Name: The Best Sweet Cornbread Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup cornmeal; 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour; 2/3 cup sugar; 1 tbsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/3 cup vegetable oil; 3 tbsp melted butter; 1 tbsp honey; 2 eggs; 1 1/4 cups milk

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The Best Sweet Cornbread Recipe: quick and easy recipe for a sweet cake like cornbread that is moist and delicious.

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Quick Bread
Sweet Cornbread
Don't Over Cook
Storing The Cornbread
Serving Ideas
Recipe
More Recipe Inspiration

You will love this homemade cornbread recipe. It is sweet and cake like and so, so good. It's not only the perfect accompaniment to your dinner, but also a great snack or breakfast too. It is pretty great just about anytime really. It's also really simple to make. You can put it together in about 10 minutes and it's so worth the minimal effort it takes to make it. If you're a fan of sweet cornbread, this is the best cornbread recipe.

I'm kind of new to cornbread. I didn't grow up eating it. The first time I tried this recipe was at a friend's house. They were having a tex-mex menu and served this cornbread. I thought it was so good I had to have the recipe. I'd tried cornbread before but never really loved it. It was always just kind of dry and crumbly. Not this recipe though. This one was sweet and moist and almost cake like. It complimented the meal of spicy and bbq food so well. I've been making it ever since and my family and friends all love it. It makes a really delicious side dish for a bbq menu. And it's perfect for feeding a lot of people.

I also love the leftovers. It's such a lovely breakfast with a drizzle of honey, or jam. It's a delicious way to start your day. And with a cup tea in the afternoon around 2 pm it's the perfect pick me up.

This recipe is so easy to put together. You just combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another and then stir them together. No stand mixer required. Then it all gets poured into a regular 8 x 8 baking dish to bake. That's it. So easy. If you've been looking for a quick and delicious sweet cornbread recipe then you will love this.

Quick Bread

This recipe is a quick bread. Quick breads don't require any yeast, they rely on a leavening agent like baking soda or baking powder. Our cornbread uses baking powder as the leavening agent. Although cornbread doesn't rise much. It's typically quite a dense quick bread. Quick bread gets its name from being quick to make. There's no need to wait for it to rise like traditional bread recipes. This makes it really quick and easy to make.

Southern Style vs. Northern Style
Traditionally southern-style cornbread tends to be less sweet, and more crumbly, with a higher cornmeal content. Southern cornbread is usually cooked in a cast iron skillet, with a more crusty outside.

Northern cornbread is made with more eggs, and flour and has a buttery cake like texture and consistency. It's generally thought of as sweeter. Historians point to the cost of sugar as the reason that cornbread in the south wasn't traditionally sweetened with sugar.

There's much debate over which style of cornbread is better. Our cornbread is definitely of the more cake like variety with extra ingredients like three eggs and all purpose flour added. This helps create that cake like texture and tender crumb. It's sweetened with sugar and honey. If you like your cornbread on the sweet side, this sweet cake-like cornbread recipe is for you.

Sweet Cornbread

Our cornbread recipe is sweet and it gets its sweetness from two ingredients, sugar and honey. That touch of honey helps add a depth of flavor. Honey also has a higher sugar count and caramelizes faster than regular sugar, which contributes to that golden brown crust on the outside of the cornbread. Even a little honey in baked goods also helps them last longer and stay moist longer.

Don't Over Cook

If this cornbread is accidently over cooked, it can become a bit too dry and crumbly. Something you want to avoid. One of the secrets to a moist cornbread recipe is actually in the baking. You want the cornbread to be fully baked and not have any wet batter in the middle, but you don't want to over bake it at all. If you leave it in the oven too long it can become dry.

To see if it's finished baking use the toothpick test. When the cornbread is golden brown on the top, insert a wooden toothpick about an inch deep into the center of the top of the cornbread. If the toothpick is dry when it's removed then the cornbread is ready. If its wet from unbaked batter, then it needs to cook longer. Set your timer for 2-5 minutes, and check it again. As this sweet cornbread bakes it often develops a crack in the middle, this is normal.

This cornbread is great served warm with a pat of butter on top to melt. It has delicious moist crumbs with a cake-like consistency that's not too dry. You might even try it with a honey butter.

Storing The Cornbread

Store any leftover cornbread in a airtight container or covered in plastic wrap at room temperature.

Serving Ideas

This delicious cornbread makes a great side dish. We often serve it with bbq ribs, our homemade macaroni and cheese -get the recipe here, and our slow cooker baked beans -get the recipe here. This is the best homemade cornbread recipe if you like a sweet cornbread.

I also love it for breakfast with butter and blueberry jam. I think it tastes like a great blueberry muffin, but with that wonderful cornmeal texture that's so, so yummy. Just trust me on this one. My husband was kind of reluctant to try it after I discovered this amazing combination. I forced him to give it a try with words like, trust me, have I ever steered you wrong when it comes to yummy food. He did try it and later that day said to me how amazing it was and how could he ever doubt me. Ha, ha. Just trust me. It's so perfect with a hot cup of coffee or tea in the morning, although admittedly quite a sweet start to the day.

That delicious combination got me thinking about having this sweet cornbread as an easy dessert. I'm imagining this cornbread as cornbread shortcake. Imagine macerated strawberries and sweet whipped cream. Sounds like another match made in heaven to me.