while, but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Thanks to Degustabox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise.

Each time the monthly box arrives, its contents are a total surprise. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.

If you haven't tried Degustabox subscription box yet, and would like to have a go, I have a £3off discount from your first box (and you can unsubscribe any time), just use code DKRLN when you place an order.

What did we find in Home Comforts Degustabox?

Jaffa Cakes Passion Fruit/Cherry (£1.20) is the current product of the month. You're invited to take your taste buds on a tangy new adventure with new Jaffa Cakes in two fruitilicious flavours - Passion Fruit and Cherry. You will get the same delectable fruity centres sandwiched between the dark chocolate and a light sponge base. 

Cherry and chocolate, in my opinion, is a heavenly combination, so thumbs up for the latest addition to the range, it's absolutely scrumptious.

Nutritional information: 46kcal and 6.1g of sugar per cake.

Suitable for vegetarians. 

Available in all major supermarkets.

Bounce Almond Plant Protein Ball (£1.69)

Bounce, the number one energy ball brand, has relaunched with a range of nut butter filled, protein packed, energy balls. The new range is high in protein, fibre, is gluten free, vegan friendly and includes less than 160kcal per ball. Handy for long trips when you are feeling peckish.

I'm not the biggest fan of energy balls, I don't like the texture and the aftertaste. I'd be much happier with a handful of nuts for a protein boost. But protein balls are very popular and trendy, and they are certainly a convenient way of getting extra protein.

Available at Waitrose, Holand & Barrettm BP & WHSmith stores.

BelVita Soft Bakes Choc Chips/Blueberry (£0.60 per single bar) are tasty soft bakes, made from five wholegrains - wheat, oats, barley, spelt and buckwheat or rye. A lovely morning snack for breakfast, it is also a good source of fibre, calcium, magnesium and iron. BelVita Soft Bakes have a high content of slowly digestible starch, which is a slow release carb.

We buy BelVita biscuits and soft bars occasionally, and if some of them are broken, I break them into smaller pieces or crumbs and add as a topping to the yogurt.

There are three bars in the box. Available at most grocery stores.

Boka Caramel/Choco Mallow Cereal Bar (£0.75 for a single bar, or £2 for a multipack of 4). These little bars are low in sugar, and big on flavour. They have #4greenlights front of pack, which means not only they are low in sugar, but also in fats and salt. Ideal snacks on the go!

There were two bars in the box. Available at Sainsburys and on Amazon.

If cereal bars are not your snack of choice, how about Milkybar Cookies & Cream Sharing Bag (£1.59). It's a tasty combination of smooth, creamy white chocolate and crunchy chocolate-flavoured cookie pieces. Contain no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives.

You can use these chocolate pieces as an ingredient in a cheesecake, brownies or cookies.

Available in all major supermarket chains.

More sweet treats this month - Hartley's Strawberry Jam (£1.59) is a classic jam, very fruity and full of flavour. Strawberry jam is full of the finest fruit to make the UK's No.1 jam. 

Spread it over a buttered toast, or serve in a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Use as an ingredient in Victoria sponge, or jam tarts. 

Available in all major supermarkets.

Hilltop Blossom Honey (£0.75) is consistent in taste, colour and aroma. There is nothing added and nothing taken away, it's simply pure and natural honey.

Honey is delicious spread over warm crumpets, or pancakes. It also makes a wonderful ingredient in many bakes, and meals, from a honey and mustard dressing for salad to honeyed carrots and parsnips, from spicy bread to honey rolls.

You should get two items in the box. Available at Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Ocado, Waitrose and Iceland.

All these sweet treats go nicely with a cup of tea.

How about Eloments Vitamin Tea Ceylon Breakfast (£3.99)? It's a full-bodied, single origin black tea, sourced from organic, family-owned farms in Sri Lankan highlands. Each tea bag also contains 9 essential vitamins including B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, vitamin C and zinc, all derived from nutrient rich herbs, fruits and botanicals. 

Eloments is 100% natural certified organic and Faitrade.

Available at Holland & Barrett and Ocado online.

Knorr Vegetable Stock Pots and Beef Stock Pots (£0.95) is a concentrated stock. Knorr Vegetable stock pots are a must in my pantry, I regularly buy them, only in bigger packs, and use them a couple of times a week, adding to soups and risotto. They include stock made of carrots, leek, red pepper, celeriac, spices and more.

