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Up until very recently my father has been a beekeeper. He had bee hives at our home in Vermont and then drove them, full of bees to Minnesota. Due to a city ordinance he was not allowed to keep bees in his Edina yard and had to set them up at a friend’s house farther out of the city. My dad would drive out on the weekends to tend to them. His love for bees was made more complicated by the fact that he is very allergic to their sting. He swells up like a balloon when stung, but this never deterred him, even though it seemed to happen with some regularity. As a result of his love for bees I have always had a fondness for them and the delicious nectar they produce. Growing up we ate the precious honey he collected on everything from homemade granola to freshly baked bread. In fact, I never knew any sweetener other than honey and maple syrup before I was about 6. Sugar, in any form, didn’t exist in our house.
This cake is a tribute to both the elegance and ingenuity of honeybees, which are in terrifying danger of disappearing. Hopefully more folks like my dad will step up and continue the tradition. The shape of this cake is based on an ancient beehive called a skep, which was made of a coiled basket. My dad’s bees were kept in a box hive, but that isn’t nearly as romantic. Under the hovering marzipan bees are layers of brown-butter banana cake, walnuts and honey scented buttercream.
Banana Cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup sugar
½ cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, room temperature
1 ½ cups banana puree (about 4 bananas)
½ cup buttermilk
Honey Walnut Buttercream:
1 cup egg whites
2 cups sugar
1 ½ pounds (6 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup honey
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¼ cups walnut pieces, lightly toasted and cooled
yellow Food Coloring
Marzipan Bees:
¼ cup marzipan
¼ cup sliced almond
black Food Coloring
To bake the cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Butter and flour an 8-inch cake pan and an 8-inch metal mixing bowl. Line the cake pan with a parchment paper round. Set aside.
In a small saucepan cook the butter over low heat.
until the butter is caramel colored and smells toasty.
Strain the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugar, honey and vanilla until it is cooled off slightly. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Add the banana puree and mix until incorporated.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Alternate adding the flour mixture and buttermilk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
Divide the batter between the cake pan and the prepared bowl.
Bake the cakes for about 40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. The cake in the bowl may take a few more minutes. Remove and allow to cool completely.
Make the buttercream: Click here for detailed directions. Add the honey, salt, and vanilla.
Divide the buttercream in half and add the walnuts to one batch and the yellow food coloring to the other.
Cut and fill the cakes: Slice each of the layer in half, then fill the layers with the walnut buttercream. Click here for a video on cutting and filling a cake.
Using a small amount of the yellow buttercream create a crumb coat to lock in the crumbs and smooth the surface of the cake. Click here for video on creating a crumb coat.
Put a nice thick layer of buttercream over the chilled crumb coat. Starting at the top of the cake, use a Spatula
To create the marzipan bees: Take a small piece of the marzipan and roll it between the palms of your hands until it is lozenge shaped. You can taper one end slightly to be the back of the bee. Paint the stripes on the marzipan with a clean paintbrush or toothpick and black food coloring. Allow it to dry until it is no longer tacky.
Once the stripes are dry, press the sliced almonds into the sides to create the bees wings.
Thanks for stopping by. I'm Zoe Francois, pastry chef and cook book author. This is where I play with sugar and take the mystery out of baking everything from cookies to wedding cakes. 
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A must- try for me. Though I may skip the bees to speed things up. The flavor combination is spot on!
Absolutely stunning! And you make it look so easy.
This cake is so much fun! Wow. I love it…and the bee story about your father. It seems we all have such strong connections to food through our childhood experiences.
Marzipan bees! What could be better?
its bee-you-ti-full
happy baking zoe !
So cute, and very tempting !
I’m a total wimp when it comes to getting anywhere near a bee, but I’d love to get as close as possible to this adorable cake!
I love, love, love this cake! Almost as much as your story about your dad.
I love this. I was actually going to do a test batch of a honey buttercream for a pistachio sponge. I love, LOVE the little bee’s, and the structure for the hive is great! Not a surprise from you or the blog, but i am always blown away and inspired.
Hi Zoe! This cake is just beautiful. Seems we have some friends in common, and are both MN natives! Maybe will see you at a blogging event.
Blessings-
Amanda
The cutest thing I have seen in a LONG time… really want to try it!!!
What a fun and oh-so-lovely cake! I can only imagine what that cake and frosting combo tastes like…
Gorgeous and darling all at one time! So much fun and can’t miss with brown butter.
