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Old Fashioned Skillet Cake (or Plain Cake)

This post was originally published on September 1, 2011.  

Skillet Cake with whipped topping and fruit on top

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This recipe isn’t for cornbread, but since this cake is cooked in a cast iron skillet and comes out looking a lot like cornbread, today’s story is about cornbread.  Now, I don’t think I’ve told y’all this story before, but if I have, y’all just bare with me a minute here.  Back when Heather and I were first dating, I took her to meet my family and have dinner with my grandparents one Sunday.  Heather was trying her best to impress my family and was trying to help out with preparing supper when she grabbed a knife and started to cut up the cornbread.  Well, if you’re from an old school Southern family, then you know we “break” bread, not cut it.  And somehow Heather had missed this little quirk of Southern etiquette and was about to hack away.  Well, my usually quiet grandfather, seeing what was about to happen, piped up with one of his typical Papa-style disapproving grunts and just about scared poor Heather to death.  I thought she was going to run out of the room in tears at one point.  We all got a big laugh out of it and Heather can even laugh about it now too.  She got welcomed into the family that day and never since then has she gone at cornbread with a knife.  Bless her heart.

Skillet Cake Slice missing with fruit on side

This recipe is one from my great aunt.  Though I never got the chance to meet her, she had a whole mess of children and when you’re poor and have lots of mouths to feed, you just have to do what you have to do to make ends meet.  This was an easy, inexpensive treat for her family.

Mom pulled this recipe out of her recipe box for me and it was dated 1976.  I love old recipes.  And y’all also know how I love simple recipes – not only because they are easy, but also because I love simple flavors.  This is a real favorite of mine because of that.  The way the sugar caramelizes against that cast iron skillet gives the crust a crunchy texture that I really like.  It’s great served with some fresh fruit and whipped cream or perhaps even a little bit of chocolate gravy.

 

Skillet Cake Slice missing with fruit on side
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5 from 2 votes

Aunt Betty's Old Fashioned Skillet Cake

Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time35 mins
Total Time45 mins
Servings: 8 to 10
Author: Stacey Little | Southern Bite

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups self-rising flour
  • 1 1/4 cup milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Grease and flour a 12-inch cast iron skillet.
  • Combine ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.  Pour the batter into the prepared skillet.  
  • Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and set. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes before turning the cake out.
Making This Recipe?Tag me on Instagram: @SouthernBite using the hashtag #SouthernBite, so I can see how it turned out!

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Aunt Betty\'s Skillet Cake for Pinterest

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I am trying to NOT rush to the kitchen to make this — yes I have self-rising flour on hand but, sad to say, it is Gold Medal and not White Lily. When I married my southern raised husband at age 40 and he started taking me to visit his family I certainly learned a lot about cooking that was not mid-western. but I won’t make the cake today — because I have a peach cobbler to finish, made using a method (not a recipe — did she even have a recipe?) from his sister taught to me 30 plus years ago. So enjoy your site — and, oh, yes, when I do make this cake I will stir up the batter in my ‘so fun!’ bowls I won. Thanks once again.

    Reply

  2. WOW! I never had heard about not cutting cornbread before! Gotta remember that piece of Southern charm! That’s the best ‘something new’ I learned today! I’ll have to try this recipe soon. A friend bought be a BIG bottle of Watkins double-strength vanilla and I’ll bet that would be great used in this cake! Thank you!

    Reply

  3. My Bigmama used to make a simple cake like this and pour warm fudge sauce made with Hershey’s Cocoa over it. She never measured and she baked it in a single layer cake pan. But I’m thinking this is gonna be just similar enough to work. I had never heard of the not cutting the cornbread thing either. Maybe that’s why it always tears up on me before I can get it out of the pan. LOL. Love your blog. Thank You for sharing this recipe.

    Reply

  4. I found this recipe (and then your blog) on Pinterest. I made this cake tonight and love it! The texture is great and it’s not too, too sweet – even with the two cups of sugar. I didn’t have a 12 inch cast iron skillet so I used my 10 inch and just increased the cooking time a little. I will definitely be getting a larger skillet. I love cooking in cast iron. I’ve saved your blog to my Favorites list. We Southerners have the best food in the world! Keep the recipes coming!

    Reply

  5. I use to make this cake a lot with my grandmother and when I first get married, but over the years I had forgotten about it. I’m so glad you reminded me and I plan on making it sometime this week. But I have never heard of not cutting corn bread before , I’m born and raised in the South, by parents born and raised in the South, by their parents born and raised in South, by the appearance that was born and raised in the South,by their parents who where slaves in the south and we always use the knife on the corn bread, except for fried corn bread.

    Reply

  6. I am from Tennessee, born and raised, and we always broke our cornbread too! My Mom always baked hers in an iron skillet and I love the crispy bottom and sides!

