Honey Glazed Corn Bread Cake

During my macaron craze phase, I came upon a book called I Love Macarons by Hisako Ogita. It is about the only English language book out there that devote entirely to the art of macaron making. In French, you can probably find a ton! I really wish I can read French so I can study Pierre Herme's many recipe books! The book by Ogita is very thin, about 80 pages, so I thought I could read it in one afternoon without having to purchase it. One afternoon, I took my grandma to Borders so I can read it. It literally took me half an hour to finish the whole book because the book has about the amount of pictures in a children's book! While I was reading my macaron book, my grandma flipped through another picture heavy dessert book by Sherry Yard. I asked her what she liked from the book and I would make it for her. And.. tada.. she found the Honey-glazed corn bread. Yikes..I don't like corn breads. I've had a few times in various Thanksgiving-themed meals, and never liked it. But prior to Thanksgiving, my aunt had given me two bags of corn bread mix nearing expiration date, so I thought I would give this recipe a try anyway.

Honey-Glazed Corn Bread

(from Sherry Yard's recipe in Desserts by the Yard)

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cake flour
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature
3 ounces (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1/2 cup buttermilk

For the glaze:*
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon water

• Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil and spray the foil with pan spray.
• Sift together the cornmeal, all-purpose flour, cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt 2 times.  Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs.  Melt the butter and immediately whisk into the eggs in a slow stream.  Whisk in the oil, milk, buttermilk.  Whisk in the dry ingredients just until combined.
• Scrape the batter into the pan and bake for 30 minutes.  Rotate pan from front to back and continue to bake for 10 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Make the glaze: While the corn bread is baking, melt the butter in a medium saucepan.  Add the honey and water and whisk until blended. (I didn't make the glaze and it still tasted great! Although it does defeat the name of this recipe.)
  
• When the corn bread is done, brush with the glaze and allow to cool.

This recipe was super easy to make. I discarded the glazing part, because who wants more sugar? And to my surprise, it was fantastic.. as fantastic as a corn bread can be.