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. 






These look fantastic and are so festive!
Oh my, these look divine! I recently made something similar, but with no chocolate – just a pumpkin batter with cream cheese topping. But I definitely think I must try these too.
These are absolutely beautiful!
Look wonderful!
These look awesome. I just wish it made a bigger pan!
They’re pretty rich, but I would imagine you could just double it and make it in a 9×13 pan if you wanted!
I made pumpkin spice brownies on Friday and they were delish so I bet these are EVEN BETTER! Thanks for sharing and I’ll be following your tweaks!
~ingrid
i always make a pumpkin cheesecake in the fall with a ginger cookie crumb crust, but i’m liking the chocolate component in your recipe even more.
oh yum – love pumpkin, and the chocolate/pumpkin combo looks wonderful!
These look great! Is there a way I can make them non-dairy? Something I can sub the cream cheese for? Thanks!
Heather – I’ve had great luck subbing Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese in cheesecake recipes in the past. I think that would definitely work and you could use Earth Balance in the brownie portion. Let me know how it turns out if you try it.
Hi Jenn! I just wanted to let you know that you won the giveaway on my blog last week. I emailed you, but never got a response. Could you email me your mailing address to jennharton@paducah.com. I have to pass it along to myblogspark so they can send you your prize package!
Thanks, Jen…I’ll let you know how they come out!
OH wow these do look delicious! I love all that swirled pumpkin…yum!
Those look amazing!
Wow, I love these! My husband would die of happiness of I made these for him – pumpkin cheesecake is his favorite thing for fall.
They look like tiger fur – very cool! What an interesting flavour combination.
We love these at my house! I like your idea of dark chocolate – I will have to try that next time.
beautiful! And they look so delicious!! I agree I don’t normally think of pumpkin with chocolate… but you have me convinced!
The tops of these are a work of art! Love it!
Three of my favorite thi ngs in one dessert! Chocolate and pumpkin and cheesecake! How perfect…
~Nancy
Three of my favorite thi ngs in one dessert! Chocolate and pumpkin and cheesecake! How perfect…
~Nancy
hi.. just dropping by here… have a nice day! http://kantahanan.blogspot.com/
The side-view shot totally won me over. These look delicious!
This looks so yummy.
I now know what to make for the office potluck!
Those look amazing. I love pumpkin with chocolate, I plan on making these soon.
Your brownies look delicious! I am curious since I would like mine to taste more like pumpkin pie than plain pumpkin should i add pumpkin pie spices or follow your recipe for the spices?
Thanks!
fawkes – There are a decent amount of spices in the pumpkin portion of the batter. I would recommend making is as the recipe states, then taste it before you pour it into the pan. Maybe then add some pumpkin pie spice if you’d like.
I made these over the weekend and they were scrumptious!! I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin but this recipe is now a fall staple. I plan on making them for the family on Thanksgiving…thanks for sharing this!
I made these the other day and they were great! a hit at work! yum! thanks!
I stumbled across your blog from a Facebook friend and made these brownies last night. DELICIOUS!! I doubled the recipe and it does just fit in a 9×13 pan and took about 60 mins to bake. It’s worth the wait for them to be chilled in the fridge. The flavors are even more delicious that way.
Oh YUM! And gorgeous, to boot. I never thought pumpkin and chocolate go together either, until I tried it! 🙂 Now I’m hooked. Good idea to double up on the cheesecake layer…you can never have enough pumpkin cheesecake after all!
Thank you so much for participating in our event! These brownies look amazing. They say Halloween to me for sure!
I made these– now I love them! Will be repeated each fall 🙂
Amazing! I loved these so much I played with them a bit and made cranberry cheesecake brownies for my christmas baking.(I didn’t stumble on to these till christmas.) I’ll let you know when I put those up on my blog! With credit to you of course!
Lexi – cranberry cheesecake brownies sound very intriguing. Can’t wait to see them.
Hi Jen! I made these for Heather@BFM’s (comment listed above) birthday and she loved them! Unfortunately I could not find the Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder (I tried 3 stores) so I had to make them with the regular cocoa powder. Can you tell me where you found the Hershey’s Special Dark??
Kasey – I have actually had a hard time finding it as well. I had actually all but given up on it until one day it caught my eye at the grocery store. I proceeded to buy all three containers. I would say just keep an eye out for it and good luck!
1/2 cup of flour seems like very little. Is that correct?
Pup – Yes, that is the correct amount of flour. Most brownie batters have very little flour in them.
Just made these- delicious! I only had the milk chocolate powder, so I’m excited to try it again with the special dark powder.
I doubled the recipe and it perfectly filled a 13×9 pan so you might try it. 🙂 And they are amazing. Also I used margerine not butter and found they were more moist. Happy Baking!
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I made these with my nieces and over all they were pretty good, but something about the pumpkin part tasted off. Still, fun and festive to make!