Honey Cake
This moist honey cake has wonderful flavor and a fine, tender crumb.
You'll notice an added richness from the buttermilk in the recipe, and the delicious flavor combination of honey, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
Table of Contents
What you Need for this Cake
- Honey: Any type of honey is great in this recipe, whether wildflower honey, clover honey, etc.
- Butter: We use unsalted butter since we use salt in the recipe. It shouldn't be completely soft, but should easily "dent" when pressed.
- Sugar: We used both brown sugar and white sugar in this recipe. The brown sugar adds depth, moisture, and complements the honey perfectly.
- Eggs: Room temperature eggs
- Cake Flour: Makes for an ultra soft, tender crumb. See Notes if you need a substitute
- Baking Powder: To give the cake lift
- Salt to enhance the flavor and balance the sweetness of the recipe
- Cinnamon: Adds a light, spiced flavor
- Buttermilk adds a slight tanginess and makes for a more tender cake
How to Make a Honey Cake
This heavenly cake couldn't be easier to make! With just a handful of ingredients, you can whip the recipe up in no time.
- First, preheat oven to 325 F and grease & flour a tube pan or bundt pan. (Our pan measured 10 inches across and had a baking capacity of 12 cups). If using a smaller pan, be careful not to overfill past the ⅔ mark.
- In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
- Using an electric mixer (paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Next, gradually add the brown & white sugar and beat until light and fluffy for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, blending after each until the yolk is incorporated.
- Add the honey to the buttermilk in a medium sized bowl or measuring cup.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk & honey mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in the mixing bowl. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. I do three additions of dry, alternating with two additions of wet ingredients.
- Scoop batter into prepared bundt pan.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 5-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. *Baking times may vary.
- Allow to cool in the pan (preferably on a wire rack) for 10 minutes before turning out.
Making the Easy Honey Glaze
This simple honey glaze adds a boost of flavor and interest to our honey cake!
After the cake has cooled, this glaze can be applied with a spoon, or piped through a disposable piping bag (with the tip snipped away). Another option is to apply it with a ziplock bag with the corner snipped away.
The glaze is a spin on our easy vanilla glaze. It is a combination of milk, confectioners sugar, a pinch of salt, and a bit of honey.
It is not meant to be eaten by the spoonful as it is very sweet, but on a slice of cake, a drizzle of this glaze is perfect!
Recipe FAQs
Yes! Just as with most of our cake recipes, (from Chocolate Bundt Cake to Maple Pound Cake, Orange Bundt Cake, and more)this honey pound cake freezes beautifully.
Whether you are baking in advance, or saving leftover cake for another time, simply wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap, followed by foil. You can freeze the cake for up to three months!
When baking in advance, we like to place the cake (still slightly warm) on a foil-wrapped cake cardboard, then cover in plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil.
To thaw, it is best to move the wrapped cake to the refrigerator the day before. Then, move from refrigerator to the kitchen counter the next morning.
Technically, yes I would consider this a pound cake. It has similar measurements to our other favorite pound cakes. It is based in part on our favorite Buttermilk Pound Cake recipe!
The crumb is velvet soft and very fine. It is so delicious!
The acidity in buttermilk softens the strands of gluten, making for an ultra tender cake. We love to use buttermilk as an ingredient, as with our Lemon Pound Cake, Spice Cake, Lemon Buttermilk Cake, and more!
Cake flour has less protein and therefore produces less gluten. This also contributes to the cake being extra moist and soft. Many of our cake recipes call for cake flour, including Marble Cake, Almond Cake, and Orange Cake.
No, this cake will be delicious no matter what type of honey you use!
More Pound Cakes to Try
We just love pound cakes and bundt cakes! In addition to today's honey pound cake, don't miss these other go-to recipes!
Some of our favorites are our Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake, Cream Cheese Pound Cake, and Lemonade Cake, but there are so many more!
Enjoy the Recipe!
Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this amazing honey cake recipe. It is such an easy cake to make, and it tastes fantastic.
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Honey Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (339g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cups (200g) sugar
- 1 ½ cups (278g) brown sugar (We used light brown sugar)
- 5 large eggs room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes to speed up the process).
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour (Not self rising. We use Swan's Down, bleached)
- ½ teaspoon (2g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ¾ cup (176g) buttermilk
- ½ cup honey (any variety of honey will work)
Easy Honey Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners sugar measure then sift
- 2 tablespoons honey add additional as needed in small increments
- 2 tablespoons milk
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Grease and flour a tube pan or bundt pan, and preheat oven to 325 ℉
- In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
- Using an electric mixer (paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Next, gradually add the brown & white sugar and beat until light and fluffy for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, blending after each until the yolk is incorporated.
- Add the honey to the buttermilk in a medium sized bowl or measuring cup
- With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk & honey mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in the mixing bowl. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. I do three additions of dry, alternating with two additions of wet ingredients.
- Scoop batter into prepared bundt pan.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 5-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. *Baking times may vary.
- This makes approximately 8 cups of batter.
- Allow to cool in the pan (preferably on a wire rack) for 10 minutes before turning out.
Easy Honey Glaze
- Mix the milk and honey together. Then, pour it over the powdered sugar and salt and mix until smooth. If too thick, add a bit more milk. If too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar.
Decorating the Cake
- Once the cake has cooled, you can spoon the glaze over the cake, or for more control, you can spoon it into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.
Well that looks and sounds great! Yummy! :-)
Thanks Teri!! xo
I just came across your recipe and am planning on making it this week. It looks delicious! As soon as I make it, I will be back with a review! Thanks for sharing 😊.
Hi Karen! So glad you are making it! xo
Hi, Could you use plain/all purpose flour instead of cake flour?