honey, ginger and tea cake with poppyseed icing

I just kinda made this recipe up on the spot last night, it was absolutely delicious though so I thought I'd share it! Plus I want to cram in as many Christmas recipes as I can before it's over! I was pretty surprised that the photos came out at all because I was taking them at 4:30 and the sun had gone down and dark was setting in very quickly, twas very annoying indeed, anyhoo it is delicious.

So I was kinda thinking about gingerbread men to back but I couldn't be bothered with the fun yet pro-longed hastle of icing them all. I then thought about making tea bread and then though of mixing the two up and adding in some honey which hakes it sweeter but still not too sweet, it's also surprisingly light and the poppy seed icing has a really nice texture and just takes great with the ginger.

ADAPTATION
while making the cake I was thinking about putting in some dried fruit to make it more like tea bread, raisins, currents and dried cranberries would be SO delicious in it. But we had none. 
Secondly afterwards I thought it might be nice to substitute some of the honey for 2 tablespoons of molasses or black treacle to make it more like gingerbready and heavier.

honey, ginger and tea cake with poppyseed icing(makes one 2lb loaf

cake-

• 225g unsalted butter (room temp)
• 100g dark muscovado sugar
• 50g clear honey
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 300g self-raising flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon on mixed spice
• 150 ml strong tea
• (see adaptations for extra ingredients) 

icing-

• 125 grams of butter (room temp)
• 225 grams of icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 50 grams of poppyseed

1. preheat the oven to 160 oC/ 140 fan/ gas mark 3, grease and line a 2 lb loaf tin
2. beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy before beating in the honey and eggs, add a few tablespoons of flour to stop it curdling
3. fold in the flour, ginger and mixed spice, followed by the tea and pour into the tin
4. put in the oven for 1 hour - 1hour 15 minutes depending on your oven
5. leaf to cool while making the icing
6. beat the butter and sugar together, add in the vanilla essence, beat again and finally the poppy seeds
7. once the cake is cool spread on the icing
8. grab a slice and store in an airtight container for 3-4 days