RECIPES: A cake worth the buzz

With its classical skep shape and cute little stingless bees, there is perhaps no better cake to celebrate the arrival of spring, a baby shower or Easter than this delightful beehive cake from "Zoë Bakes Cakes" by Zoë François.

In the book — which is filled with dozens of cake recipes and luscious photographs — François prepares it using banana cake and walnut-praline buttercream filling. It's also delicious made with François' yellow cake and almond-praline buttercream.

In addition to the swarm of easy-to-make, whimsical marzipan bees adorning it, this buzz-worthy cake's buttercream frosting gets a sweet sting of flavor from honey rather than refined sugar. By varying the type of honey used, you can control how strong the flavor is; wildflower, buckwheat or heather honey will give the buttercream a strong flavor, while clover, orange blossom, Tupelo honey or a blended version like Fischer's are good bets if a milder flavor is desired.