Honey Cake with Sour Cream Frosting
Honey Cake with Sour Cream Frosting: nice, fluffy texture, moist with a hint of nutty flavor. The honey gives the cake sweetness; a delicious combination with sour cream frosting. This cake just hits ‘the spot’.
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This cake recipe comes a long way. It’s a staple at our home. Before I got married, I used to bake it almost every Sunday for our church youth gathering. We always had youth at our house, whether those were my friends, my brothers’ friends or just simply 60-70 youth members :). This recipe never gets old and it’s never enough. Over the past decade, I made this cake around 200 times if not more; I could probably bake it in my sleep 🙂 . You can also add strawberries and kiwi between the layers – a delicious addition!
You can decorate the cake with any honey cake crumbs you got on hand from previous, recent baking, but I feel like the nutty-almond decoration gives that extra flavor and just blends in nicely with honey.
Choosing the Right Honey for Sponge Cake
When it comes to honey: As much as I love organic foods, organic honey doesn’t always work in baking when it comes to sponge cakes. Some honey brands come a bit on the watery side. A while back, when I ran out of honey that I always use in this cake, I tried substituting with Simple Truth brand and the cake layers turned out heavy and weren’t fluffy. They looked watery, as if you soaked the cake layers in bowl of water. At first I wasn’t sure what was happening to my cake and then it hit me: ‘honey’.
I have a little secret when it comes to finding out if certain honey will work for this cake. If you flip the bottle upside down and the honey comes out quickly out of the bottle, it will not work. Honey that comes out “lazy” from the bottle, like it’s barely coming out and you REALLY have to squeeze the bottle, that’s your winner. That is your friend!
Honey Cake Ingredients:
- 8 eggs – room temp
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Sour Cream Frosting Ingredients and Decorating:
- 16 oz sour cream – cold
- 8 oz extra creamy cool whip – frozen
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup blanched almonds – toasted
How to Make Honey Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to a 350°F. Prepare a nonstick 9″ springform pan; oil or spray with a cooking spray and wipe all over with a paper towel (make sure to get the edges nicely). In a small bowl, microwave 4 tablespoons honey for 40-60 seconds until it starts bubbling and rising. As soon as you take out the honey from the microwave, sprinkle it with 1/4 tsp of baking soda and stir with a spoon until fluffy (it will rise). Set aside to cool while you prepare the next step.
2. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat 8 eggs and 1 cup sugar on high for 8-10 mins until eggs are light in color, thick and fluffy. Beat in honey/baking soda mixture on low for 30 seconds. Sift 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour in thirds into the batter, whisking gently by hand using a whisk or fork until flour is incorporated and no streaks of flour remain, scraping the bottom of the bowl to ensure you don’t have lumps of flour hiding at the bottom. Do not over-mix or you will deflate the batter and the cake will turn out hard in texture. Divide batter equally into 3: 1 straight into springform pan and the remaining 2 portions in separate bowls. Bake 1 layer at a time for 13-15 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
3. Once cake is baked, use a thin spatula to loosen cake from the rim of the springform pan, then remove the rim, flip cake, remove springform base, flip cake layer back and set aside to cool. Pam spray the pan again and pour the second batch. Repeat the same with 3rd. Let the cake cool before frosting. Do not stack the layers while they are still warm or they will lose their fluff. Cool completely before stacking and frosting.
How to Toast Almonds:
4. Single layer 1 cup blanched almonds onto a baking sheet. Bake in an oven at 350° F for 8-10 mins on center rack. Cool. In a food processor, crash almonds for 20-30 seconds until they turn into ground almonds. Use to decorate cake. Save remaining ground almonds in a Ziploc bag for future use.
How to Make Sour Cream Frosting:
5. Using an electric mixer, beat 16 oz sour cream, 8 oz cool whip, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract for 10 mins on high until frosting is thick and firm. Refrigerate until ready to use, but not for prolonged time or the cream might become slightly runny. Cut out a cake diameter carton circle. Wrap foil around carton.
