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Looking for a Honey Cake Recipe that delivers tender, golden results every single time? This simple one-bowl cake combines rich honey, toasted almonds, and whole wheat flour for a beautifully moist dessert that stays fresh for days and tastes even better the next day!
Quick Recipe Overview
WHAT: A tender, single-layer delicious honey cake topped with caramelized almonds for beautiful presentation.
WHY: Natural honey sweetness, wholesome ingredients, and a bakery-worthy presentation with minimal effort.
HOW: Cream butter and honey, mix in eggs and sour cream, fold in flour mixture, top with almonds, and bake until golden.
Table of Contents
- Quick Recipe Overview
- Why You’ll Love This Honey Cake Recipe
- Ingredient Notes
- Featured Review
- Honey Cake Recipe Recipe
- How To Make Honey Cake
- Substitutions and Variations
- FAQs for Honey Cake Recipe
- My Best Tips for Making Honey Cake
- What to Serve With Honey Cake
- Storage & Reheating Tips
- Similar Recipes to Try
- More Cake Recipes To Consider
Why You’ll Love This Honey Cake Recipe
- The honey provides a rich sweetness, moist texture, and golden color, enhancing the nutty flavor of the whole wheat.
- It is made with whole wheat flour, this cake offers a heartier texture and increased nutritional value, making it a healthier indulgence.
- The recipe is easy to follow and adaptable, perfect for both casual and formal occasions.
🩷 Melissa
This cake comes from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. A million years ago my mom picked it up from the library, told me how much she loved it, I proceeded to get it from the library where I was, and we both fell in love. It’s a whopping 500 page whole grain baking bible if you ask me.
This cake is perfect for a light dessert or snack. It’s considered a snack cake, meaning it’s not fancy or fluffy or full of icing. It’s sweet and has the texture of a quick bread. The honey is just right and the almonds on top make it look just beautiful (you bake them right into the cake). The outside that was a little crusty was my favorite.
You can serve this cake with a few fresh berries and freshly whipped cream or you could give it a sprinkle of powdered sugar on the top and serve it with ice cream. It’s also perfect for afternoon tea with friends.
Ingredient Notes
Honey — The star of the show. Use good-quality pure honey; the flavor comes through clearly in the finished cake. Clover honey works perfectly, but a darker, more robust variety like buckwheat or wildflower will give the cake a bolder, more complex honey flavor.
Whole wheat flour — Whole wheat pastry flour is ideal here — it’s lighter than traditional whole wheat and produces a more tender crumb. Traditional whole wheat flour works too, but the texture will be slightly denser.
Sliced almonds — Use raw, unsalted sliced almonds. They toast gently during baking and become delightfully crisp when the cake is inverted. Pre-toasted almonds can over-brown before the cake is done.
Sour cream or plain yogurt — Either works beautifully. Full-fat versions give you the richest, moistest result. Greek yogurt is a great option if that’s what you have on hand.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Featured Review
Andrea ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
February 1, 2021
This is fantastic! Even my chocolate-only husband loved it. Served w a dollop of fresh whipped cream.
Honey Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup sliced almonds
- 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour, pastry or traditional
- 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup honey
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan with butter or a heavy hand of cooking spray. Add ¾ cup of sliced almonds to the bottom of the cake pan and evenly distribute.1 cup sliced almonds
- In a medium bowl, cream the butter and the honey until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating well after each addition. Add the sour cream, and stir to combine.3/4 cup unsalted butter, 1 cup honey, 4 large eggs, 1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
- In a small bowl, add whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir until just combined. Add the remaining ¼ cup of sliced almonds and stir until incorporated. The batter will be thick.1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 cup sliced almonds
- Add the batter to the prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth the top.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden brown and the edges start to separate from the pan, and a toothpick, inserted into the center, comes out clean.
- Remove cake from the oven and allow it to rest in the pan, on a wire rack, for 15 minutes. After it has rested, invert the cake to a serving dish and allow it to come to room temperature. Serve with a light dusting of powdered sugar, or freshly whipped cream and berries.
Notes
Nutrition
How To Make Honey Cake
Step 1: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan. Add ¾ cup of sliced almonds to the bottom of the cake pan and evenly distribute. In a large bowl, cream the butter and the honey until light and fluffy.
Step 2: Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating well after each addition.
Step 3: Add the sour cream, and stir to combine.
Step 4: In a small bowl, add whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir until just combined. Add the remaining ¼ cup of sliced almonds and stir until incorporated.
