I am absolutely OBSESSED with this Cornbread Cake recipe! It’s like my Cornbread Recipe and my favorite White Cake got together and had a baby. A luscious, decadent, three-layer baby, stacked together with the most butter-forward of honey buttercream frostings. I may never go back to regular ol cornbread now that I’ve tasted this 🤣 I mean why are we limiting ourselves here.
Table of Contents
- What is cornbread cake?
- Whipped Honey Butter frosting
- What is raw honey?
- Cornbread cake recipe ingredients
- How to make cornbread cake
- How to store leftover cornbread cake with honey buttercream frosting
- Can you freeze it?
- Cornbread cake frequently asked questions
- More cake recipes you will love
- Cornbread Cake with Whipped Honey Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Eric and I went out for dinner last week and ended up ordering too much food. (I mean, obviously. Who do you think I am?)
So we packed up our dessert to go. I lasted about 5 minutes on the car ride home before busting open that cake and digging in with a fork.
At a red light, I reach over to feed Eric a bite of the cake.
Suddenly Eric looks past me into the car next to us. There’s a guy frantically motioning for us to roll down our window. Oh no. Is our taillight out? Is our gas tank open?
“You are just winning at life right now, both of you!” He points to Eric. “You just got fed!!”
So, now we know. Winning at life = being spoon fed cake at a red light. The life, right??
My birthday was this week and it happened to fall on the day that I normally have a photo shoot scheduled with my kitchen assistant, Katie. I decided to take the day off, so told Katie not to come in. She said, you should do something fun! Go on a hike! Take yourself to lunch!
So what did I do? I woke up on my birthday, decided I NEEDED this Cornbread Layer Cake with Whipped Honey Butter Frosting, baked it up all afternoon, and then took photos of it…the same as I do every Monday 😂
I told Katie, I’m kind of a one trick pony I think. Maybe I’ll do the hike next year. (It’s got to be the healthier choice, but you only turn 37 once, you know, so cake it is. Yolo. No regrets.)
What is cornbread cake?
I made this cake once last year for myself on Mother’s Day (I told you…one trick pony.) I have been thinking of it ever since. My Cornbread Recipe is as sweet and moist as cake (seriously, try it) and I’ve always dreamed of going whole-hog on it, making it a layer cake and adding honey frosting. So I combined my cornbread with my White Cake and this baby was born. I’m in LOVVVVE.
Here’s why you’re going to love this cake:
- We are using butter but also plenty of oil in the cake itself, to make it ultra-moist, just the same way I do in my White Cake. Never trust a cake that has no oil in it.
- We are adding raw honey to both the cake AND the frosting, obviously
- We’re using a pretty high percentage of cornmeal to get that ultra-corny-slightly-gritty-cornbread texture
- We’re also replacing some of the flour with masa harina. This is a magical ingredient. It’s corn flour made from dried corn that has been nixtamalized. This is a fancy way of saying that the corn was soaked in lime before being turned into flour. If you smell the bag of flour, you will understand right away. Masa harina is what Mexico uses to make their corn tortillas. The acidic hint of lime, and of course the corn itself, make for a very unique flavor, and it adds such a fun spin to this corn cake recipe.
- We are using Kerry Gold Butter, or any European butter brand that you like, for the frosting. It has a higher fat content than American butter, and it has a richer “butterier” taste. MORE BUTTER PLZ
Whipped Honey Butter frosting
This honey buttercream recipe is incredible. It’s very butter-forward and rich! And it has one special ingredient: cornstarch. Yes, really. Cornstarch is a fantastic thickener and great at absorbing liquid.
Normally when you make buttercream, you have to add powdered sugar until the frosting is the right consistency. But not only does the honey in this recipe make our butter mixture extra thin, (so we would need even MORE powdered sugar than usual), I was determined to make this frosting taste more like a cross between honey butter and buttercream frosting. I wanted it very buttery, to not be too sweet, and match the traditional flavor of cornbread with butter.
The cornstarch helps thicken the frosting without sweetening it too much. I’m very excited to try this new technique on other buttercream frostings, especially lemon buttercream, which is never lemon-y enough for me. (Adding more lemon juice makes it grainy; adding more powdered sugar makes it too sweet. Adding 10 lemons worth of zest messes with the texture. THESE ARE THE PROBLEMS THAT KEEP ME UP AT NIGHT GUYS.)
What is raw honey?
