Cornbread with sugar is really just cake. And I will die on that hill.
But what I haven’t heard of before is cornbread wedding cake, which is the title of an unreleased Ashley McBryde gem.
She opened up a performance at Douglas Corner Cafe Nashville back in 2015 with a little bit of backstory on how the song came to be, saying it was inspired by the time she was a flower girl at a wedding at her church.
She joked that the Church of Christ was on a tight budget, so instead of paying 89 cents more for the Duncan Hines mix, they made the wedding cake out of cornbread.
And she was promised a piece for her flower girl duties, not knowing that’s what kind would be waiting for her on the back pew:
“But they pay the flower girl in cake, so I was pretty excited about getting to eat that. So I was the flower girl, they said ‘I do,’ and we all walked to the very back pew to get our cake.
And I took a bite of it, and it was made of cornbread. ‘Cuz that’s 89 cents cheaper than Duncan Hines. That’s what kinda budget we’re on at the Church of Christ.
And I’m tellin’ Wood Newton this story over a couple beers, and he says, ‘We gotta go write this song.’ And I said, we’re not writing a song called ‘Cornbread Wedding Cake,” and he said, ‘Oh yes we are.’”
She sings about the fact that, while the young couple didn’t have “two nickels to rub together,” and got by with a wedding cake made out of cornbread, they were in love and nothing else mattered.
Ashley and co-writer Wood Hampton actually penned it back in 2011, and Wood included a version on his 2019 Hampton album, but hearing Ashley sing it is just a whole other experience.
It’s such a unique concept and story, and of course, is very well-written and engaging, and I think almost anyone could find a little bit of humor and truth somewhere in the verses.
Ashley just released an awesome concept album called Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville in September, but if she does have another studio album coming out way next year, I really hope this make the final cut:
Wood Newton’s version: