Honey Pound Cake is a variation of my favorite all-butter pound cake. I spent months testing cake batter mixing methods and ingredients to achieve Pound Cake Perfection. Then I set out to make a moist honey cake recipe with a perfect pound cake texture.

two slices of Honey pound cake on a plate

Honey pound cake has a beautiful tawny color and caramel flavor

If you’ve read through my “Cake Batter Course” you know that it took lots of work and testing to come up with a really great pound cake recipe. If you’re interested, over 7 classes (blog posts) you can learn all about the ingredients and mixing methods for cake batter. It’s pretty detailed stuff, but what you learn about baking can be applied to all your recipes, not just cake batter. And it’s free here on Baking Sense. This variation of my perfected pound cake recipe uses honey to replace some of the granulated sugar. While I was baking test cakes for the “sugar” class, I baked a cake using honey instead of sugar. Because I used all honey and no sugar, and didn’t make any other changes to the cake, the cake baked up dense and collapsed a little. It looks pretty awful, doesn’t it?

Pound cake made with only honey has great flavor but excess moisture caused the structure to collapse.

That test cake was certainly not perfect, but I loved the flavor of the cake. I knew I wanted to create a moist honey cake recipe once I perfected the basic recipe. So here it is, and it is delicious, if I do say so myself!

How I created a great Honey Pound Cake recipe:

I’ll give you a quick overview of the changes that I made to the basic recipe so that I could add the honey without the cake collapsing. If you want more detailed information you can read through the cake batter classes. In a nutshell, adding extra egg yolks and using chlorinated cake flour enabled me to add more liquid to the batter. In the cake that collapsed I used only honey. For this recipe I used both honey and granulated sugar so the sugar could take up some of the extra liquid from the honey.

a sliced honey pound cake on a wooden cake plate

The cake doesn’t need any icing or other embellishments other than a pretty sprinkle of powdered sugar. I baked it in a loaf pan, but it would also bake nicely in a Bundt pan. Here are some other pound cake recipes for you to try:

If you love this recipe as much as I do, please consider giving it a 5-star review.

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4.48 from 99 reviews

Honey Pound Cake

By: Eileen Gray

I spent months testing cake batter mixing methods and ingredients to achieve Pound Cake Perfection. This Honey Pound Cake is a variation of my favorite all-butter cake.

Prep Time30

Bake Time55

Total Time1 25

12 slices

Ingredients

3 large eggs (room temp)
4 egg yolks (room temp)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 oz honey (½ cup)
8 oz cake flour (1 ¾ cups)
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 oz granulated sugar (½ cup)
9 oz unsalted butter (room temp)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Butter and flour a 9"x5" loaf pan or Bundt pan.
Combine 3 large eggs, 4 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 6 oz honey in a small bowl, whisk to combine and set aside.
Sift together 8 oz cake flour, ¼ teaspoon table salt and 1 teaspoon baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add 4 oz granulated sugar to the flour and mix at low speed for 30 seconds. Add 9 oz unsalted butter to the flour and mix until combined. Increase the speed to medium high and mix for a full 2-3 minutes. The batter will lighten in color and texture. If using a hand mixer add another minute to the mixing time.
Scrape the bowl and beater thoroughly. On low speed, add the eggs in 3 increments, scraping the bowl after each addition. Mix just until the eggs are incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (about 55 minutes).

Equipment

My Book

KA Stand Mixer

Offset Spatula

Loaf Pan

Cooling Rack

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Nutrition

Have you tried this recipe?Mention @eileen.bakingsense or tag #bakingsense!

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Den

Saturday 8th of April 2023

I made it last night because I had a ton of honey and I didn't know what to do with it. It was absolutely delicious! Not too sweet and you can really taste the honey, the texture is lovely as well. I did use a different kind of pan however, because my loaf pan seemed a bit too small for the amount of batter I got. I used a savarin mould instead and it was ready at 40-42 minutes. I decorated it with some confectioner's sugar and some edible flowers. Thanks for the recipe! <3

Chiamaka

Monday 28th of February 2022

Hi, I will be trying your recipe next week for my husband's birthday. We have become sugar free in the past one year. Any ideas on how the cake might turn out without the sugar? I know i would have to reduce the baking temp to 325 and perhaps add some baking soda to help the cake to rise . So you any other tips or ideas ? Thanks in advance. Chiamaka

Eileen Gray

Tuesday 1st of March 2022

Do you mean without the granulated sugar and only honey? Do you plan to replace the sugar with extra honey? If you read through the post you'll see a photo of a cake I made with just honey. It did collapse and become gummy. Honey has extra liquid and the granulated sugar helps absorb some moisture. If you just eliminate the sugar and don't add any extra honey the cake may be a bit tough since sugar tenderizes the cake.

Bridget

Wednesday 1st of December 2021

Thanks so much for this recipe. I've been searching for honey base cake recipe for a client if mine that has intolerance to granulated sugar. I will definitely try this with exception of sugar. Hope it turns out well

Olawale Taiwo

Sunday 20th of June 2021

Hello,

I will like to adopt your recipe, but I'm afraid I will be waiting egg whites, since I'm doubling the recipe on a large scale.

The recipe calls for 4 yolks... which means there will be be 4 egg whites left...

Since 2 eggwhites equals 1 large egg. Can I replace the 4 yolks in the recipe for 2 large eggs ...

So that the total eggs called for in the recipe will be 5.

I know the formula was scientific balanced.

I was just thinking maybe using all whole eggs to avoid wastage will work out.

Thanks for your prompt reply

If you read through this post about eggs in cake batter you can get a lot of information about substituting eggs/whites/yolks. You could use 2 eggs instead of 4 yolks, but the texture of the cake won't be as fine and velvety. Also, you can freeze the left over egg whites and use them later. Here's a list of recipes that use extra egg whites.

Tina

Sunday 20th of December 2020

Eileen, What is the purpose of the granulated sugar in this recipe? I Love the Honey creation- I was trying to come up with one I can share with Non-Granulated sugar people for the holiday. But without understanding the purpose of the sugar, I thought I better check. I was considering birch tree xylitol - but again, without knowing any work the sugar is doing, I wasn't sure if I should risk it. I don't use any nutrasweet or splenda, or any erythritol products. Stevia is bitter. Not sure about monkfruit sugar- never tried it. I'm open to ideas if I am avoiding granulated sugar. Thanks for your hard work here! This is fantastic!

Did you read through the post or just the recipe? I explain a little in the body of the post why I use a mixture of sugar and honey instead of just honey. There's more information in this post about sugar in cake batter. To make a cake with just honey more adjustments would be needed for the recipe to bake up properly. That would require some recipe testing so I couldn't say off the bat.