It’s a cake that tastes like a honeybun – full of cinnamon and pecan and brown sugar goodness. Make some honeybun cake for YOUR honeybun today!
One of the things I always do before tossing out any kind of food packaging is to examine it carefully for recipes. You will be delightfully amazed at the delicious and creative things you can find printed on the inside of labels and boxes.
Sometimes they are jumping off points for other ideas, and sometimes they are just plain wonderful the way they are. This delectable and easy cake is very close to the version I found many moons ago on the back of a Betty Crocker cake mix box, and it also has one of my favorite cake names EVER. Who wouldn’t want to make a Honeybun cake for their honeybun?
Which is probably where I should start. This is a conglomeration of yellow cake with a sugared nut filling and a vanilla glaze, and is about 1,000,000 times easier than making actually honeybuns. But it tastes just like one. How fabulous is that?
It's a cake that tastes like a honeybun - full of cinnamon and pecan and brown sugar goodness. Make some honeybun cake for YOUR honeybun today! #recipe It’s also made in a 13×9 inch pan…no cake layers, no elaborate frosting…it’s a stress-free cake.
The yellow cake mix is doctored up with butter and eggs and sour cream, and the filling is a mixture of cinnamon, brown sugar, a little of the cake mix and chopped pecans. The original recipe calls for regular pecans but I had some sugared ones hanging around from the holidays, and oh my my.
So if you have a honeybun of your own who might like a slice or two of this, it’s the kind of thing you can whip up on a lazy weekend afternoon just because. No reason other than you love them.
Honeybuns deserve honeybun cake!
Except for you. You are definitely one of my honeybuns, but you are getting a rawhide chip, which is almost as good, if you are a hound dog. I promise. But for the rest of us – honeybun cake!
PrintHoneybun Cake
It’s a cake that tastes like a honeybun – full of cinnamon and pecan and brown sugar goodness. Make some honeybun cake for YOUR honeybun today!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- One 15.2 ounce package yellow cake mix (I used Betty Crocker SuperMoist butter yellow cake, which is where I got the recipe – from that box!)
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 4 eggs
- 8 ounces sour cream
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans (I used sugared pecans, but you can use either, or even walnuts)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk (more if needed to make the glaze)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
- Put 1/2 cup of cake mix into a small bowl.
- Put the rest of the cake mix into a large bowl with the butter, eggs and sour cream. Beat with a mixer for 2 minutes.
- Add the brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon to the reserved 1/2 cup of cake mix and stir.
- Spread half of the cake batter in the pan. Sprinkle with the pecan mixture. Drop the rest of the batter in spoonfuls over the top of the pecan filling, and then smooth the spoonfuls together until they cover the filling.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. The cake should spring back when you touch it with your finger.
- Mix confectioner’s sugar, milk and vanilla together. The glaze should be pourable – if it’s not, add more milk by teaspoonfuls until it is. I needed 2 additional teaspoons.
- Pour the glaze over the cake and spread quickly with a spatula. Cool for one hour and then it is ready to be cut into squared and served to your honeybun, with a kiss!
Theresa Murphy says
You are talking my talk right here! Love honey buns! I’m thinking this would be fabulous for brunch as a coffee cake stand-in. Do you mind if I add a touch of cinnamon to the glaze? ?
Kate Morgan Jackson says
But of COURSE you can add cinnamon! Happy long honeybun weekend! :)
Candice says
I have to slide out of the driveway and into town to find the ingredients for this.
Being snowed in has its upside, nothing better to do than stay home and bake and fill the house with good scents … and have honeybun cake for dinner.
What ? you don’t eat cake for dinner ? Why do I have to wait for breakfast ? :(
Kate says
You can TOTALLY eat cake for dinner. Especially when it is snowing.
Candice says
I knew you would agree with me on this :)
Linda LC says
YUM! I can already smell this baking in my kitchen!
Kate says
I hope you saved me a piece!! :)
Karen L in Arkansas says
This sounds so delish! I will be making this soon. Thanks for such great recipes,and I love your beautiful dog!
Kate says
Thank you so much! And I hope your honeybun loves it as much as mine does. And yes, she’s a sweetie, isn’t she? :)
Karen Nelson says
What a great little recipe! Easy and Delish I have no doubt:-)
I need something for a Valentine lunch dessert for a group… this just might be the ticket!
Thanks Kate…!
Hope you are staying safe and warm. I could send you some almost 80 degree weather.. ugh!
(we desperately need rain!)
Kate says
I will DEFINITELY trade you some of our snow and ice for your 80 degrees! Hang in there…