So creative! I love this!
Ooh this cake is soo cute and sounds so yum! My grandfather used to keep bees too
I have early memories of sucking the honey out of bee combs.
Adorable! In culinary school we made a similar beehive cake, but we covered it in torched meringue instead of buttercream — yours is much cleaner. And brown butter banana cake? YUM.
Hey Molly,
Great to hear from you! Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers, Zoë
Thanks everyone,
So glad you like the cake and I hope you will consider keeping bees!
Enjoy, Zoë
This is gorgeous. You’ve outdone yourself again. Also, I love that your dad had bees but can’t imagine the ride from VT to Minnesota.
Hi El,
It was a crazy journey, but he was a man in love!
Be well, Zoë
This cake is awesome (and it’s not just because of the little bees!). I am always looking for a good banana cake recipe. Can’t wait to try yours! P.S. I’m glad you went with the traditional look of the bee-hive. This cake just wouldn’t have been the same if it had been a box-hive shape
So adorable! I love the colour…
That’s just excellent, Zoë. Thank you.
yum, yum and more yum!!! and by the way it looks fantastic!!! must try. thanks
Beautiful and so prettily decorated! Wow.
Cheers,
Rosa
This post absolutely made my day. It’s such a beautiful cake and a lovely celebration of bees. Thank-you.
Stunning! loved your Marzipan bees..I had tried your chocolate spider on my cake & my kids were super duper happy..:)can I bake the cake in a dolly varden cake tin instead of 2 tin?
Hi Asha,
Yes, a dolly varden cake tin would be perfect for this!
Enjoy, Zoë
Zoe this is just adorable. Gosh your talent is awesome and so is your dad!
wow, those bees look cool. Its a shame to eat it, it looks so nice
What an incredibly *sweet* looking cake! A friend of mine recently got interested in bee keeping. I’ll have to send her a link to your post as I’m sure she’ll love to make this as well.
wow, wow, wow. loss for words!!
We are beginning bee keepers. What a journey and learning experience it is! My children help (we have little bee suites for them) and I think they deserve this awesome cake for all of the hard work they do helping! We are going to make it next week.
Just beautiful! But I must say, the story of your father and his beehives makes this cake even more gorgeous
Cheers! ~Tricia
Those adorable little marzipan bees are the perfect decoration for your fantastic cake. What a beautiful presentation.
This is wonderful! I think any joyful way to get kids to care about the welfare of bees these days is a great idea, and this cake is totally irresistible.
You are right. This is a must see! I remember when I was a little girl, I used to capture bees for fun. Luckily never been stung. Then I would let them go.
My god, that’s gorgeous. I want to dive right in.
Divine…..thank you!
That. Is. ADORABLE!!
Looks like a cake for Winnie the Pooh:-) How adorable.
Zoe – I adore your blog but (as the Queen Bee of the Beehive Blog) this beehive cake is simply AMAZING!
Happy week!
beauteous!
The inspiration and loveliness of this cake has me swooning. I love brown butter in anything, but I’d bet the honey really sets it off! Inspired!
I love trying new cakes and this one looks so good. You make it look so easy to make. I will have to try this one.
I LOVE this post! I can completely relate to the lack of any other sweetener as we have hives too and I think im probably bordering on addicted to the honey they produce
I have it in tea, porridge, on toast, and just eat it by the spoonful. ANYWAY, this recipe just looks totally wonderful and the perfect way to show off honey in all its loveliness 
Love this post about the story about your father. And this cake is beautiful! What a fun way to bring awareness to the bees, and you make it look so easy too! I might have to try this one out for my birthday next month!
Zoe- this cake is absolutely breathtaking. And I must say, I am in love with your book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.” I make the Master Recipe at least 3 times a week!
Thank you Laurel,
So glad you are enjoying the book!
Cheers, Zoë
I adore this. Adding to the list of ideas for my daughter’s third birthday (in 355 days lol)
Cute cake. I love the light yellow color. I have watched a few shows about how the bees are disappearing. I really hope they figure something out, because I don’t think people realize how important bees are.
Zoe, I stumbled upon your site via “foodgawker”. First of all i love the ingredients in this cake and icing but it was the tribute to bees that caught my attention. I began keeping bees in March this year and have acquired 6 hives. It is the most awe-inspiring hobby. I, like your Dad absolutely “love” my bees. I name all of my queens, Miracle, Heidi, Rita, etc…. and all have a reason for their name. Silly to some but personal to me. I think I’ll just make the cake in regular pans and enjoy your lovely creation! Glad I found your site – you are a busy woman! Hope you’ll visit my blog for some interesting bee stories, photos and such!
