Easy Honey Cake Recipe

This is a delicious honey cake recipe with lots of honey flavor. Its moisture and full flavor come from real honey and brown sugar, with a slightly acidic taste from the buttermilk. Top it off with an orange and honey glaze and serve it with a cup of coffee or tea. Great for special occasions like mother’s day, birthdays, afternoon tea, or just a fall afternoon.

Because honey is a natural humectant, this cake stays moist for days making it the perfect make-ahead dessert. Make sure you use wildflower honey for the most flavorful honey cake. For even more honey flavor you can make a simple honey syrup with 2 ounces of honey and 2 ounces of water. Bring it to a boil and let it cool. Brush the honey mixture over the finished bundt cake before adding the orange glaze. 

Honey Cake Ingredients

Honey is the most important ingredient, of course! I like using wildflower honey or raw unfiltered honey for the richest flavor.

Brown sugar adds rich, nutty, full flavor to this cake recipe. The brown sugar and honey create enough sweetness so that no granulated sugar is needed. Dark brown sugar or light brown sugar will work for this recipe.

Buttermilk adds a tang to this recipe and reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make some with regular milk and vinegar or lemon juice, almond milk, sour cream, or greek yogurt. Check out my buttermilk substitute blog post for more options. 

Coffee is an important ingredient for adding depth and flavor to this recipe. No, it will not make your cake taste like coffee, it enhances the flavors in the cake. You can use warm water if you don’t want to use coffee. Some recipes call for orange juice, but I love the richness that coffee adds.

How to Make Honey Cake

This honey cake recipe comes together very quickly but does need to cool for at least 2 hours after baking, so you want to plan ahead. I like a simple powdered sugar glaze on top, but cream cheese frosting would also pair very well.

Making the Honey Bundt Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 335°F (170°C) and grease a bundt pan with cake goop or your preferred pan release. Don't forget about the center and sides of the pan! You can use a loaf pan or cake pan if you prefer, just adjust your baking time. 
2. Pour the buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, oil, coffee, vanilla extract, almond extract, and honey into a large measuring cup and whisk to combine. 
3. Place a fine mesh strainer over the bowl of your stand mixer and sift the brown sugar to remove the lumps. There might be a few fine crumbs that you need to remove. This will ensure that there are no clumps of brown sugar in the batter.
4. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon to the brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix for a few seconds to combine. You can also use an electric hand mixer or a whisk. 
5. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients while mixing on medium speed until the batter is just combined.
6. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and fill it up ⅔ of the way full. If your bundt pan doesn't have handles, place it on a baking sheet.
7. Bake the cake in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until it is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Rest the cake in the pan for 15 minutes and cut off the top so that it’s level with the pan. Save it for snacking!
9. Place a wire rack on top and flip the cool cake upside down then remove the pan. Cool the cake for about 2 hours before adding the glaze. 

Making the Honey Glaze

1. Combine the powdered sugar, melted butter, orange juice, and honey in a large bowl with a whisk. Add a little bit of orange zest if you like a brighter flavor.
2. To make the glaze more opaque, add a few drops of white food coloring and mix it together.
3. Place the cake on a wire rack and drizzle the glaze on top of the cake and let it drip down the sides. 
4. Decorate the cake with some fresh flowers, honey, and gold leaf, or leave it plain. This cake is best served immediately but can be refrigerated and covered in plastic wrap for up to 3 days.

Tips For Baking From Scratch

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I suggest purchasing a kitchen scale if you don’t already have one to make the best cake recipes. One cup of cake flour can vary from scoop to scoop depending on how packed the flour is, its humidity, and the type of flour, which can ruin your cake recipe.

Practice Mise en Place (everything in its place) which means you measure everything before you start mixing so you don’t accidentally forget something or add any ingredients out of order. I use a set of medium and small pyrex glass bowls I got from goodwill for this and it makes things SO much easier.

Room temperature ingredients are very important to baking. Warm the buttermilk and eggs until they are room temperature or slightly warm. Cool the melted butter and coffee to room temperature. If all of your liquid ingredients are at the same temperature, they will emulsify better to make a smooth batter. 

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