Kentucky Butter Cake
I mentioned the other week that I got a promotion at work. With this promotion, I’m now managing people for the first time. Being a boss has been an interesting transition over the last few weeks.
I have to confess that when I found out about the job, Hubby and I did play the SNL short “Like A Boss” on the TV, blaring through the speakers, pointing to me when it said “Like a boss”. Which is quite frequently if you recall… (If you haven’t seen the skit, Google it sometime when you’re home. It’s somewhat inappropriate but pretty funny).
So now that I’m a boss, I get to make some of the rules at work which has been fun. One thing I changed was how birthdays are celebrated in the group. You see, birthdays are a big deal in my world. I love celebrating other people’s birthdays *almost* as much as my own.
Since the previous manager was doing nothing to celebrate birthdays, I had a blank slate to start with. I decided that we’d celebrate at the last staff meeting of the month with some homemade baked good. For the first time since making that executive decision, it was time to celebrate April birthdays at staff meeting.
I decided on this Kentucky Butter Cake because one of the reviews online said it tasted like a glazed doughnut. Enough said, I’m in. Since staff meeting is in the morning, I figured this was a nice bridge between breakfast and dessert.
This bundt was a HUGE success. The cake itself is a nice sturdy cake with a bit of tang from the buttermilk. And the glaze is to.die.for. It’s a butter syrup that’s poured over the hot bundt (after piercing holes throughout). And then the whole thing is cooled in the pan. So that glaze gets soaked throughout the cake and forms a nice crust on the outside edges.
My team loved the new tradition of celebrating birthdays once a month at staff meeting (and the coworkers who got leftovers approve as well). Although I’ve set the bar pretty high with this cake. It’s going to be a tough act to follow next month.
One Year Ago: Red Cabbage Slaw with Cilantro and Lime Dressing and Pulled Pork Sliders with Red Cabbage Slaw
Two Years Ago: Homemade Peeps and Hot Cross Buns
Three Years Ago: Raspberry Curd
Four Years Ago: Raspberry Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
Five Years Ago: Plum Rolls (Zwetschgenschnecken)
Kentucky Butter Cake Bundt
This bundt cake tastes just like a glazed doughnut!
Yield: Serves 10-12
Ingredients:
For the Cake
3 cups unbleached flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup butter
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
For the Glaze
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
3 Tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
For the Cake
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Blend in buttermilk, butter, vanilla and eggs. Beat for 3 minutes at medium speed. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
During the last 15 minutes of baking time, prepare the glaze.
For the Glaze
In a saucepan combine the sugar, butter, vanilla, and the water. Cook over medium heat, until fully melted and combined, but do not boil.
Prick holes in the still warm cake. Slowly pour sauce over cake. Let cake cool before removing from pan.
Recipe from AllRecipes.com
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
loving the baileys idea! mmmmm
I use the same recipe (I think, I’ve had it for years; a standby. I think it was called “Chocolate Fudge Frosting”)
Best thing EVER to do? add a bit of mint extract – it’s very easily my most popular cake filling.. and my favourite icing to eat by the spoonful lol.
I haven’t found the perfect chocolate frosting yet, so I’ll definitely have to try this one!
i definitely, definitely have to try this soon. i can’t get enough of chocolate!
It’s funny about the no milk thing…I was making a new martini recipe that was super strong, so I thought cream would help it become drinkable – but I had no cream, but I did have Vanilla Caramel Coffeemate…it was great!
Ironically, I almost never have milk and always have Bailey’s. Go figure.
Sometimes you really do need a seriously dark chocolatey frosting. This looks absolutely ideal.
you really got into the food styling there — cute pic with the cupcake in the sprinkles.
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This sounds nice – I’ll have to try it one day! Jen, have you tried King Arthur Flour’s Supersimple Chocolate Frosting recipe? It is my favourite recipe (so far) for chocolate frosting – I’d definitely recommend it!
(Sheesh! deleted to fix a typo! Wish there was an edit function :))
Pegster – I have not tried the KA recipe. It looks similar to this chocolate frosting recipe which is delicious!
The think I love about this frosting is the stiffness and the fudgeness.
I like this frosting for when I want something quick. Otherwise, I like to use frosting that involves melted, good chocolate for those special occasions. YUM! I would gobble up your cupcakes in a second.
Great call on the Bailey’s – my mom would love that icing. I am going to try this next time I make cupcakes.