This recipe calls for raw honey, which is honey that has not been heat treated or pasteurized. It is drawn straight from the honeycomb. It is usually a little thicker than pasteurized.
If you can’t find raw honey, just use regular honey and you will be fine. Raw honey has a slightly richer taste, and a thicker consistency, which helps with our frosting consistency. It also is higher quality honey (it’s more expensive for sure), and you really want that for this cake, since honey is one of the lead roles.
Cornbread cake recipe ingredients
Take a look through this list to see what you’ll need to make cornbread cake. There are a few key ingredients (Maseca, raw honey) you may not have that make this cake next-level, so be sure to look at the recipe card for full instructions and ingredient amounts! Also, ignore the lighter honey in the photo. This crystalized honey (called “set” honey sometimes) was something I experimented with but ended up cutting from the final cake.
- salted butter (typical American butter)
- granulated sugar
- pure raw honey (not crystalized)
- vegetable oil, I like to use light olive oil
- eggs
- buttermilk
- full fat sour cream
- all-purpose flour
- Masa harina corn flour (Maseca)
- kosher salt, or sea salt
- baking powder
- yellow cornmeal
- Kerry Gold Irish butter, or any higher fat content European butter
- powdered sugar
- cornstarch
How to make cornbread cake
Get this boring stuff out of the way first. 🤣 Preheat your oven. Trace your cake pans on parchment paper, and cut them out.
Line the pans, then spray the heck out of them with nonstick spray. Make sure the oil is all up and down the sides, and around the edges of the paper.
Now for the fun!
Beat your butter till it’s light and fluffy, then add your pure raw honey. Make sure it’s not crystalized! Raw honey just means that it hasn’t been pasteurized. It’s thicker than normal honey, but still completely smooth. It’s the exact honey that Winnie the Pooh eats, actually.
After the honey is beaten in, add the oil. Oil is what makes your cake moist. I love me some butter, my friends, but you skip adding oil to your cake and you’re going to need a glass-a-water every time.
Set this mixture aside for a minute:
Then start working on your other bowl of wet ingredients. I said this was the most amazing cake guys, not that it was the quickest and fastest. It’s a 3 bowl cake, no getting around it. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and sour cream. Make sure you beat the heck out of your eggs. You want them nice and frothy, I don’t want to see any of those gloopy proteins hanging around. Put your back into it!
Now sift your flour, masa harina and baking powder and salt in that third bowl:
Don’t bother sifting the cornmeal, it doesn’t need it. We want a little grit in this cake!
Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients.
Ta-da! Final batter. Taste it, taste it. Guys, it’s so good. For sure my favorite cake batter of all time. I want this in ice cream form.
I always use a scale to weigh my cake batter, so that I get even cakes. You can just eyeball it if you want.
And here is the baked cake. Golden perfection. Be sure to read the recipe details for rotating the cakes in the oven.
Invert the cake and let it finish cooling. Peel off the paper. Once it’s cool, place it on your cake stand or flat plate.
Then poke it with a chopstick. This is optional!! It was my birthday you guys. I was feeling decadent 😂 I made it both ways, I promise you can skip this step. The cake is still quite moist without it.
But…if you are feeling it. Pour some honey on top and spread it around a bit!
Now, to make the frosting. See how much more yellow the Kerry Gold butter is than regular butter?
Beat it up, add in the raw honey and mix well, then add the rest of the frosting ingredients, including this weirdo cornstarch. It’s strange, but it’s a game changer guys, I swear! You can’t taste it.
Once it’s all mixed well and smooth, stop to admire your handiwork.
Isn’t it gorgeous? It tastes like honey butter, guys. No apologies.
Now, on with the cake. Here’s about how much frosting I added for the layers.
When you frost this layer, let the frosting hang off the edges a bit like this. It makes it easier to frost the sides later.
Keep spreading until you’ve covered all the sides of the cake. Don’t sweat it too much!! 3 layer cakes look impressive even if your frosting isn’t swirled perfectly :)
Don’t forget a drizzle of honey over the edge, and a sprinkle of polenta if you’re feeling crunchy!
How to store leftover cornbread cake with honey buttercream frosting
Already prepared cornbread cake needs to be covered. It would be best in an airtight container, but a cake stand with lid will work short term. It can be left out on the counter for about 3-4 days. If you don’t plan to eat the leftovers within the first few days, I recommend following the instructions below to freeze the cake.
Can you freeze it?
