Cornbread Cake with Honey Buttercream

Side view of a cornbread cake, topped with honey buttercream frosting on a plate.

5 from 1 vote

Cornbread Cake with Honey Buttercream

This Cornbread Cake with Honey Buttercream Frosting is a sweet twist on a Southern classic! It's soft, tender, completely eggless, and perfect for summer!

Prep Time15

Cook Time40

Total Time55

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Total Cost: $5.82 recipe / $0.48 serving

Servings: slices

Author: Jess Rice

Ingredients

Cornbread Cake Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour (325g) $0.22
1 cup stoneground yellow cornmeal* $0.27
1 Tbsp baking powder $0.12
¼ tsp salt $0.01
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature $0.99
1 ½ cups granulated sugar $0.51
¾ cup apple sauce** $0.39
½ cup heavy cream $0.84
½ Tbsp vanilla extract $0.38

Honey Buttercream Frosting Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature $0.99
2 cups powdered sugar $0.55
1 tsp vanilla extract $0.25
2 Tbsp honey $0.30

Instructions

Gather ingredients and preheat oven to 350℉.
Combine flour, yellow cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to combine.
In a separate medium bowl, cream together ½ cup of room temperature butter and granulated sugar.
To the same bowl with the creamed butter and sugar, add the apple sauce, heavy cream, and ½ Tbsp vanilla extract. Mix on low until combined. (A whisk or a hand mixer will do!)
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and combine to create your batter. It will be thick!
Butter a 9” cake pan (I used a 9” springform cake pan) and pour the batter in, using a spatula or spoon to evenly distribute the batter. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The color of your cake will deepen and the center will no longer be jiggly.***
While your cake is in the oven, make the honey buttercream frosting by combining ½ cup of unsalted room temperature butter and powdered sugar. Then add the 1 tsp vanilla extract and honey. Whip with a hand mixer until it’s light and fluffy! Set aside.
Let the cake cool completely before removing the springform pan or attempting to flip it or frost it. This could take a while, but it shouldn’t be warm at all before frosting if you want the honey buttercream to stay thick and creamy.
Once it’s cool, transfer the cake to a cooling rack and flip it, so the flat side is face up for easier frosting.
Frost the cooled cake.
Decorate it however you like! I had some cute yellow sprinkles on hand that reminded me of corn kernels, so I went for it!

See how we calculate recipe costs here.

Notes

*Be sure to use stoneground yellow cornmeal (either fine or medium-ground), not a cornbread mix!

**You can also use 3 eggs in place of the apple sauce.

***In my oven at home, the bake time was 50 minutes. In the oven at the Budget Bytes studio, it took 40 minutes. I recommend setting a timer for 40 minutes and checking it periodically since every oven’s different.

Nutrition