These stock pots are gluten free and full of flavour.

Very Lazy Chopped Chillies (£1.50) is a quick and easy way of adding a bit (or a lot) of heat in your meals. Very useful to keep in the fridge, for when you want flavour without any fuss.

Available in the major supermarket chains.

Koko Original Milk (£1.50) is amde from coocnuts which are freshly pressed at their plantation.

Koko Original has a fresh and light taste. If you're looking for an alternative to dairy milk, Koko works well on cereals, in smoothies or as an ingredient in baking. In my opinion, it is better with coffee rather than tea, as it changes the taste of tea, while complements coffee nicely.

Available in all major supermarket chains and independent health food stores.

What was your favourite product from Home Comforts Degustabox?

Pryaniki for Yanka (Russian spiced cookies)

Ever since finishing The Girl Who Speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson, I wanted to recreate one of the Russian recipes and foods mentioned in the book.
Inspired by the Russian folk tales about the human-bear child, flying ship, warrior princesses, evil dragons, Baba Yaga, and talking animals, Sophie writes with imagination and mastery.

This is a story about Yanka the Bear, who is big and strong. She lives with Mamochka, who has found Yanka outside the bear cave.
"I love living with Mamochka. She's the best mother I could have wished for, but I often wonder about the bear. I wonder if she remembers me. Maybe even misses me. I wonder about the bear almost as much as I wonder about my real parents. The ones who must have lost me - or left me - in the forest".
One day Yanka wakes up only to find out that she has got bear legs...

It's a magical tale of self-discovery, self-identity, our uniqueness and differentness, of what a family and friendship, and true love mean to us. It's a beautiful story, and a future classic.

Sophie Anderson did it again, she has created a story of perfect balance. She's a true tsarina of the reinvented Russian folk tales.

Sophie's descriptions of the Russian food always "taste" good.
"Mamochka pours Anatoly a cup of tea with lemon and passes him a basket of pryaniki - soft spiced cookies with a glaze as white as the snow outside".

Pryaniki are the Russian honey and spice-based cookies. The word itself pryaniki is derived from pryanyi, i.e. spicy. They are often glazed, with a nice crunch on the outside, but typically soft inside, unlike the British gingerbread (It always amuses me when the judges on the GBBO complain that the gingerbread should snap, as if the soft gingerbread is an anomaly).

This is a festive food, rich and spicy. The authentic pryaniki are made with the rye flour. You might find lots of recipes online for the Russian spiced cookies, and many of them use the standard wheat flour, mixed sometimes with cocoa powder to add the colour. But do try making them with the rye flour, the taste is very special.

Pryaniki medovye (honey spiced cookies)
Ingredients:
220g honey
2tsp+ mixed spices (ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, star anise)
80g caster sugar + water
450g rye flour
80g butter, melted
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2tbsp lemon juice
1tsp baking powder
120g icing sugar + 1 egg white for icing

In a small pan heat up the honey with spices. Set aside.
Make caramel in a small frying pan, stirring caster sugar with a dash of water. The caramel should be liquid and not too thick. Once dark in colour, set the caramel aside.
Mix the honey with caramel in a deep mixing bowl, then add half of the rye flour and mix.
Melt the butter and add to the dough. Once it is cool to touch, beat in the egg and egg yolk, lemon juice, baking powder and add the remaining flour.
Mix the dough, using hands. If the dough is too stiff, squeeze a little bit more of lemon juice.

Roll the dough on a clean working surface to the thickness of 6-7mm.

To create authentic Russian pryaniki, I used a special wooden carved board. You can use either a carved board for shortbread, or a rolling pin with deisgns, and then cut out the shapes. Or just use cookie cutters, like stars.

If using a board with a carved design, place a piece of dough over the carved design (you need to oil the wood first), gently stamp the dough, and use the rolling pin over the dough, then carefully lift the stamped dough.
Cut out the shapes around the stamped image with a knife. This is how the uncooked pryanik looks.

Place the cookies on a big tray, lined with parchment paper. Put the tray in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. The cookies should be slightly browned, and will still be soft to touch. If you keep them longer in the oven, they will be crisp.