I would never think to sub bailey’s for milk. Brilliant. I love my chocolate desserts to be super chocolaty – this looks great!
LOVE the super pink sprinkles too. So pretty 😀
Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m hosting a giveaway. I wonder if it would come handy in this baking project…
These look great!! I love your photos!! I’ve been searching for a good chocolate-y frosting and I think I might try this!!
Would you mind checking out my blog? 😀 http://ajscookingsecrets.blogspot.com/
I could have definitely used this recipe for my sourdough chocolate cake this week
http://gamereviewwiki.com/bikinibirthday/2010/06/21/day-158-binge-weekend/
i just made this frosting today to go inside some cupcakes using your cone method. and i topped with vanilla buttercream, at my hubby’s request.
let me just say this was so delicious i had to take my whitening strips out early so i could lick my fingers, and then the bowl. then my 15 month old attacked me to lick the spatula. we were all sugar high and happy before dinner.
my hubby said “every day i am happier i married you because of things like this”
Thanks for sharing this recipe!!!
Kris – I love hearing comments like that! Thanks for trusting my recipes enough to try on your hubby!
Mmm this looks fantastic, though the ingredients look similar to another delicious recipe I’ve used before that is pretty soft. I’m guessing it’s the butter temperature. Should it be room temperature here? Thanks!
You definitely want your butter at room temperature so it creams nicely.
I have the Bailey’s..lol but I’m out of cocoa powder. Have you ever tried subbing it with melted chocolate? And if so how much do you use?
Best frosting ever. Perfect taste, texture and color. It was divine. I will never use another chocolate frosting recipe ever again. Thank you very, very much! It is truly a gift. 🙂
Jen,
I am a person who has been cooking from the age of 5 ….lol now i have certin likes loves and disliks lol however i found a revepie i wanted to make and it called for a fudge type frosting…. knowing i didnt have one i liked for this so i started looking friday night and didnt come across your recepie until saturday morning so i got out my ingreadience.. but i didnt have Balies or white milk i had some Cream de Mint and Choc. Milk so i straied a tad from ur recepie …. i used 1/2 stick of butter, and to get 1/3 cup of liquid i used aprox 1/4 cup of Cream de Mint and the rest Choc. Milk. Plus the res of ur ingreadience …..omg this is the best dark choc fudge frosting ive ever had!!!! And i used the best dk. Cocoa i know of !!!!!! Thankyou thankyou THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m a baker and for the life of me I can’t find a thick chocolate fudge frosting. Is this frosting thick? I don’t want anything too creamy, like ganache when you let it sit. Help please!
beantownbaker — February 4th, 2013 @ 9:45 pm
This frosting is definitely thick. You can see in the pictures that it held up nicely to piping. It’s not as creamy as a ganache.
Thank you for responding! 🙂 I see that some people use melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder. Doesn’t it really matter?
beantownbaker — February 5th, 2013 @ 10:13 am
For this recipe, I always use cocoa powder.
If I make these the day before do I have to refrigerate them(since the recipe calls for milk)or can I leave them on the counter covered?
beantownbaker — October 30th, 2013 @ 8:21 pm
You can leave them on the counter. The milk in the frosting stabilizes so it won’t go bad. I’d put them in a covered container though.
Hi. Is the butter you use salted or unsalted?
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:01 am
I always use unsalted butter unless specified as salted butter.
This is absolutely THE BEST chocolate frosting recipe I have EVER tried. I used it to frost some homemade vanilla mint cupcakes and topped them with an Andes mint for my daughters sweet 16 party. I had complete strangers tell me I need to open up a bakery and sell nothing but those cupcakes! Thank you so much for posting this. It is truly amazing.
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:32 pm
SO glad you enjoy this recipe! Nothing beats a great chocolate frosting.
I can’t wait to try this! I LOVE the flavor of the hersey’s dark choc frosting recipe but its so thin that i can’t use it for cupcakes, only for a cake. I even tried refrigeration overnight to see if that would thicken it up and it didn’t. so i can not wait try to this one for my cupcakes!
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2014 @ 2:53 pm
I agree. The Hershey’s one is just too thin for cupcakes.
I made a variation on this recipe for my daughter’s birthday cake yesterday and it was fabulous!
I’m still trying to figure out how 6T butter is enough though–I ended up putting in two whole sticks of butter and adding in the milk after the first addition (I added it slowly) of powdered sugar/cocoa combo–it was so thick and dry that my mixer was making new, horrible noises and I was sure it was going to die! LOL