Yes! You can either cut slices to freeze individually, or freeze all the remainder in one piece. Either way, transfer the cake (whole or in slices) to a baking sheet on parchment paper. Flash freeze for about 30 minutes, then remove and wrap the cake very well in plastic wrap. Put the wrapped cake into ziplock freezer bags, squeeze out as much air as possible, and seal. The cake will stay good in the freezer for 2-3 months. To eat, take the cake out of the bag, take the plastic wrap off, and set on a plate or tray. Once it’s on the plate, carefully lay the plastic wrap back over the top of the cake so it doesn’t dry out as it thaws. (If you leave it wrapped, all the frosting will stick to the plastic.)
If you want to make this cake ahead of time, I suggest just make the cake and freezing the layers separately, then making the frosting the day you will be serving and putting them all together. This would be a great make ahead dessert for Thanksgiving!
Cornbread cake frequently asked questions
This particular cake is a combination of two of my favorite things: the best White Cake and my ultimate Cornbread Recipe. Like a typical cake recipe, you’ll find sugar, butter, sour cream, and the basics like salt and baking powder. But unique to cornbread cake, there’s buttermilk, masa harina corn flour, and cornmeal to give it that hint of cornbread taste, while still being light and fluffy.
Cornbread is typically more savory, and intended to be used alongside savory dishes like Chili or Soup. Corn cake is on the sweeter side, tends to be softer (more cake-like, less bread-like) and is often served as a stand alone side that can go with any meal or even as a tea cake or simple dessert. This cornbread cake is a step up from corn cake, and is a full blown, actual layered dessert cake!
The more typical cornmeal cake, or corn cake, can also be called hoecake, johnnycake, journey cake, johnny bread, shawnee cake, or even spider cornbread. (what?? yes) There are regional variations, and each one may refer to a specific way of making the corn cake, but they are all very similar. The cornbread cake in this recipe is actual cake – not a sweeter version of cornbread like these “cakes”.
Not much, honestly. It’s the most important ingredient for giving that corny flavor. And it won’t have the same texture. Changing this important ingredient could mess with density/moisture absorbing ability, so you would definitely need to do some testing.
That being said, if you really want to play around with alternatives, you could try polenta or grits in a 1:1 ratio. Polenta has a similar texture to cornmeal, but grits are much more coarse and you may need to grind them down finer. Let me know if you try out any of these variations!
More cake recipes you will love
I am very picky when it comes to cake! No dry, crumbly cakes here, no thank you. I will always sacrifice looks in the name of taste (Very beautiful cakes, in my opinion, can rarely be trusted 🤣) I don’t mess around. ALL of the cakes on my site are dee-lish: moist, full of flavor, and SO worth the effort. Check out some of my favorites!
- The Best Homemade White Cake from Scratch >> a moist white cake from scratch that doesn’t taste like cardboard. It is honestly the best!!
- The Best Chocolate Cake I’ve Ever Had >> After many years and many cakes, I still stand by this title
- Brown Sugar Cake Recipe >> the yellow cake recipe you’ve been searching for
- Spice Cake Recipe from Scratch >> so much autumn flavor, and paired with dreamy cream cheese frosting
- Pineapple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting >> my favorite carrot cake, hands down
- Pig Pickin Cake (Sunshine Cake) >> this recipe is summer in a cake and is SO light and heavenly
- Italian Cream Cake from Cookies & Cups
- Hummingbird Cake from Brown Eyed Baker
If you’re looking for something equally delicious but slightly easier and faster than a traditional cake, try any of these easy sheet cakes and dump cakes!
- Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake – The Only Recipe You’ll Ever Need >> sour cream, brown sugar, extra cocoa – this recipe is THE one, you guys
- White Texas Sheet Cake >> everything you love about Texas sheet cake but with vanilla as the star
- Lemon Sheet Cake Recipe with Glaze >> perfect for lemon lovers (me), it’s supremely lemony!
- Easy Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting >> tastes like banana, but isn’t gummy
- Blackberry Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting >> who knew combining cake mix and jello could make the most amazing (and easy) cake?!