Spread a teaspoon of frosting onto foil before you place a first cake layer – this will keep the cake from sliding off the carton. Place about 4 tablespoonful frosting between each cake layer and spread evenly (make sure to get edges). Frost sides as well so you don’t really see cake layers peeking through sour cream frosting. Decorate with toasted ground almonds or any other way you prefer. Refrigerate cake for several hours before cutting – it needs time to absorb the frosting and become moist to make the cutting easier. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea!!
This cake is good in fridge for 3-4 days.
More Ukrainian Cake Recipes to Explore:
Honey Cake with Sour Cream Frosting
Ingredients
CAKE INGREDIENTS:
- 8 eggs – room temp
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
FROSTING & DECORATION INGREDIENTS:
- 16 oz sour cream – cold
- 8 oz extra creamy cool whip – frozen
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup blanched almonds – toasted
Instructions
How to Make Honey Cake:
- Preheat the oven to a 350°F. Prepare a nonstick 9" springform pan; oil or spray with a cooking spray and wipe all over with a paper towel (make sure to get the edges nicely). In a small bowl, microwave 4 tablespoons honey for 40-60 seconds until it starts bubbling and rising. As soon as you take out the honey from the microwave, sprinkle it with 1/4 tsp of baking soda and stir with a spoon until fluffy (it will rise). Set aside to cool while you prepare the next step.
- In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat 8 eggs and 1 cup sugar on high for 8-10 mins until eggs are light in color, thick and fluffy. Beat in honey/baking soda mixture on low for 30 seconds. Sift 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour in thirds into the batter, whisking gently by hand using a whisk or fork until flour is incorporated and no streaks of flour remain, scraping the bottom of the bowl to ensure you don’t have lumps of flour hiding at the bottom. Do not over-mix or you will deflate the batter and the cake will turn out hard in texture. Divide batter equally into 3: 1 straight into springform pan and the remaining 2 portions in separate bowls. Bake 1 layer at a time for 13-15 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Once cake is baked, use a thin spatula to loosen cake from the rim of the springform pan, then remove the rim, flip cake, remove springform base, flip cake layer back and set aside to cool. Pam spray the pan again and pour the second batch. Repeat the same with 3rd. Let the cake cool before frosting. Do not stack the layers while they are still warm or they will lose their fluff. Cool completely before stacking and frosting.
- TOAST ALMONDS: Single layer 1 cup blanched almonds onto a baking sheet. Bake in an oven at 350° F for 8-10 mins on center rack. Cool. In a food processor, crash almonds for 20-30 seconds until they turn into ground almonds. Use to decorate cake. Save remaining ground almonds in a Ziploc bag for future use.
- MAKE THE FROSTING: Using an electric mixer, beat 16 oz sour cream, 8 oz cool whip, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract for 10 mins on high until frosting is thick and firm. Refrigerate until ready to use, but not for prolonged time or the cream might become slightly runny. Cut out a cake diameter carton circle. Wrap foil around carton. Spread a teaspoon of frosting onto foil before you place a first cake layer – this will keep the cake from sliding off the carton. Place about 4 tablespoonful frosting between each cake layer and spread evenly (make sure to get edges). Frost sides as well so you don’t really see cake layers peeking through sour cream frosting. Decorate with toasted ground almonds or any other way you prefer. Refrigerate cake for several hours before cutting – it needs time to absorb the frosting and become moist to make the cutting easier. This cake is good in fridge for 3-4 days.
Lena says:
Hi Olga! This cake looks amazing and I want to make it. I purchased another brand of honey believe it’s called Kirkland Raw unfiltered honey. It seems pretty thick and I used it the thin type layer of medovik cake and it turns out good.
Do you know if it would be ok to use that type of honey or should I purchase the one you have pictured? Thanks in advance
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi Lena! Yes, it will work. I used it myself as well in the past before I switched to these teddy bears.
Tanya kirilyuk says:
It’s fantastic! Really delicious. I bake lots of cakes for family / church occasions and this has been my go-to recently! I especially love that the frosting is a bit more stable than some other recipes of honey cake with sour cream frosting.
