If you are interested in making a full Kentucky meal, be sure to also check out our Hot Brown Sandwiches, Southern Fried Chicken, Virgin Mint Juleps, and Kentucky Chocolate Chip Walnut Pie!
What is Kentucky butter cake?
Kentucky butter cake is a classic Southern pound cake with a moist, tender crumb and sweet butter glaze that makes it taste almost like a cake version of an old-fashioned doughnut. After the bundt cake is baked, it’s poked with holes while still in the pan. Then a sweet, warm butter sauce is poured over the bottom that soaks into the cake and sets up to form a cake like no other with a delicious crunchy sugar crust. The butter sauce is simple with just four ingredients – butter, sugar, water, and vanilla. The first three are combined in a small saucepan and heated to just a simmer for 5 minutes until slightly thickened and syrupy. Then the vanilla is stirred in before it is poured directly onto the warm cake. Thanks to that butter glaze, the cake stays fresh and flavorful for days so it’s perfect for making ahead. I love when a dessert is just as wonderful (some say better!) the next day as when it was made. I wanted to share this Kentucky butter cake recipe as part of Kentucky Week for my American Eats series where I’m making some of the namesake and most-popular recipes of each state in the U.S., one state at a time. I’m always looking for new bundt cake recipes since I love how they look and present. Some other cakes I have shared using my classic bundt pan are pear ginger bundt cake and sour cream pound cake.
How to make Kentucky butter cake
You can serve the cake as is, or with some fresh fruit like berries. I also love it with a little fresh lemon curd and whipped cream.
Tips for making bundt cakes
Always be sure to grease and flour your pan well. Cooking spray doesn’t work great, in my experience. Instead, brush or rub butter or shortening around the inside of the pan. Make sure to hit all the crevices, then add flour and knock it around to coat the pan. A baking spray with flour in it like Baker’s Joy (affiliate link) will also work. Adjust your oven racks before preheating the oven. Sometimes I need to move oven racks around a bit to have room for my tall bundt pan to bake in the center of the oven. It’s much easier to do when the oven is still cold. Don’t overmix the batter when adding the flour. Beat air into it while creaming the butter and sugar, as well as when mixing in the eggs one at a time. But after that, you are just mixing to combine and alternating ingredients to make sure everything is incorporated well.
More cake recipes you’ll love
Sour Cream Pound Cake Tres Leches Cake Sour Cream Coffee Cake Best Carrot Cake Recipe German Apple Cake Lane Cake Sock It To Me Cake
More States I Have Visited in my American Eats Series
Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • New Jersey • New York • Oregon • Puerto Rico • South Carolina • South Dakota • Texas • Utah • Wisconsin
Southern Hummingbird Cake
Southern Caramel Cake
Coca Cola Cake
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