Hi Linda,
Thank you for visiting the site and sharing your story! I LOVE that you name your queens.
Cheers, Zoë
Hey,
this is the cutest cake. My mom is a bee keeper and she is flying in to visit me this thursday. I have to make her this cake. Do you know where marzipan and black food coloring can be found locally? I mean is it a regular grocery stores? I live in Baton Rouge.
Hi Courtney,
I’m not sure where you might find it locally, but here we have marzipan in the baking section of the grocery store. The black food coloring you may have to find online!
Thanks and enjoy your mom’s visit! Zoë
What a beautiful cake! I just made it today and am serving it this evening. What is the best way to cut a cake like this?
Hi! Any ideas on how to make the bees nut free? I know I can figure out the cake/frosting part, but my lil guy is allergic to nuts…his first birthday theme is bees and I really love this cake idea… Thanks!
Hi Becca,
You can make the same bees using rolled fondant, which has no nuts at all.
Enjoy and happy birthday to your little guy! Zoë
regarding the crumb coat picture, the cake looks squat compared to the cake in the following image. Before the cake was frosted was another layer added to make the cake taller and narrower at the top?
I am a bee keeper and look forward to making this cake. Tx!
Hi Rob,
I first made the cake using regular round cake layers, which meant I had to carve the cake to the shape I wanted. Then it occurred to me that it would be easier to do it in a bowl and eliminate the carving. The shape is very similar, but as you noticed it is a slightly wider cake. You can either add another cake layer, as you suggested, or trim the sides with a serrated knife to get the angle you desire. If you have the right shaped bowl, this will not be an issue at all.
Thanks! Zoë
Hi, I am planning on making this lovely-looking cake tomorrow for a friend’s birthday. My problem is that I don’t keep buttermilk in the house normally, and will be leaving town next week for Thanksgiving—so I don’t want to buy buttermilk in case it goes bad while I’m gone. Is there a decent substitute you can suggest?
Thank you so much! My friend will love this cake!
Hi Sharyna,
You can substitute an equal amount of milk, plus a teaspoon of lemon juice.
Thanks and enjoy! Zoë
If I wanted to make the cake in regular pan would I use 2 8in. round or 9. Can’t wait to try. cake looks yummy!
Hi Ann,
Are your pans 2″ or 3″ tall? If they are 3″ tall you can do it in the 8-inch round pans and this will make the cake taller. If you use a 9-inch round cake pan the cake will be wider, but shorter.
Thanks, Zoë
Zoe… Your cake is just beautiful!!! I LOVE bees, so this caught my eye rather quickly, I do have a bee hive mold pan that I recently got as a gift. I wonder how you would go about holding the two halves together??
Hi Joy,
Can you send me a link of what the mold looks like, so I can help you figure this out.
Thanks, Zoë
Hi Zoe! I LOVE this cake! It is so sweet! We’d love to use it as an inspiration image at our Cupcake Inspirations Card Challenge (www.cupcakeinspirations.blogspot.com)!
Hi, I just stumbled onto your blog via the cake (Pinterest maybe?). I have never made a layered cake before before this one. My pans and bowl were a little wider so my cake was squatter but it still turned out pretty well. I couldn’t find marzipan in my town so I improvised by making a playdough recipe with sugar instead of salt (what can I say, I have a 19 mth old). This seems to be a fine subsitution to make the little bees. I also had to be flexible with adapting from another buttercream when my egg white wouldn’t whip because I got a little yolk in them
Now I know for future meringues!
Bringing this to a Winnie the Pooh themed baby shower. Thanks for the great recipe and for making it look so easy. Never would have tried it otherwise:)
Hi Natalie,
Thank you so much for trying the cake, I’m thrilled! Great to know about that Playdough!!!
Have fun at the party! Zoë
love this cake and can’t wait to try it – just wondering what is the “wire” used to attach the bees to the cake? thanks so much!
I’m not a baker at all…but I made this cake and it turned out perfectly ADORABLE!! Your instructional videos were so incredibly helpful!! I couldn’t have done it without them! My mom keeps bees as a hobby and tomorrow is her birthday. I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she sees her cake. Thank you!!