honey orange beehive cake

There's nothing like an impromptu party on a Sunday afternoon!  On Sunday my youngest daughter earned her honor bee.  I didn't even know what an honor bee was until about a year ago when the older girls on a temple trip were talking about their aspirations to earn theirs.  I gave no encouragement to my daughter as she entered the YW program a year early than expected due to the new changes.  But she decided to do it and she did.
I remembered the cake form I'd had in my pantry for a long time (years?) and hadn't used.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity.  The cake form is Nordic Ware.  I didn't follow the recipe given since I had to pretty much make do with what I had.
Note:  I was grateful for the bee decorations I had purchased on a trip to take my oldest to EFY a few years ago. 

honey orange beehive cake
cake:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Mix two boxes of yellow cake mix as directed and add 2 teaspoons orange extract.
Prepare the Nordic Ware pan by coating with shortening and spraying with nonstick cooking spray.  Pour 3 cups of cake batter into each side of the cake form.
Bake 50-60 minutes.  Cool 15 minutes in the pan.  Use a long knife to level off the cake by trimming off rounded dome.  Invert onto cooling rack and cool completely.

honey icing: (this recipe came with the Nordic Ware)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon honey (I used 2)
1-3 tablespoons milk
Mix the ingredients together with an electric mixer in a medium sized bowl until smooth.
I used this honey icing to "glue" the two sides of the beehive together.  I had plenty leftover so I used the rest to drizzle over the top of the cake instead of the buttercream frosting recipe that came with the pan (I was simplifying!).

bees:
Since I didn't have all the correct ingredients I improvised and used melted chocolate to pipe the bodies of the bees then used royal icing for the wings and stripes.  Just improvise!

Use the honey icing to "glue" the two sides of the beehive together.  Drizzle the rest over the top and add the bees.  Enjoy!  My family loved it!