I was just buzzing to set this table. 

Especially after I found this recipe online for honeycomb cake. What a hoot! (I think I’m mixing my metaphors here).

A towering four-layer cake, the honeycomb wraps around the outside after the cream cheese icing has been applied and has set. The instructions in the video are really good and I managed to create the honeycomb from two packages of yellow candy melts and a strip of bubble wrap without too much trouble.

The cake is topped with homemade sponge toffee. Anyone who’s ever had a Crunchie bar will recognize the airy, crunchy candy. My inner mad scientist had a ball with the seething mass of foaming toffee that finally subsided into the confection topper you see before you.

I’m doing a separate post for the cake, so let’s have fun with the table.

Bees by Sadek is a fairly recent pattern. It comes in two colours – the discontinued blue you see here (2011-2018) and a more recent yellow. which is still active (2016).

I love the basketweave pattern and the delightful shape of the sugar bowl and teapot, designed to resemble a bee skep.

While researching the pattern, and honey pots in general, I came across this article on vintage honeypots by Connecticut Country Antiques. There are so many, in such a variety of shapes, sizes and materials.

Busy bees grace the lids of the few I have, including the homey brown glazed pot and a cobalt blue “vaseline” glass pot you can see just peeking out from under the cake stand.

Mary over at Home is Where the Boat Is tipped me off to these bee-shaped refrigerator magnets. They transform plain silver hammered metal napkin rings into a bee-yoo-tiful addition to the bee-inspired table.

The plate stack comprises an acacia wood charger, a Bistro blue-rimmed dinner plate and Pacifica navy salad plate (both from Williams Sonoma) with the Sadek Bees Blue dessert plate on top. I recently discovered that Sadek is a division of Fitz & Floyd – good to know!

The mugs are the perfect size for a mid-day cup of tea or coffee. I don’t know about you, but I want a hefty cup of coffee in the morning. Navigating four bouncing golden retrievers vying for the earliest possible production of their breakfast alongside the eager head-butting demands of Diabolical Dundee, all before the crack of dawn requires a good shot of caffeine.

This morning, Dundee managed to knock my contact lens flying with an ill-timed head butt, just as I was poised to pop the lens into my eye. Needless to say, it’s a goner. 

By mid-afternoon, I prefer a more moderately sized vessel, and these mugs fit the bill nicely, The vintage Royal Lace Cobalt blue glasses by Hazel Atlas are the 9 oz flat tumbler. They’re a good size for a water glass for afternoon tea.

The wooden-handled flatware is by World Market (seems to be discontinued – rats), and the small tea forks are part of a vintage horn set I got from Etsy a couple of years ago.

Love those little buzzing blue bees.

We’ve had a bit of excitement here on the Cape with a tornado, of all things. Not quite what I anticipated. When I got the notice on my cell phone, I thought it was an error. Perhaps the phone thought I was still in Omaha, where I’d recently been on business? Apparently, it was not a mistake. Brief, but violent, the wind was horrendous. Lots of trees and power lines down; many households and businesses are still without power. Crews have been brought in from other states and they’ve been working tirelessly to clear roads, put out fires, deal with gas leaks and downed power lines. It’s a huge job.

Clearly, everyone was doing their level best, and being relatively unscathed, we weren’t high on the priority list. Fair enough. We had power restored after two days, and I’m exceedingly thankful. A little pioneer spirit gets you through the first 24 hours, but people start to get a bit testy after that. Our neighbours, who have a generator, very graciously served as the neighbourhood charging station and added some of our items to their refrigerator and freezer, for which we are very grateful. We stuffed bags of ice into fridges and freezers and got through without too much spoilage. All’s well that ends well.

I’ll get the post on the Honeycomb Cake up in the next day or so, once I’ve caught up.

I’m sharing this post with Between Naps on the Porch.