    Reply

      • My parents were from Arkansas. We cut the cornbread from the plate, but then, crumbled it up when we had beans, onto our plates, and poured the beans over it. Sometimes, when I make cornbread and beans, and the breads too hot to crumble by hand, I’ll cut it into pieces, then put the beans on top, and believe it or not, it doesn’t taste the same that way! Our minds are powerful things!

        Reply

    • And don’t forget the bacon grease. My grandpa always broke the cornbread but grandma cut ours and sweet tea with milk or cream

      Reply

  7. My mother was from the south. My grandmother cooked on a old wood burning stove.
    How she didn’t burn things is beyond me. She used to make this cake and put a meringue
    icing on it.

    You haven’t eaten until you’ve had cornbread, pinto beans, and blackberry cobbler (made from fresh picked blackberries) cooked on a wood burning stove!

    Reply

  9. My grandmother used to make this and we called it cornbread cake. She passed away many years ago. I have thought about this cake many times and regreted no one in our family had the recipe. I am glad to see it on your site. Can’t wait to make it.

    Reply

  11. Got my Southern Bite cookbook in the mail today and the skillet cake is in the oven in my cast iron skillet my mother gave me 48 years ago. A lot of fried chicken has been cooked in that skillet.

    Reply

  12. Today is my son’s 20th birthday and I had planned to make him a yellow cake (boxed) with homemade frosting. Of course, was completely out of cake mix. My daughter told me “to just make a homemade cake”. That got me started looking for a plain cake. Found your reciepe and Oh My Word! It was so easy and the cake was wonderful! I topped it with a homemade chocolate frosting. So good! Thanks for the idea!! Love your cookbook and website!

    Reply

  13. Stacey, this reminds me of my Mother’s depression era recipe for “something sweet”. She called it
    SWEETENED CORNBREAD
    1 C. Self Rising flour
    1 C. Plain Cornmeal
    1 egg
    3/4 ro 1 C. Milk
    1 C. Sugar, or less
    2 or 3 T. Oil (butter might be better, but she said oil, so I use oil)
    Nutmeg to taste
    Mix and bake in cast iron skillet.

    Southern by the Grace of God

    Reply

  14. Just discovered your site searching for a recipe and this cake reminds me of my grandmother. My southern memaw would bake a simple cake in her cast iron skillet. She would put the skillet over the heat and melt a few spoons of butter, then throw in some chopped pecans and pour a simple little cake batter over that and bake it. When it came out of the oven she would turn the cake upside down on a clean kitchen towel in the middle of the table and cut wedges from it and tell us to butter it while it was hot. The only place I ever ate hot buttered cake cooked in a cast iron skillet and it was really good. Will be checking out your other recipes. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

      • Hi, Stacey. So glad that I found your site. I plan on making this cake very soon. 🙂 This may be the cake that my sister-in-law used to make when I was a kid. I remember the texture resembling cornbread and I remembered the color as being a rich yellow. I could be wrong about the color though. Can you substitute melted butter for the oil? If you do, would it change the texture or taste of this cake?

        Reply

  15. Just one question, the oil in the recipe is just for greasing the pan and not for the batter, right? I’m a novice, but I want to make a simple cake for my friends’ birthday.

    Reply

  16. Hi, I found your web site by reading a cooking magazine, but what stopped me in my tracks was this recipe. When I was a little girl and surrounded by cousins my grandmother would make a cake like this. I believe she called it “Puddin’ Cake”. Off and on I have searched for this recipe. The cousins and I could hardly wait for the cake to come out of the skillet. Your recipe seems very much the same as my grandmother’s.

    Reply

    • Welcome, Tricia! That is certainly a prized recipe for my family. I hope that you’ll try it and that it will bring a little of your sweet grandmother back to you!

      Reply

  17. I’m making this tomorrow! I’m so glad I found your website (thanks, Christy Jordan!) Have already made many of your recipes and more to try. Love your website!

    Reply

  18. do you have a simple chocolate sauce recipe to pour over this cake recipe? My granma used to keep a cake recipe very similar to yours in the cabinet for all the grandchildren to eat at any time of the day or night. Thank you!

    Reply

  19. EXCELLENT cake. made it for a friend’s brunch. Thought it may be too simple to take to someone’s home, but they ate it all! thank you

    Reply

  20. Well, GREAT recipe. I don’t use cast iron–simply too heavy for me to lift. I have really nice stainless steel pans. This baked up great in my stainless steel 10 inch fry pan. I reduced sugar by 1/2 cup and four by 1/4 cup. All fine beautifully into pan. Now I have an easy go-to vanilla cake. Thanks so much. Love the blog–great recipes.

