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Kentucky Butter Cake!





  

The Kentucky Butter Cake is pretty much just what the name says it is.  It's a really good buttery pound cake that gets kicked up another notch, as we in Kentucky are known for doing, by adding a buttery glaze to it.

Now I know most areas have pound cakes of various types...sour cream, cream cheese, but in Kentucky we don't mess around, we just go big on the butter and sugar.

This isn't a complicated cake or a flamboyantly beautiful cake.  It's not stacked to the ceiling or frosted with a really fantastic 7 minute frosting that only the best cooks even attempt. However, it's a Kentucky gem.

I have been meaning to make this cake for some time now, well ever since I started this blog, nine months ago, but it just kept getting pushed to the back burner for some reason.  Then the other day, a sweet lady wrote to me and said she was searching for a certain type of butter cake that she wanted to make for a friend of hers who was ill.

 His grandmother used to make it for him years ago. She said she had tried with no success several times and she just could not figure out what he wanted.

 So I asked her to ask him what type of pan it was baked in and she said he pulled out her Bundt pan.   Hmmm...I thought I might know the answer, so I asked her where he was from or actually where grandmother was from, and she said Central Kentucky.

That did it!  I knew he was talking about the Kentucky butter cake.  So, I decided I needed to make this and post it so this gentleman could get his Kentucky butter cake when he gets out of the hospital this time.   I hope he enjoys it!

 Here is what you will need for this cake:

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. butter flavoring (optional) I used Watkins

Glaze
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 tsp. butter flavoring (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in buttermilk, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and butter flavoring if you are using it.  Mix well, but don't over mix. 

Pour into a Bundt pan or a tube pan that has been liberally sprayed with nonstick spray for baking that contains flour or butter and flour the pan.  Do this very well cover all or this cake might stick.

Place in the oven for 60-65 minutes.  A pick inserted in the middle should come out clean.












To make the glaze, melt the butter with the sugar and water over low heat just until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved.  Add the vanilla and the butter flavoring. 









With a wooden skewer or a fork with large tines, poke holes in the cake while it's still in the pan. Slowly pour the warm glaze over the cake.  It will gradually settle into the cake completely.  Let the cake sit in the pan and cool.  When it's cool, run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan just to loosen it.  Do the center of the pan also. 








Gently turn the cake out onto a cake plate.


Kentucky Butter Cake!  It's just wonderful!!!




56 comments:

  1. this cake has lots of butter in it and on it which I love, so why would anyone use butter flavoring? I'm glad thats an option!

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  2. Because that butter flavoring is mostly alcohol that has a buttery flavor and just does wonderful things to buttery desserts. Some KY Butter Cake recipes call for rum flavoring and I didn't have any so I use the butter flavoring and it's so good. The Watkins is the best, but it's very optional. I just like to share my little secrets when I can.

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    1. Kathy, thank you for not only sharing your recipes, but all your little secrets for example (my mother's old favorite spices and flavorings...Watkins which we purchased from a traveling salesman) butter flavoring!

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    2. My Mom used and loved watkins. Putting butter extract sounds like a great idea! I am going online to see if i can order some asap. Thank you

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    3. My Walmart carries Watkins products.

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  3. here in Louisiana we add Southern Comfort to the glaze.....yummy

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  4. Thank you for Posting this recipe I will be trying to make very soon , I have become the Family Cake Baker I just want to try my hand at a good buttery pound cake and i think i just found the Best Recipe ....live across the river in Ohio.

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  5. so, do you spray the pan with cooking oil, and then sprinkle it with flour before pouring batter in???

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    1. Pam also has a cooking spray with flour. Pam Baking, I believe it's called.

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  6. I like to add either rum or lemon to the glaze.....

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  7. I sometimes add either butter rum flavor or lemon to the glaze.

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  8. I am so... looking forward to making this cake. Thank you!

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  9. This is now one of my favorite blogs.

    I grew up in E-town and spent a lot of time between E-town and Bowling Green because my grandparents lived in Munfordville.

    I love your blog.

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  10. Also that looks like my mother's china pattern.

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  11. Willasmom, probably spray with cooking spray..not necessary to flour...only if you want to...may show on finished cake....

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  12. I'm the one who wrote to you last week. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. I just finished baking this awesome cake! We couldn't even wait for it to cool.... we just HAD to taste it! OH MY GOODNESS! It was awesome! I was planning to take it to the gentleman I was telling you about tomorrow, but it looks like I may have to bake another one tonight... :-) You have NO idea how happy you have made this family! :-) Thank you again for sharing! :-)

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  13. Thank goodness I have all the ingredients- I'm making this to-night! YUM!

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  14. I'm going to make this cake for my family at our next Sunday dinner...thanks do much for sharing..

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  15. Little Chloe, I am so glad you saw it and made it. I hope you didn't mind me sharing our conversation also. I hope you all enjoyed it and your friend does also. :)

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  16. Sounds like there is going to be a lot of butter cake baking going on...I love it!

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  17. I am sure that I won't get any "Healthy Living" points today but I ate a piece of this cake for breakfast and thought I had died and gone to heaven! I vaguely remember a cake like this when I was a little girl and we visited my Aunt in Ohio..pretty close to Kentucky. Thanks, my daughter (who hates icing on cakes and loves bundt cakes)is going to want ALL the rest of it!!

