Sunday lunch when I was little.
Generally at my grand parents, my parents or my uncle and auntie. A whole 2 miles away from each other 
. We'd meet at noon, sit down for a couple of round of aperetifs with various nibbles (from bowls of salted peanuts on regular Sundays to plates of hand made, home made little round toasts spread with crab paté, salmon paté, fish eggs and creme fraiche, foie gras and onion jam, ...or little sausages, black olives and cheese feuilletés for special occasions- Easter, Christmas, New Year's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day...). Then we'd have a long lunch of anything from 5 to 8 courses mixed with a lot of chatting - mainly about local gossip, sometimes moveing onto politics if the local elections were getting close. Then it would be about 5pm. Really? How? I loved it. It never seemed like we spent so long around the table. It was just...nice. Can't put it any other way. Just really a very nice, relaxed, content sensation. a bit like a hot bubbly bath after a long walk or run under the rain (IF you run under the rain that is!).
Anyway, after lunch came time for a walk around the village. To get a bit of fresh air before normally going back home, playing cards and....eating some of the leftovers in the evening!. More local gossip as we passed this and that house, shop....more nice time.
Well, we did just that on Sunday (the walk, not the 8 course 5 hours lunch). Ok, not round the village but round parts of Pulborough Brooks. It's the thought that counts.
We made the most of the sunny weather. Chatted with the kids (Millie mainly going "clip clop" to get a piggy back ride from one of us). Watched the newts in the pound. Same nice time, 20 years later.
We came back in just in time before the heavens opened again. And back home slightly peckish. Just as well! We only had to put the finishing touches to our "busy bees cake" before trying it straight away. Just look at that!
Most of it is Tom's own work. Except the bees. For those, I christened my new gadget from Pampered Chef to pipe the icing: A set of 3 plastic, easily fillable, easily squeezable icing bottles. Guaranteed anti-mess. Brilliant.
The cake was meant to look like that....
Here's ours. not bad for a first attempt. 
The recipe is not mine, it's taken from Nigella Lawson's "Feast" book. But we used very special honey for it: Grand-Ma's. the one my mum and my sister make back home. Here's how you make it:
for the cake:
100g dark chocolate, 275g light muscodavo sugar
225g softened butter
125ml of runny honey
2 eggs
200g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 tablespoon cocoa
250ml boiling water
melt the chocolate over a pan of boiling water.
Set aside to cool slightly.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degres
Grease a 23cms sponge tin
Beat together sugar and soft butter until creamy.
Add the honey.
Add 1 egg, then 1 tablespoon of the flour, then the other egg, then another tablespoon of the flour.
Add the melted chocolate, then the rest of the flour and the cocoa passed through a sieve
pour the boiling water on the mix and stir well until you get a shiny batter
Pour the batter in the sponge tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour (cover the cake with foil after 45 minutes if it starts to get crispy on the sides)
For the glaze:
bring 60 ml of water and 125ml of runny honey to the boil in a pan
turn off th heat and add 175g of dark chocolate grated or chopped in small pieces
leave for a few minutes then whisk together
Sieve the icing sugar in the mixture and mix some more until smooth
spread the icing on the cake only once it's completely cooled down
allow 1 hour for the icing to set
For the bees:
Roll 25g of cream/yellow marzipan into a long sausage shape of about 1/2 inch
Cut little pieces of about 1 inch long and round them up to make the bees
sit the bees on the cake, take a bit more of the icing and pipe it on the back of the bees creating stripes
for the wings, either use flaked almonds (you might want to stick the almonds into the bees before placing those on the cake) or pipe wings made of white icing sugar on each side of the bees' bodies
Hope you get round to make one of those one day!
And if you like recipes with honey, why not try those?
honey and lemon chicken
honey and hazelnut cake
cardamon honey ice cream
Need ideas for your next meal? not sure what to do with something? leftovers? email me 
