Get the taste of buttery summer corn all year around with this Sweet Corn Cake! A butter corn cake is moist and soft, while the buttered popcorn ream cheese frosting tastes like buttered popcorn!
This cake has the flavors of homey comfort goodies—like corn bread from a mix and microwave popcorn—but all in cake form! The Sweet Corn Cake is a reinvention of that Jiffy Corn Bread mix we all know and love. The mix is tender, sweet, and moist. Here I put in effort to recreate those qualities. Rather than using cornmeal—which is prone to crumbling—I use all-purpose flour for much needed structure and height.
As much as I love fresh sweet corn, its delicate flavor dissipates when baked. Plus you can’t get sweet corn all year round. I wanted to develop a recipe you could easily assemble in any season. To get a lasting and powerful corn flavor, I used creamed corn. Yes that stuff you find in a can. The mixture is perfect because it provides moisture and concentrated flavor.
You still get flecks of corn in the cake, but those corn pieces won’t leave giant watery holes in the cake’s wall structure. Like blueberries and other fruit/vegetable mix-ins, corn has a lot of water. When baked, the water in corn will release out of the kernel and compromise the fine balance of wet and dry cake batter ingredients. Creamed corn is already intensified with flavor and needs no cooking down. The moisture in the creamed corn is already accounted for in the wet mixture, so there’s no worry of giant cake holes.
Though I’ve made corn infused cakes in the past, but I wanted to create a powerful corn taste that was more assertive and forceful. Like the creamed corn, popcorn provides corn easily season-less ingredient to pick up. That buttered popcorn flavor is concentrated with a two hour long steep. A longer process means you lose more liquid, but the liquid you get is amped up with buttered popcorn flavor! The frosting is un-redeeming calorie wise, but it acts as the ‘butter’ to a fresh corn on the cob. The Sweet Corn Cake’s Buttered Popcorn Cream Cheese Frosting is full of perfect swag. It is unapologetic and why should it, it needs no excuses!
So cling on to the last bit of summer and make summer anytime of year with a happy and cheery Sweet Corn Cake!
Like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest and Instagram
- For the Sweet Corn Cake:
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 ½ cups (3 sticks, 12 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 5 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups creamed corn
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon butter extract
- 3 to 4 drops yellow food dye
- For the Buttered Popcorn Cream:
- ¼ cup popcorn kernels
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 ½ cups heavy cream
- For the Buttered Popcorn Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 ½ cups (3 sticks, 12 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 ½ pounds powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ cup Buttered Popcorn Cream
- 2 to 3 drops yellow food dye
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 8-inch cake pans with baking spray set aside.
- Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together, set aside. Beat butter at a medium speed until pale and smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl and paddle, add sugar and cream until fluffy and light, about 1 minute. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl down.
- In another bowl whisk together buttermilk, creamed corn, extracts, and yellow coloring. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients in three additions alternately with wet mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Give the batter a few stirs by hand to ensure color is evenly distributed.
- Divide batter among prepared pans, smooth tops, tapping pans against counter to remove bubbles. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, rotating halfway. A toothpick inserted should come out clean with a few moist, not wet, crumbs. Let cakes rest in pans for 5 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Place popcorn kernels and olive oil a large stock pot. Put pot over medium-high heat and place the lid on. Shake the pot occasionally to prevent kernels from sticking to the bottom. Let kernels pop for 4 to 5 minutes. Once all of the kernels have popped, remove from heat, remove any un-popped kernels, and sprinkle over salt.
- Heat heavy cream a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Once it comes to a boil, pour cream over the popcorn, let mixture sit in the large stock pot with the lid on for 2 hours. Stir occasionally.
- Use a blender to puree mixture until smooth, about 2 minutes. Strainer mixture through a fine mesh sieve. Pour into an airtight container until you’re ready to make the frosting.
- Combine butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beating on medium-high speed, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl. With mixer on lowest speed, gradually add powdered sugar, salt, vanilla bean paste, and infused popcorn milk. Raise speed again to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Tint with 2 to 3 drops of yellow dye.
- Dollop a bit of frosting onto a cake board. Secure the first layer, apply an even layer of frosting, repeat with the second layer, top with the third layer. Base ice the cake and chill in refrigerator for 10 minutes to set the frosting. Apply a thicker, final layer of frosting, using a comb to pull through the frosting. Use an ice cream scoop to make the boarder.