Unglazed pryanik

Once all the cookies are cool, prepare the glaze, using the icing sugar and the egg white. Mix them gently together, but don't overbeat, you don't want a meringue.

Using a brush, add the glaze over cookies. Let the glaze set. Ideally these cookies should rest for 24 hours, but in our case, they were flying off the cooling tray even before I managed to glaze them all.

They will keep in the tin for a long time. In fact, in the "olden days" pryaniki would be made weeks in advance of all major holidays and feasts. They just need to be kept in a tin or box with a lid.

In this recipe I used a Raw Wild Flower Bulgarian Honey from Whole Foods. It's a delicious honey, rich in vitamins and minerals. "It is made from the nectar of a wide variety of wild, pollen-rich flowers, which is why it has a distinctive and unique herbal flavour".

A few days ago I applied to the Bloggers Required assignment to test some products from the Whole Foods Online range, and this delightful honey was one of the products I agreed to try in a recipe (watch this space for more recipes to come!).
As I wanted to make the Russian pryaniki, I thought this was the most wonderful coincidence.

Happy publication day to The Girl Who Speaks Bear!

Honey and matcha muffins

Did you watch the first episode of the GBBO yesterday? In the past I used to watch it on the iplayer, but since earlier this year Channel 4 dropped off the iplayer on our TV (or the other way around), I can only watch it on the laptop or ipad which is not ideal.
Since my dear husband is enjoying himself at the Venice film festival, the TV was available in the evening (otherwise he'd be glued to Netflix or Amazon, watching one thousandth episode of some American series).
A few days ago I was looking at the list of contestants on my ipad, and commented to my men - though more talking to myself - that most likely the first person to leave would be a pensioner, and all the young cuties would be kept until the victorious end, whether they are good bakers or not.
As it happened, I was wrong, the pensioner stayed, saved by a whisker (or should that be a moustache?!) after creating a very arty self-portrait in a brandy snap shaped as a postmortem mask. It was utterly bonkers and brilliant at the same time.
The young ladies were pouting and whingeing, but stayed put. So far I decided to root for Terry, Rahul and Antony.

One of the contestants, a super-confident French girl named Manon, used matcha in one of her creations. Which made me think that I do have a couple of tins of matcha tea in the kitchen.
I bought them with the best of intentions of staying healthy. The problem with matcha tea for me is that I don't like the flavour, it is like drinking powdered green algae off the stagnating water. Well, maybe marginally better.

I have tried in the past to make pancakes with matcha tea, but they were not met enthusiastically by my family.

Shall I try again to bake something with matcha? I wanted something simple and easy, no decorations or frosting, just something sweet for tea.
I also have several jars of honey in different degrees of crystallization. Would mixing honey and matcha work?

And here it is  - a recipe for honey and matcha muffins.

Honey and matcha muffins
Ingredients:
2 medium eggs
100g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
260g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
225ml milk
65g butter, melted
90g honey
2tsp matcha

In a deep mixing bowl beat two eggs with caster sugar. Add a pinch of salt, sift in flour and baking powder. Pour in milk, stir in together. Melt the butter and honey (if crystallised) and mix in the cake batter.
Pour one third of the cake batter in a smaller mixing bowl and add the matcha. Mix together until well combined.

Place cupcake cases into a muffin tin and fill in with the cake batter, in whatever patterns you desire. I made some plain honey ones, plain matcha ones and a mix of both.
Put the muffin tin into an oven preheated to 180C. Bake for about 18-20 minutes until the toothpick comes clean.
Remove from the tin to a wire rack. Eat warm, with tea or without.

The boys looked suspiciously at the muffins, but Sasha, strangely enough, ate two of them. Eddie opted for the plain honey one, as I thought he would.
They might look a tad scary (I'm not a GBBO material, and my bakes would give vapors to Prue and Paul), but actually taste pretty good.

I still have plenty of matcha left. Any suggestions on what to do with it, apart from the obvious drinking as tea?

Since I used some old-ish honey (and cleared one of the jars) and some of the nearly-forgotten matcha (there's still plenty left), I'm adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky at Madhouse Family Reviews, hosted by lovely Cheryl.