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  18. Hi Kathy! I most certainly didn't mind your sharing our conversation. I'm honored you chose to do so. Thank you again for helping me bring such joy to this family during a very trying time in their lives! :-)

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  19. A short cut of this cake : betty crocker butter cake mix(dry) 8oz. Sour cream 4 eggs, 1/2 c. Sugar, 1/2 c.oil, 1tea. Van. ,& tea. butter flav.,beat all together put in greased & floured bundt & bake in preheated 350 40 min. This is a great version , some ovens may need to bake @325,, I bake it @ about 335 & it is a great happy medium , a wonderful recipe without glaze

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    1. Thanks Sweet Tea and Cornbread for the recipe. Thanks, also, to Anonymous for sharing a short cut. I made the short cut cake and it was a huge hit!! It baked at 325* for 60 minutes. Thank you both for this KY Butter Cake recipe! My husband and parents loved it! Writing this from Louisville, Kentucky. :)

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  20. OMGosh.....That's all I can say OMGosh....I am gonna make this tomorrow after church....Thank You Sweet Tea and Cornbread...your the best....Amy Watson :)

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  21. We live in Belize< Central America where buttermilk is hard to find. Can I use regular milk? The same goes for real butter which is VERY expensive. We us Blue Bonnet. I would also add coconut rum to the glaze.

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    1. You can make your own buttermilk by mixing 1 cup of regular milk with either 1 tablespoon of lemmon juice or 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Works like a chaMP

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    2. You can make your own buttermilk by mixing 1 cup of regular milk with either 1 tablespoon of vinegar or 1 tablespoon of lemmon juice. Works like a champ

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  22. This is my husband's favorite pound cake! I have been making this cake for YEARS! I have so many people that have me make it for them also. I wish I knew how to post pictures on here and I would show you how mine looks. I make mine in a tube pan and I always grease and flour mine. The flour never has shown up on mine but I do always say a prayer before I turn it over because it has stuck on me several times if I tried to take it out too soon. I have learned if I let it set in the pan overnight and then the next morning I put it in the oven just a few minutes to loosen the butter glaze and it just slides right out. I also double the glaze recipe too because it makes it even more moist. I usually sprinkle powdered sugar on top and put some strawberries that I have cut to fan out on top and bluberries in the middle. Looks very patriotic for the holidays. I think this is the very same recipe as the one I have. I will have to check. You would think as many as I have made I would know but I have CRS. haha, Thanks for sharing your recipe. It is one of my treasured recipes that I got from my mom.

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  23. Martha from ga. I have used a lot of your recipes and enjoyed all will try this one. Soon thanks for sharing.

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  24. Can u use self rising flour and omit the soda, salt & powder?

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  25. anonymous who lives in Belize asked about the the receipe with out buttermilk.... Has anyone tried it without? My daughter breaks out in hives with buttermilk.. so do tell...
    Thanks

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    1. the best way to solve this problem is use regular cups of milk and add two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, same effect as using buttermilk, but not same ingredients.... always do this when I do not have any.

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    2. try using regular milk and adding one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar per cup of milk.... works just like buttermilk when you do not have it.

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  26. 43 years ago when my sister first met her husband to be he told her his favorite cake was Kentucky Butter and she found a recipe and made it for him, OMG what a wonderful cake. After all these years its still a family favorite.

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  27. I usually substituted sour cream in recipes calling for buttermilk. Would that work in this case?

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    1. Hi Willa Dale...how do you use the sour cream in this recipe instead of buttermilk. Thank you.

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    2. Hi , I am also interested in how to use the sour cream instead of buttermilk.

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  28. Thanks for the info. on how to make buttermilk! I have one important question....My husband is diabetic can I use Splenda instead of sugar???

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  29. Do you use salted or unsalted butter? Would very much appreciate it if you would consider specifying which in future recipe postings.

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  30. This recipe sounds so delicious and will try it on the 4rth when I go grocery shopping I love to bake from scatch and will add this to my cake recipes

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  31. New to baking...What is butter flavoring? and where do you get it? I live in Key West, Fl not alot of options here but a GA girl at heart,,,

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  32. I have been able to find some Watkins flavorings in our local grocery stores and was very happy to see them! Maybe some of your stores will have them too.

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  33. Lane Edwards, it doesn't matter if it's salted or unsalted butter. In most recipes it makes no differences. If I don't specify, it doesn't matter. The main things that may call for unsalted butter are recipes with yeast. Yeast and salt do not really like each other and have to be mixed in a certain way to avoid direct interaction.

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  34. I would not substitute sour cream for butter milk in this. The consistency is not the same. If you don't have buttermilk, add a tsp. of vinegar to whole milk and let it stand for a bit to make buttermilk.

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  35. I spray with Pam and then coat with granulated sugar have done this in place of flour for a long time it leaves a crust like and no need for glaze, everyone loves it and no clumps of flour. Try it.

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  36. Also, instead of coating the pan with flour, use superfine sugar, It makes a glisten on the caketop. You can make superfine sugar by runing regular sugar in food processor several pulses,

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  37. We never used flavoring in ours it was straight rum...or if it was for the men it was bourbon... also have had it with a pudding filling >Nana said she did those for a crowd cuz she would get 2 cakes from a recipe

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  38. Wonderful recipe Kathy. I have a few recipes that use buttermilk, but not enough to keep it on hand in the fridge. Several years ago I discovered powdered buttermilk. You can usually find it near the powder and canned milk in the grocery store. I usually buy mine at our local Amish store. in most recipes I add the powder to my dry ingredients, and then use water in place of the liquid buttermilk. I love the powdered buttermilk. It lasts well on the shelf and it's so easy to keep on hand.
    I have always used the Joy baking spray. I think it may even predate Pam!

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  39. I don't know what went wrong. I followed the recipe and the cake batter rose over the bundt pan and then the cake fell. It looks like I am the only one to have this problem. Can anyone tell me what I might have done wrong?

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  40. Whoa. . . he will be going back to the hospital after eating this cake. . . 3 cups of sugar and 3 sticks of butter. But I bet it's good.

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