Hi all,

One of my students told me today that she had tasted a honeybun cake at a bridal show over the weekend with her aunt in NC. She told me that it was really tasty. As soon as I heard "honeybun cake," my brain went "ooooooh, that sounds delicious." I started searching online for a recipe from scratch. Apparently, scratch-based honeybun cakes are essentially unicorns. The closest I could find was this one http://willowbirdbaking.com/2010/09/30/honeybun-cake-with-caramel-sauce/, but it's a honeybun cake recipe without honey.

Does anyone have one or can anyone think of a way to do this from scratch?

Thank you all so much,
Sherry

The honeybun cake is very similar to the sock it to me cake. They are two very good modified box cakes. I have had someone make a sock it to me cake from scratch and sadly it just didn't compare to the box version. It's funny because my sock it to me cake is my most requested cake. My scratch cakes are good and hard work, but they prefer the modfied box cake LOL! Oh well. My co-worker makes the honeybun cake all the time. It is a very good cake just the way it is, box and all. Good luck finding a recipe for a scratch one.

Well, what I'm thinking is that I can adapt a current cake recipe and just turn it into a honey bun flavored-cake. For instance, I once came across a recipe on Food.com for "Colonial Maple Nut Cake" which sounded delicious, but it started from a white box mix. I realized that the only thing making it maple was some maple flavoring, so I just made white cake batter from scratch and added maple to it. IT WAS AMAZING. It's still my favorite flavor out of all of the cakes I've ever made.

I guess my real question is: what is the essence of a honey bun? What makes a honey bun a honey bun? So far from studying these box-based recipes, it looks pretty much like a yellow cake with honey bun filling and the honey bun glaze. I'm thinking that it may be worth testing to make a basic white or yellow cake, substituting some or all of the sugar for honey (maybe add a few chopped pecans and some cinnamon), swirling the honey bun filling through out the batter, and then topping with a modified honey bun glaze (still trying to determine the best way to turn that into a SMBC frosting).

Any scratch bakers out there who would be willing to contribute some of their baking chem knowledge regarding the best theoretical proportions for ingredients?

Thanks again,
Sherry

I'm not really sure, but if I was going to try this I'd use this recipehttp://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pecan-honey-buns and adapt it to add it to a yellow cake.

I'd take the filling part of the recipe and include it in the batter as a swirl, and add some honey to the batter itself as part of the sweetener. Then put some honey and cinnamon into the meringue buttercream. In a good scratch yellow cake it would be really good, but on the sweet side, which is why I never ate honeybuns in college even though they were "the thing" to get at the bakery. I wasn't in love with the sweetness of the glaze, I guess.