This is the pan Nancy Silverton used to make her Kentucky Butter Cake.
Rich and dense, Kentucky Butter Cake lives up to its name.
Butter is the star ingredient in this moist buttery cake. Then after baking, Kentucky Butter Cake is glazed with sweetness—from sugar, butter, and a hint of vanilla. This extra layer of flavor also gives the cake one of its most defining characteristics: a slightly crunchy crust that forms a glaze that caramelizes during baking. Amazingly, despite its decadent taste, Kentucky Butter Cake is relatively easy to make. Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla, baked in either a bundt pan or a 12-inch cake pan–as Andrew did here—adding another layer of glazing after the cake has baked. Then for true decadence, he served the cake with extra glaze on the side.
Kentucky Butter Cake won the Pillsbury Bake-Off in 1963 for a woman named Nell Lewis.
If you are not familiar with The Pillsbury Bake-Off, it’s a renowned American cooking competition. Since it first started in 1949, it’s been a part of our culinary culture. Sponsored by Pillsbury, a well-known maker of baking products and ready-to-bake items, the Bake-Off attracts home cooks from all over the United States who submit original recipes using Pillsbury-branded ingredients. Andrew discovered the cake in a wonderful cookbook with a fantastic name: “The Cookie that Changed My Life” by Nancy Silverton with Carolynn Carreño (2023 Alfred Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. If you buy no other baking book this year, buy this. It will bring endless hours of baking pleasure.
You can buy this book just by clicking on the cover…
Nancy Silverton introduced Andrew to this recipe for Kentucky Butter Cake
Nancy Silverton is California’s Gift to America’s cuisine. A frequent judge of the many cooking shows we watch, Nancy Silverton’s career began in the 1970s when she worked as a pastry chef at Michael’s the renowned restaurant in Santa Monica. She then moved on to work at various prestigious food venues including Wolfgang Puck’s Spago, where she is given much credit for her role in shaping California cuisine. In 1989, she co-founded La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles, which quickly gained fame for its artisanal bread, particularly the sourdough loaves. Right next door was Campanile, a restaurant responsible for a wonderful post on Chewing The Fat. You’ll find it at https://chewingthefat.us.com/2017/04/lamb-meatballs-with-red-pepper-and.html. She is also responsible for the best Gelato. Nancy’s Fancy is incredibly good and thanks to GoldBelly, you can buy it online at https://www.goldbelly.com/restaurants/nancys-fancy
Here’s today’s recipe for Kentucky Butter Cake
First, a footnote from Nancy Silverton. “In recent years, just about every blogger out there has published a recipe for it, as has The New York Times. And what’s incredible is this: All these years later, all the recipes are identical. Nobody has touched a thing.” This recipe is followed by some other cake recipes that you will want to try.
Kentucky Butter Cake
February 23, 2024
: Makes 1-12-inch Cake
: Despite its decadent taste, Kentucky Butter Cake is relatively easy to make.
Butter is the star ingredient in this moist buttery cake. Then after baking, Kentucky Butter Cake is glazed with sweetness—from sugar, butter, and a hint of vanilla. This extra layer of flavor also gives the cake one of its most defining characteristics: a slightly crunchy crust that forms a the glaze caramelizes during baking.
By: Monte Mathews
Ingredients
For the cake
224 grams (1 cup) buttermilk (preferably whole-milk or low-fat), shaken
4 extra-large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
420 grams (3 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
400 grams (2 cups) granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
226 grams (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed and left at room temperature until pliable but not greasy
For the glaze
141 grams (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cubed
grams (1½ cups) granulated sugar
¼ cup Kentucky bourbon (or another bourbon
optional)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
Directions
Step 1To make the cake, adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 325°F. Coat the baking mold (or pan) with cooking spray.
Step 2 Whisk the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Put the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle and mix on low speed for about 15 seconds to combine the ingredients. Add the butter and half of the buttermilk mixture and mix on low speed until no flour is visible about 30 seconds. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the remaining buttermilk mixture. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the batter is pale, smooth, and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl and paddle whenever ingredients are accumulating. Stop the mixer, remove the bowl and paddle from the stand, and clean them with the spatula, scraping the bowl from the bottom up to release any ingredients that may be stuck there.
Step 3 Scrape the batter into the prepared mold (or pan) and smooth out the top with an offset spatula. Place the mold (or pan) on a large baking sheet.
Step 4 Place the baking sheet with the cake on it on the center rack of the oven and bake until the cake is golden brown and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. A toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 60 to 75 minutes, rotating the pan front to back halfway through the baking time so it bakes evenly. Remove the cake from the oven.
Step 5 To make the glaze, when the cake comes out of the oven, combine the butter, sugar, bourbon, vanilla, and 60 grams (¼ cup) water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium- high heat. Reduce the heat and gently simmer until the glaze is slightly thickened and sticky about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Step 6 While the cake is still warm, use a skewer or toothpick to poke about 40 holes in it, penetrating about three-fourths of the way to the bottom. Dip a pastry brush into the glaze and, using about one-third of the glaze, dab a generous amount of glaze over the surface of the cake, going back over the cake two or three times to create a thick, even layer.
Step 7 To remove the cake from the pan, run the tip of a paring knife around the top edge of the pan to loosen any stuck bits. Place a cake round or large platter on top of the pan, invert the cake, and lift off the pan. Generously dab about half of the remaining glaze evenly over the surface of the cake, going back over the cake two or three times. Set the cake aside for about 1 hour for the glaze to set. Warm the remaining glaze over low heat and serve it on the side for people to drizzle over their portion of cake.
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