    Reply

  21. I so love your site and recipes, Stacey. (Found you a long time ago through your “sister” Christy.) I found your story of breaking the bread sweet and endearing. Interestingly, I’m a full on southerner (mama is from Alabama and dad from NC.) We cook our cornbread in an iron skillet with the addition if extra cornmeal in the pan for an amazing extra crunch. We, however have always cut ours just like your cake picture. I just found it interesting how each family has it’s own southern traditions. While I have a lemon pound cake in the oven for a friends birthday (don’t we southerners live those pound cakes?) I look forward to trying your skillet cake soon.

    Reply

    • Isn’t that funny!? Each of our families have such interesting traditions. Thanks for following along the journey. I’ll send thanks to Christy for sending you my way.

      Reply

  22. I’m from Alabama and my grandparents on both sides of my family broke the cornbread. But when we kids were small my mother had so many kids (cousins and neighbor kids) she would not let them touch the bread. So when she had grandkids that had snotty hands she started using a knife. But before she passed she went back to breaking again. I just have always used a knife.
    But will defiantly will make the cake. Thank you for your southern recipes.

    Reply

  23. Love your site! Can you provide a gluten free recipe for this cake? Would like to see more gluten free recipes also. THX!

    Reply

  24. I’m from almost as far south in Mississippi as you can go without getting wet (about 100 miles from the coast). We broke our cornbread unless we planned to butter it. If it was to be buttered we cut a wedge, cut that open and applied the butter like buttering a biscuit. Mmmmm. Now I may have to make some in the next day or so.

    I wonder if this is the cake my husband’s grandmother used to make. After it came out of the skillet and cooled she punched it full of holes with a fork and poured chocolate sauce all over it.

    Reply

  25. Hi Stacey, I’ve lived all over the South and have never heard of breaking cornbread. So, how would you go about breaking hot cornbread to put into a plate and butter it? If I’d been at your families’ home, I would surely have also committed the same faux pas that your poor wife nearly did! LOL

    Your skillet cake looks really good!

    Reply

  27. Hi Stacey, I cooked this cake today and I must have done something wrong. The batter was very thin and overflowed my iron skillet when it baked. 40 minutes in and it is still very soupy. I even went back and double checked my measuring tools that I used to be sure I measured everything correctly and they were correct. Any thoughts/suggestions??? Thanks!

    Reply

    • Please disregard my question. After going back and reviewing everything I did multiple times, I finally pulled out a ruler. Turns out that my cast iron pan that I have always thought was 12 inches is actually only 10 inches. I’m also guessing that is why it couldn’t seem to get done. Once everything quit bubbling over and I finally got it to set, it actually tasted really good. Since I don’t have a 12 inch skillet, I will bake it in something else next time, but I will definitely try it again!

      Reply

    • I’m confused – which isn’t hard to do. Sometimes these comments come in out of order, so help me here. The recipe calls for oil. Are you substituting butter for the oil?

      Reply

  31. Holy schamoley! No one could ever accuse me of being a great cook, and my baking skills are even worse. However, I found my 8-inch cast iron skillet in the back of a drawer the other night, and when I happened upon this recipe this morning (showed up in a Google search for “skillet cake”), it was so easy I just had to try it. I halved the recipe since it’s a smaller skillet. The only other adjustment was that I added 1 tbsp of lemon juice. 30 min was a perfect baking time, and the halved recipe fit the skillet exactly. Just had a slice, no garnishments, and WOW. So good for something so easy! Really moist, not too sweet (although I might back it down an 1/8 cup or so next time and increase lemon juice to 2 tbsp, it didn’t really come through this time). Can’t wait to share it with the family.

    Reply

  32. I read all of your reviews, because all your readers wrote such nice things. I am also from the south, Southern Canada and I always make my corn bread in muffin cups and they always turn out badly. I’ ll try your corn bread in a skillet and I wont cut it. Thank you for the skillet cake recipe , I’ll try it soon.

    Reply

  33. Sometimes you just can’t beat a simple, sweet cake. I’ve got some canned peaches to use up, so I’m going to figure out a way to use them with this. Thanks!
    P.S. I’m “sort of” from the south (Oklahoma), but your story was the first time I’ve heard of tearing off a hunk of cornbread instead of cutting it, lol.

    Reply

  34. In Alabama I never saw anyone break their cornbread unless it was after the meal and my husband went for seconds and all of the cornbread wasn’t cut, then he would break some off and crumbled it and put the beans and juice on top of it.

    As far as the cake recipe, my mom would just take a bowl, put some flour and sugar in it, not measuring anything, add an egg and some milk and vanilla flavoring and put it in that iron skillet and bake it and it was delicious! Had it after supper with coffee.

    Reply

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