Kentucky Butter Cake

Kentucky Butter Cake is a delicious, buttery, vanilla bundt cake made with simple ingredients then soaked in a sweet buttery sauce. Step-by-step photos help you bake this special dessert.

Cookies, brownies, sheet cakes, and baked bundt cakes are some of my favorites. Check out my recipe for my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Basically baking anything involving butter and sugar.

This cake reminds me of my Crack Cake Recipe, that cake is also a bundt cake that is soaked in a butter-sugar syrup but that syrup is made with wine! Make sure to bake that cake recipe next.

The texture of this cake reminds me of the butter cake at Lazy Dog restaurants. It's moist, buttery, and dense.

Another reason I love this cake is that it is perfect for a party is that it needs time to sit and really let the butter sauce soak in. So its ideal to make this cake the day before you want to serve it.

Let's get to the recipe.

What is Kentucky Butter Cake?

A butter-based cake flavored with vanilla is baked to perfection then a sweet buttery sauce that soaks into the cake helps ensure this cake is perfectly sweet and moist.

What are the ingredients?

Luckily you only need pantry ingredients for this recipe.

• All-Purpose/ Plain Flour. What would a cake be without flour?! Flour provides structure to the cake, you don't want to overmix the cake batter though as it can overdevelop the gluten and create a tougher cake.
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda. We need this cake to rise, but it doesn't rise too much. We want a denser cake to soak in all of the glaze.
• Salt. Just a bit helps balance out all of the sweetness.
• Granulated/ Caster Sugar. Sugar provides moisture, flavor, and structure to the cake.
• Unsalted Butter. Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature this way the butter and sugar can cream together. Normally in a white/yellow cake, I use a mixture of butter and oil to ensure moistness but since this cake is soaked in a butter glaze we don't need any oil in this cake.
• Pure Vanilla Extract. Use the real vanilla extract, no imitation. The flavor will be worth it!
• Large Eggs. To ensure the eggs blend into the creamed butter and sugar mixture making sure the eggs are not cold, they should be room temperature. To speed the process you can put the eggs in a bowl full of warm water for 5-10 minutes.
• Buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk on hand then you can make it by pouring a cup of milk into a bowl and adding a tablespoon of white vinegar, let it sit for 10 minutes before using it.

For the glaze that soaks into the cake you'll need:

• Granulated/ Caster Sugar
• Water
• Unsalted Butter
• Pure Vanilla Extract

Baking is a science and to really achieve the best results I highly recommend investing in a kitchen scale. This OXO Kitchen Scale is the one I use and is also the number one recommended kitchen scale by Cook's Illustrated. Think about it -what one person scoops into a "cup" is completely different from what someone else scoops!

How to Make a Kentucky Butter Pound Cake

Preheat oven to 325F/163C and heavily grease and flour a 10-cup bundt pan, set aside while you prepare the filling. Make sure your cake pan greased and floured.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or large mixing bowl with a handheld electric mixer beat the butter and sugar together for two minutes, scrape down the sides of the bowl then beat again for another 2-3 minutes. 

This is not a typo, the butter and sugar need to cream for a long time, don't skip this step.

While the butter is mixing in a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 

Once the butter mixture is light and fluffy add the first egg and mix until no yolk remains. You want to make sure to add the eggs one at a time.

Repeat until all eggs have been added, the mixture may look curdled, that is fine.

Add half of the dry ingredients and gently fold in.

In a small bowl combine the buttermilk and vanilla extract.

Add the buttermilk mixture, mixing until fully combined, but do not over mix. 

Add remaining flour mixture. Do not over mix the cake batter, you don't want to overdevelop the gluten. 

Pour into the prepared cake pan and use an offset spatula to spread the batter into an even layer. Bake the cake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean with no wet batter, moist crumbs are okay. The internal temperature of the cake should be 210F/99C.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, while the cake is cooling make the butter glaze.

In a small saucepan combine all of the sauce ingredients and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, mixing frequently.

Use a skewer or thin metal piece to poke holes all over the cake.

Over warm cake pour the glaze let the cake sit for 30-45 minutes. If you let the cake sit in the pan longer the sugar sauce will crystalize and make it harder to get the cake out of the pan in one piece.

Place a large plate on top and invert the cake on to a serving platter.

I like to dust powdered sugar on top of the cake. This cake actually gets better with age, it gives more time of the sauce to really soak in.

Serving it with some fresh whipped cream is never a bad idea.

Does This Cake Need to Be Refrigerated?

Nope! You can keep this cake at room temperature. If you live in a warm environment then I would keep it in the fridge as this moist cake and heat could encourage mold to form.

More bundt cake recipes

For the best of both worlds try my chocolate vanilla marble swirl bundt cake recipe.

If you love banana bread then check out this banana bundt cake with a cream cheese glaze.

Pear is such an underutilized fruit while baking, check out this pear bundt cake!

★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!

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