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!!!



Fun Facts about the Kentucky Derby!

 It's Kentucky Derby time in Kentucky.  For those of you who don't really pay attention to the Derby as much as those in KY might, here are some fun facts about the Derby. 

The Kentucky Derby trophy is made of 56 ounces of 14 and 18 carat gold, and is two feet tall.

Churchill Downs opened on May 17, 1875 and the very first race was won by a horse named Bonaventure. The featured race's winner was a 3 year-old chestnut colt named Aristides.

The phrase "Run for the Roses" was coined by New York sports columnist Bill Corum, who would later become president of Churchill Downs.

In 1969, Diane Crump became the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby and the first to ride in a pari-mutuel race in North America.

The horseshoe atop the Kentucky Derby was originally pointing down, and was turned 180 degrees to point upward in 1924.

Racing silks were adopted in order to distinguish jockeys and horses from one another.

"My Old Kentucky Home", the song played when the horse are led onto the field, has been played by University of Louisville Marching Band since 1936.

Early Times is the official Kentucky whiskey used to make Mint Juleps at the Kentucky Derby.

Many celebrities have owned horses that have run in the Derby, including Steven Speilberg, George Steinbrenner and Burt Bacharach.

The Garland of Roses, presented to the winner of the Kentucky Derby, has been shipped to Danville, Kentucky to be freeze-dried since 1996. Some owners even save a rose in order to dip it in silver for preservation.

The Derby was nationally telecast for the first time on May 3, 1952 on a CBS affiliate.

In 1896, the Derby was shortened from 1 ? miles to 1 ? miles because it was thought that the distance was too long for 3 year-old colts to run in the spring.

Donerail became the longest shot to win the Kentucky Derby in 1913, with 91.45-1 odds.

12 Kentucky Derby winners have sired other Kentucky Derby winners, with Bold Venture actually siring two.

There has never been a winner to come out of post position #15.

The fastest Derby run was by Secretariat in 1973, at 1:59.40. The slowest run was by Stone Street in 1908, at 2:15.20.