A Cake To Console

Honey Bun Cake

I came home from ukulele band practice yesterday just as tired as could be. But Daddy-O had been wishing for cake for about two weeks now. The first football game (his team) of the season was on TV last night and that was reason for a treat. I whipped up an easy recipe before I sat down collapsed. I figured this would either be a celebration cake or a consolation cake. By halftime, it was obvious. It was a consolation cake. The cake may have been the best thing about the evening.

This might be the best use of a cake mix out there. It's been posted here on my blog before, but if you missed it, I'll share again. It's simple enough for a night in front of the television. It's good enough to take to a church dinner. It's great with a cup of coffee. When the frosting sets up, it really does look like a honey bun. I think it tastes better than a honey bun.

HONEY BUN CAKE

1 box yellow cake mix

2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped pecans
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch pan. (I just used regular PAM.)

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, oil, eggs and sour cream with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds and then on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Spread half of batter in pan.

In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon. Sprinkle over batter in pan. Carefully spread remaining batter over pecan mixture. Bake 44-48 minutes or until deep golden brown.

In another small bowl, mix powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until thin enough to spread. Prick surface of warm cake several times with fork. Spread powdered sugar mixture over warm cake. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

This time I needed to add another teaspoon of milk to the powdered sugar. The glaze should be fairly thick—kind of like honey, but when you spread it over the hot cake (work quickly), the heat from the cake melts it enough to spread. I used a large spoon to drizzle the frosting over the cake, then used the back of the spoon to spread it.