Russian-style honey pancakes

I was reading an online pancake recipe post by some minor celebrity the other day, and she chirped that it was good that we only eat pancakes once a year because technically they're just fried batter.
So, what's the problem?
 Yes, there is a tendency among some Brits to eat pancakes only on Pancake day, but I think they are totally depriving themselves of the most delicious food for no good reason.
I'm sure I moan about it every single year.

If you worry about pancakes being unhealthy, then just swap some of the ingredients.
Use coconut oil rather than butter, or those bottles with oil spray which cover the pan with just enough of oil mist to fry.
Swap plain flour for buckwheat or wholemeal flour, use a skimmed milk, or dairy free milk - the possibilities are endless.
I'm not very keen on vegan pancakes, sorry, the recipes I've seen, looked like those pancakes were deprived of all joy. If you use just flour, water and oil, then it is a sad semblance of a pancake. I'm sure they are edible, but not for me. Apologies for not appreciating the recipe. I'm sure I'm committing some non-PC crime by saying that.

And since we eat pancakes pretty often, I made a batch today of Russian-style honey pancakes. They are not exactly a diet food, but then I have no regrets. They are very tasty.

Russian-style honey pancakes (makes 9 big + 12 small pancakes)
Ingredients:
400ml milk (semi-skimmed)
1 tbsp honey
a pinch of salt
40g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
200g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2tbsp olive oil
butter, for frying, about 25-30g.

Warm up milk in a small pan with honey, until honey melts. It should be warm, not hot.
In a big mixing bowl beat the eggs with sugar and salt. Sift in the flour and baking powder. Add the oil and milk, and mix well with a whisk, so that the batter is smooth and lump-free.

Fry in the pancake pan with butter. I use a special pancake pan which allows me to cook 4 pancakes at a time, but I've seen a Swedish plett pan on amazon which holds 7 small pancakes, and I'm very tempted to buy it.

I couldn't take a photo of the whole stash, as people would pinch pancakes as they were cooked.

Eddie loves both small sized pancakes, and big ones, and I let him go free with chocolate buttons, marshmallows and cream.

Serve them hot with honey or any syrup you like (maple, agave, carob, golden) or dust with a bit of icing sugar.

Pine nut and choc chip honey cake

We woke up this morning to a miserly smattering of snow. On the way to school, I grabbed my camera, hoping to find a bit of snow, but the amount of frost was minuscule.
Sash is feeling poorly these couple of days and staying at home with high temperature and cough, and I am not feeling my best either. He is hardly eating anything, and I decided to bake a cake to tempt him to eat a little bit. He loves pine nuts and chocolate chips, so these would go in the cake for Sasha.

A couple of years ago I bought a WI Big Book of Baking for less than £3, and have bookmarked a few recipes to try. One of my non-resolutions for this year is to use my cook books a bit more.

This is my adapted version of a recipe for Honey and Pine Nut Cake.

Pine nut and choc chip honey cake
Ingredients:
zest of 1 orange
2 medium eggs
100g caster sugar
50g honey (I used chestnut honey for flavour)
50g polenta (I use Polenta Valsugana)
175g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
4tbsp pine nuts (2 for batter and 2 for topping)
3tbsp chocolate chips
2tbsp natural yogurt
120g butter, melted

In a deep mixing bowl zest an orange, and beat two eggs with sugar and honey. Add polenta, sift in flour and baking powder.

Scatter 2tbsp of pine nuts and chocolate chips, and mix in well. Add yogurt and melted butter, and mix again.
Line a round spring cake tin with a parchment paper and slightly oil. Scoop in the cake batter.

Scatter the remaining pine nuts.
Place the cake tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Cook for about 40-45 minutes. The cake is ready, when a wooden toothpick comes clean. To prevent the pine nuts on the top of the cake from burning, cover the cake with a foil half way though cooking.

Eat warm or cold, with tea or coffee. It is very tasty,

As I used the Italian chestnut honey, the aroma was absolutely amazing. Chestnut honey has a distinct flavour and smell, so if you're using plain honey, or mildly flavoured, like acacia honey, then you might want to add a tablespoon of cinnamon, or vanilla paste.

Yogurt was used to loosen the cake dough, but milk would be another option. I've seen a new Early Man competition on Yeo Valley products, so most likely will be buying their promotional products a lot, and will be using yogurt as much as possible too.