- Pumpkin Dump Cake >> the prep for this is so fast, and it’s a Fall dessert dream come true
- Cherry Dump Cake from The Country Cook
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Cornbread Cake with Whipped Honey Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
For the cake
- 3/4 cup salted butter* 1 and 1/2 sticks, softened (use regular American butter)
- 2 and 1/3 cups granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup pure raw honey make sure it's not crystalized
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil I like to use light olive oil
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk**
- 1/2 cup full fat sour cream
- 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
- 3/4 cup masa harina corn flour spooned and leveled; I use Maseca brand
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 and 1/2 cups cornmeal
For the frosting
- 2 cups Kerry Gold Irish butter (16 oz) softened (any European butter will do, it has a higher fat content)
- 3/4 cup pure raw honey make sure it's not crystalized
- 4 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt
To serve
- polenta to sprinkle on the cake, totally optional
- extra honey to drizzle on the frosted cake
- vanilla ice cream or whipped cream
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Trace the outline of three 9-inch cake pans on parchment paper.*** Cut out the circles and place in the bottom of each cake pan. With the paper in the bottom of the pan, use nonstick spray to grease each cake pan very well, all the way up the sides.***
- Beat the butter. In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat 3/4 cup softened butter until is is smooth.
- Add 2 and 1/3 cups granulated sugar. Beat the butter and sugar for 2 minutes, stopping once to scrape sides and bottom.
- Add 2/3 cup raw honey, or regular honey if that's what you have. I like to use an adjustable measuring cup for this! So easy. Beat well.
- Add 3/4 cup light olive oil (“light” refers to the taste, not the calorie level. Sad, right? ;) Beat in the oil and set aside for now.
- Eggs and buttermilk. In a medium bowl (or in one of those giant 8-cup measuring cups), add 5 large eggs. Beat with a whisk for at least a minute, until smooth and bubbly. Add 1 cup buttermilk** and 1/2 cup full fat sour cream. Whisk it all together til smooth. Set aside.
- Place a fine mesh strainer over another medium bowl. Using the spoon and level method, add 1 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour to the strainer. Spoon and level 3/4 cup Maseca corn flour into the strainer. Add 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1 tablespoon baking powder. Stir until it has all gone through the strainer and is sifted well.
- Remove the strainer, and add 1 and 1/2 cups cornmeal to the bowl with the flour. Mix well.
- Combine the 3 parts: Alternate adding the buttermilk liquid and the flour-mixture to the butter mixture, beating every time. I added half the liquid, stirred, half the flour, stirred, then repeated.
- Mix ONLY until it is well combined. Scrape the bottom and sides to make sure it's all incorporated.
- Divide the batter between the 3 prepared pans. I like to use a kitchen scale for this, to make sure they are even.
- Bake the cakes at 325 for about 28-33 minutes, rotating pans at least once.**** You will know they are done when the edges are set and golden brown. The center should not jiggle, and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out with no wet batter on it. The center of the cake may be much lighter in color than the edge.
- Remove the cake/s from the oven. Let cool on a cooling rack for about 10-15 minutes. Use a knife to loosen the edge of the cake from the pan. Use your hand to invert the cake onto the cooling rack and continue cooling. At this point I often put them in the freezer for 20 minutes or so to speed up the cool time.
- Make the frosting: Beat 2 cups of softened Kerry Gold butter* until it is completely smooth. Add 3/4 cup pure raw honey and beat well, until fluffy.
- Add 1 cup powdered sugar, but don't mix it yet. Add 2 teaspoons cornstarch***** on top of the powdered sugar. Add 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Use a small spoon to stir it into the powdered sugar a bit. Beat until incorporated. Add the remaining 3 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar, beating with each addition. Beat until very fluffy, at least 2-3 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom at least once or twice.
- Taste the frosting, and assess the consistency. Not all honeys are the same, so if you had a very thin honey, your frosting might need additional powdered sugar (or you could try one more teaspoon of cornstarch) to make it a more frosting-like consistency.
- Assemble the cake. Once all the cakes are completely cool, smear a bit of frosting on your cake stand so the cake doesn't go sliding off. Place your first cake on the stand.
- Add about 1 and 1/2 cups frosting (just eyeball it) to the top of the cake and spread evenly using an offset spatula. You can spread the frosting right over the edges so that it's even easier later to cover the edges later.
- Add the next cake. Repeat.
- Add the final cake. Add all the remaining frosting to the top of the cake. Spread it over the top of the cake, and then use the spatula to drag some of the frosting from the top over the edge of the cake. Keep moving the frosting all the way down. Continue this method until all sides and top are frosting.
- Garnish: I sprinkled the very edges of my cake with polenta, just for fun. I liked the color and the little crunch. Drizzle the edges of the cake with honey and serve! This cake is excellent with vanilla ice cream or not-too-sweet whipped cream, to cut the richness. Small slices are a good choice for this very butter-forward cake!