Step 5: Add the batter to the prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth the top. Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden brown and the edges start to separate from the pan. Remove cake from the oven and allow it to rest in the pan, on a wire rack, for 15 minutes.
Step 6: After it has rested, invert the cake to a serving dish and allow it to come to room temperature. Serve with a light dusting of powdered sugar, or freshly whipped cream and berries.
Substitutions and Variations
Flour Options
Replace whole wheat flour entirely with all-purpose for a lighter cake, or try spelt flour for nutty flavor.
Nut Variations
Swap almonds for chopped walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts. Toast them first for deeper flavor.
Add Warm Spices
Stir ½ teaspoon cinnamon or ¼ teaspoon cardamom into the dry ingredients for a spiced version.
Citrus Twist
Add 1 tablespoon orange zest to the batter for bright, aromatic notes that pair beautifully with honey.
Make it Gluten-Free
Use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend in place of both flours. The texture will be slightly different but still delicious.
Bake in a Loaf Pan
Pour the batter into a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan for a more casual presentation, scattering almonds across the bottom just as you would with the round pan.
FAQs for Honey Cake Recipe
The cake will be quite dark due to the honey, so look for edges pulling away from the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center coming out clean, usually around 50-55 minutes.
The almonds are placed in the bottom of the pan, then the cake is inverted after baking so they become a beautiful caramelized topping on the finished cake.
Adding sour cream helps to keep the cake moist.
My Best Tips for Making Honey Cake
☞Grease Your Cup First: A quick spray of cooking oil in your measuring cup before pouring honey makes cleanup effortless and guarantees you’re getting every last drop into your batter instead of stuck to the sides.
☞Don’t Judge by Color: The honey naturally turns this cake a deep golden brown, so looking for visual cues won’t help you here. Instead, trust your toothpick and watch for those edges starting to pull away from the pan.
☞The 15-Minute Rest: Patience pays off here – giving the cake a quarter hour to settle in the pan means your almond topping stays intact when you flip it, and the cake won’t crack or crumble when you slice.
☞Use Room Temperature Butter: Cold butter won’t cream properly and cold eggs can cause your batter to seize up. Let everything sit out for about 30 minutes before you start mixing for the smoothest, most uniform results.
☞Mix Gently: Once you add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, stir just until combined. Overmixing activates gluten and can make the cake tough. A few small streaks of flour are fine — they’ll disappear during baking.
What to Serve With Honey Cake
This cake is delicious standing alone. If you want to add something to it, serve this cake with a scoop Homemade Cake Batter Ice Cream. Extra honey drizzled over the cake just before serving can amplify the honey flavor and add a lovely shine. A dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream can add a creamy texture that pairs well with the density of the cake.
Storage & Reheating Tips
Room Temperature
Store the cooled cake loosely covered for up to 3 days. The honey actually helps preserve moisture, so it stays remarkably fresh.
Refrigerator Storage
Wrap tightly in plastic wrap or store in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Allow slices to come back to room temperature before serving for the best texture.
Freezer Storage
Wrap the whole cake or individual slices tightly in plastic wrap, then in foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature for a few hours.
Make Ahead
This cake is an ideal make-ahead dessert. Bake it 1–2 days in advance and store at room temperature. The honey flavor deepens and the texture becomes even more moist as it sits.
Reheating
Not necessary, but you can warm individual slices in the microwave for 10-15 seconds if you prefer cake slightly warm.
Similar Recipes to Try
More Cake Recipes To Consider
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can i skip the white flour and use only whole wheat flour? thanks
It’ll be a lot more dense but you for sure could try it!
This is fantastic! Even my chocolate-only husband loved it. Served w a dollop of fresh whipped cream.
Excellent!?
its been 10 days since I found ykuour website and ive already made 7 recipes ^_^
o fare theyve ll been great!
Your recipes are all very awesome so mustve done something wrong with this one. The cqke barely rose and even fell again after I turned off the over so it was very dense and heavy 🙁
What do you thi k I did wtong? Plus are your temperatures in celcius or Fahrenheit
I’m so glad that you have making so many recipes! I’m sorry to hear about the honey cake not rising at all. What elevation are baking at? And do you know if your baking soda was fresh? I’d love to help you figure it out!
He was scared…this was made with honey, not sugar, and wasn’t coated with frosting…..Bravely he took a bite, then two, then three….SCORE!! While baking, the batter decided to crawl out of the pan and drip around in blobs…. I think my high elevation and the amount of baking soda was an explosive combination…..or the alfalfa honey bloomed…dunno….and I really liked it too! Thanks!!
this cake looks gorgeous! I can’t wait to try it!