Kentucky Butter Cake

This Kentucky Butter Cake recipe is so buttery and sweet! It’s coated with a smooth glaze that soaks in and keeps the cake moist for days!

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Kentucky Butter Cake is, as the name suggests, buttery and sweet. It’s coated with a buttery glaze that soaks in and keeps the cake moist for days! Some even say the cake tastes better the next day. Made in a bundt pan, it makes a beautiful centerpiece when dusted with powdered sugar.

Kentucky butter bundt cake looks rather unassuming: it’s amazingly simple to whip up and turns out a lovely golden cake. But when you take a bite, you’ll see why people are crazy about this cake. It’s almost like an old-fashioned vanilla cake doughnut! This cake is perfect on its own with a dusting of sugar or topped with strawberries and whipped cream.

The Kentucky Butter Cake recipe dates back to the 1960s. It’s essentially a traditional pound cake, which is why it is so easy to make, but the Kentucky butter cake sauce is what makes it special. The buttery glaze is poured on the warm cake and left to soak in before turning out. This keeps the cake from going stale, and the flavorings intensify with time.

Kentucky Butter Cake Ingredients

• Sugar
• Eggs
• Salted butter
• Rum extract
• Butter extract
• Buttermilk
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Water

Kentucky butter pound cake really gets its name from the butter sauce traditionally made with Kentucky bourbon. This recipe uses rum extract, but if you love a bourbon flavor and want to make this cake more adult, use ¼ cup Kentucky bourbon in place of the water and rum extract. The adult version is perfect for grown-up dinner parties and special occasions.

The sauce, whether boozy or not, is poured on what is really the bottom of the cake - the exposed part of the cake when it’s in the pan. Poke holes all over and pour the sauce. The sugary glaze is what truly makes the texture like an old-fashioned doughnut. The cake needs to still be warm for the sauce to soak in.

How to Make Kentucky Butter Cake

FIRST STEP: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour a bundt pan. Set aside.

SECOND STEP: In a large mixing bowl add sugar, eggs, softened room temperature butter, rum and butter extracts, and buttermilk. Using a hand mixer on the high-speed setting, cream together the wet mixture until it is light and fluffy -about 2 minutes.

THIRD STEP: Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Continue to beat together on medium-low, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed until the mixture is combined and no flour streaks remain. Be careful not to overmix the batter or it will yield a tough cake.

FOURTH STEP: Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Place in the oven and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

FIFTH STEP: Remove the bundt cake from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes.

SIXTH STEP: While the cake is cooling make your sauce by adding a medium saucepan over medium-low heat to the stovetop. Add sugar, butter, water, and rum extract. Whisk together stirring often until the mixture is melted together and combined. You don’t want this sauce to boil so watch it carefully and remove it from the heat right before it begins to bubble.

SEVENTH STEP: Once the sauce has been removed from the stovetop, reserve ⅓ cup in a small bowl. Pour the remaining sauce over the cake while still in the bundt pan.

EIGHTH STEP: Once the cake has soaked up all of the sauce, carefully turn the bundt pan over onto a serving dish. Drizzle the remaining sauce over the top of the cake before serving.

Cooking Tips 

Choose your bundt pan wisely. A non-stick interior is best, and be cautious and well-prepared if you use a design with many nooks and crannies as these are harder to turn out.

Heavily grease the pan: slather or spray significantly.

Let the sauce soak in, loosen the edges with a spatula, and invert the pan while it is still slightly warm to get the bundt cake out with as little struggle as possible. 

Storing this Recipe 

Store the Kentucky butter cake under a cake dome at room temperature for up to 3 days. Tightly wrap leftover pieces in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 more days.

You can freeze the Kentucky butter cake after assembly for up to 3 months by tightly wrapping it in plastic wrap. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator plus 1-2 hours at room temperature prior to serving. However, the texture does change with freezing and the texture is one of the selling points of this cake.

Kentucky Butter Cake

This Kentucky Butter Cake recipe is so buttery and sweet! It’s coated with a smooth glaze that soaks in and keeps the cake moist for days!

Did you try this recipe?Let our readers know how it turned out by Leaving a Review!

5 from 27 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Southern

Servings 10

Calories 445 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Cake

• 2 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 sticks salted butter (softened to room temperature)
• 2 tsp rum extract
• ½ tsp butter extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda

Glaze

• ¾ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup salted butter
• 3 tbsp water
• 2 tsp rum extract

DIRECTIONS

 

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour a bundt pan. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl add sugar, eggs, softened room temperature butter, rum extract, butter extract, and buttermilk. Using a hand mixer on the high speed setting, cream together the wet mixture until it is light and fluffy. This should take about 2 minutes.
• Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Continue to beat together on medium-low, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed until the mixture is combined and no flour streaks remain. Be careful not to overmix the batter or it will yield a tough cake.
• Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Place in the oven and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Remove the bundt cake from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes.
• While the cake is cooling make your sauce by adding a medium saucepan over medium-low heat to the stovetop. Add sugar, butter, water, and rum extract. Whisk together stirring often until the mixture is melted together and combined. You don’t want this sauce to boil so watch it carefully and remove from the heat right before it begins to bubble.
• Once the sauce has been removed from the stovetop, reserve ⅓ cup in a small bowl. Pour the remaining sauce over the cake while still in the bundt pan.
• Once the cake has soaked up all of the sauce, carefully turn the bundt pan over onto a serving dish. Drizzle the remaining sauce over the top of the cake before serving.

Notes

Choose your bundt pan wisely. A non-stick interior is best, and be cautious and well-prepared if you use a design with many nooks and crannies as these are harder to turn out.

Heavily grease the pan: slather or spray significantly.

Let the sauce soak in, loosen the edges with a spatula, and invert the pan while it is still slightly warm to get the bundt cake out with as little struggle as possible.

Nutrition

Calories: 445kcal | Carbohydrates: 85g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 85mg | Sodium: 162mg | Potassium: 140mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 56g | Vitamin A: 329IU | Calcium: 63mg | Iron: 2mg

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