Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram 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?? 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.) 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
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.) 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. 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! 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!
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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!
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