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Thank you, Tanya! I’m so glad to hear this cake became your go-to recipe. It’s definitely the easiest cake to put together and just like you, it’s my go-to honey cake as well 🙂
Suyisha says:
Loved this honey cake so much. I made it for our in laws and they ended up eating slightly more than half of this cake. It was incredibly good and fluffy. It’s probably one of the easiest cakes I’ve made as well.
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Thank you Suyisha for the beautiful review 🙂
nellya says:
Hi Olga,
Do you soak the layers with anything? Or with the frosting it will be enough?
thank you.
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi Nellya, no I don’t soak any cakes with anything, especially this one. I’m not a fan of really wet cakes. But I did have one reader soak very little and mentioned it turned out good. This cake is very fluffy and sour cream frosting makes it even more soft.
Angela says:
Hi Olga , I would like to try making this cake , are the cakes thick enough to be cut in the middle to make 6 layers ? Or you don’t recommend that
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Hi Angela! I never tried making this more than 3 layer. When I use 9.75″ form, the cake layers turn out about 1″ thick. They are very fluffy, so it might be a bit hard to cut them. It might work, but I cannot guarantee 100% as I never done it. (probably something I should try for myself 🙂 )
Angela says:
Thank you Olga . I baked my cakes and they turned out very fluffy , I used” homemade” honey and they turned out great . I read your comments about honey but I decided to give it a try anyway since that’s the only honey I had on hand . So it worked great with my honey . The recipe of the cream – will there be planty to decorate the cake or it’s just enough to use for layers ?
Olga in the Kitchen says:
I’m happy to hear it turned out 🙂 My aunt has their homemade honey too and she said it never worked for her, so it might be the type of honey they have or how they do it. I only used store-bought and some brands just didn’t work, so I just decided to stick to Costco honey. If they are fluffy, it definitely turned out! 🙂 The recipe of the cream will be enough for between the layers and to decorate. I usually do about 3 tablespoonfuls of cream between layers and it’s plenty. Hope this helps and don’t forget to tag me on social media! 🙂
Ri says:
Thanks
Ri says:
Hi, Olga. What can be used instead of Cool Whip? We don’t eat hydrogenated staff?
Olga in the Kitchen says:
I’ve never done with any other cream. One of my friends used heavy cream instead and mentioned it turned out good as well. The cream cheese+heavy cream+powdered sugar frosting should work great with this cake as well. Probably something I should consider to test myself 🙂 hope this helps!
Lacey says:
This cake, oh my! This is the first Ukrainian cake recipe I ever tried. I thought Ukrainian cakes are complicated so I never tried, but it’s so easy and so good. I never knew about the sour cream frosting and I think it works so great with the sweet honey layers. I can’t wait to try your other cake recipes. Thank you for sharing your delicious recipes, you’re my fave!!
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Lacey, most Ukrainian cakes are easy to make. I don’t like complicated cakes myself where it feels like hundred steps. I’m happy to hear you liked it so much, it’s our staple and our favorite as well! 🙂
Olga says:
Hi. Could I use regular cool whip cause I have that at home and don’t feel like running to the store
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Do you mean original instead of extra creamy? Yes you can, just make sure it’s frozen. Straight out of the freezer and into the bowl, don’t give it time to thaw! 🙂
Olga says:
I was just gonna ask you about adding strawberries between the layers, Until I reread your post. I have a 2lb container of strawberries in fridge and wanted to use some for cake. So it still taste good that way?
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Yes, a lot of times we add kiwi and strawberries between the layers, and it tastes delicious. I tried with raspberries as well, but I didn’t like it; it tasted wrong lol 🙂
Olga says:
oh yeh! Thank you for the heads up, I forgot it has to be frozen cool whip.
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Yes, definitely frozen or your filling will be runny!
Ellie says:
OMG! This cake is probably the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I kept waiting for this recipe since I once saw you share in your stories on Instagram and finally tried it. It’s so fluffy, literally melts in your mouth. Thank you so much for your hard work and delicious recipes. I look forward to taste more of your tasty foods! 🙂
Olga in the Kitchen says:
Thanks Ellie for you kind words 🙂