Kentucky Butter Cake Recipe (2024)

Ms. Laskey: Mrs. Lewis's husband, Dr. Albert G. Lewis, practiced medicine with my father, Dr. H. Graham Parker, in Platte City, Missouri, in the 1960's. Our mother was thrilled when Nell Lewis took her cake to the Bake-Off. Sadly, the Pillsbury rules precluded the use of alcohol, so Nell had to use rum flavoring for rum at the Bake-Off. The original, much better, recipe called for adding 1/2 cup light rum after taking the sauce off the heat. It's fabulous; I make it for every New Year's Day.

Re: the tip about buttermilk...why not measure a tablespoon of white vinegar into the 1 cup measure and then fill up to the one cup measure with milk?

Here are the directions for the sauce from my mother's copy of her friend Nell Lewis's recipe: As soon as the cake comes from the oven pour over it the following sauce:1 c. sugar, 1/4 c. water, 1 stick butter. Bring almost to a boil, remove from heat and add 1/2 c. (or more) light rum.

That is correct! That's the way Nell did it. ( : You certainly can cream the butter and sugar first, etc, and it won't negatively affect the recipe, but it's really not necessary. I didn't have a lumpy batter after a good 3 minutes of beating.

I have been making this regularly since the mid 1970s. Anyone who ever tastes it wants the revipe. If your butter is nice and soft you ccan simply dump all ingredients into the mixmaster bowl and let'er rip for three minutes. Have also substituted margarine in the cake without adverse effects. The sauce, however, needs the butter. The anniversary bundt pan from Nordic helps withclean removal of the cake, by the way.

For a non-baker, this made me look like a rock star! I changed up the warm butter sauce to a lemon butter sauce, with 3 tbsps of Lemon juice and the zest from one lemon. We were fighting over the last piece of this!

Made this yesterday. Absolutely delicious! My only change was cutting the sugar in half in the batter and in the sauce. Perfect tenderness and plenty sweet all by itself, and served with berries, let the flavors shine through. A big hit.

Note to Astrid Spencer and others: the swirly pan is the Heritage Bundt pan from NordicWare. I bought a 6-cup version at Williams-Sonoma. Butter the pan generously, chill it, then butter it again before flouring it; there's less chance the cake will stick.

Wonder what’d happen if Bourbon was swapped in for the water in the glaze/frosting...has to be tried

Halved the recipe and baked it in a pretty 6-cup bundt pan for about 55 minutes. Gorgeous and delicious!

2 and 3/4 cups of sugar is not "almost 4 cups of sugar".

A New Canaan, CT, staple in the 1960s-1970s, still holds its own as one of the top cakes ever. Breakfast, lunch, snack, teatime, dinner dessert --- Absolutely a favorite. I emailed my two 50-something kids; its re-emergence in this amazing column gave us the warm and cozies...For those who haven't made it, do yourselves and your loved ones a huge favor. I salute an old friend, Martha Hutter, who introduced me to it.

Hi All! We had a technical issue on the back end that prevented the butter sauce ingredients from showing up. They're there now!

This cake was delicious. Very light and moist. It was very easy to put together too. No need to cream the butter and sugar first. Upon tasting the batter I thought it would be a little “one note” to use granulated sugar in the glaze so I subbed in light brown sugar. If I hadn’t been cooking for a child and a pregnant woman I would have used bourbon in place of the water in the glaze. Yes I know that if all the alcohol had not burned off the final residue of bourbon would be minuscule.

Hey, Justine. I've made this cake several times. You could probably just dump it all together ("dump cakes" are a thing), but I prefer to cream the butter and sugar in the mixer, then add the other wet ingredients to make sure they're well-combined. Then I whisk the dry ingredients together before adding them to the wet mixture. Also, if you're using a cooking spray it should be done just before adding the batter, lest it pool on the bottom. You're going to love this cake.

I made this twice. The first time exactly as written, which was good, but we thought the crumb could be better. The second time I creamed the butter with the sugar before adding the other ingredients and added a 1/2 cup of Knob Creek bourbon to the butter sauce. The second cake was magical with a perfect crumb and taste. My family raved about it telling me THIS is the cake to be made for all future family events.

Wonderful cake! I have been making a pound cake for many years, was even known for it by family and friends. This has been universally acclaimed as the new family favorite. The only change I made was a little less sugar in the cake and syrup. 350 and 120 grams respectively. Personal taste.Highly recommended

This was very simple and incredibly delicious. The one thing I would note is that before you turn on the stand mixer to give the ingredients a smash / muddle. I started it on low and still got some flour on me / the floor.

Made this for a family get together and everyone, especially our grandson, loved it. Moist and not too sweet. Turned out perfect.

This really is the best cake I've ever made! I took it to Thanksgiving dinner with friends and everyone raved about it and had seconds. I must say, though I inserted bamboo skewers through the cake in at least 25 places, most of the butter sauce stayed towards the bottom of the cake, rarely going more than about an inch deep. I don't know how I can get it distributed better.

The instructions on this recipe need to be modified.

My family has rated this as the new go-to cake for all occasions! High praise indeed for the previous one has lasted for over 20 years.Slight changes were to cut back a bit on the sugar. 350 grams for the cake, 120 grams for the syrup. All else as written

Possibly the bwat cake ever!!

Please add the 3T water in the glaze to the ingredients list. I have made the cake as written the first time and I read the full steps but the 2nd time I just checked the list of ingredients and the glaze ruined it as I did not add the water :(

350 grams sugar in the cake120 grams sugar in the sauceVery tasty!

My dear husband baked this for my birthday...we found it merely okay, but one-dimensional. The few bites that included the poke-sauce were the best. If there's a next time, I think we'll double the sauce and serve some on the side. With some pecans.

It would be helpful if the water for the butter sauce was listed in the ingredients instead of just in step 3! I didn't catch that and mine ended up with a sauce layer on the bottom. Still a big hit! Next time I'll add bourbon to the sauce and use a wooden spoon handle to poke the holes (as suggested by commenters).

I made this today and it looked pretty but I wasn’t bowled over (pun intended). Added 1/3 cup of bourbon to sauce after I took it off the stove. It was delicious but the sauce pooled in pockets that weren’t even throughout the cake. If I make again, I will poke larger holes, then make another batch of sauce to glaze the top.

I’ve made this a bunch in the past bc it’s so yummy and easy to put together. However, I have a memory of applying the butter/sugar glaze on top of the cake, after it is removed from the Bundt pan. Am I confusing this with a different cake or did the recipe change…?

Oh how I love this cake! It's become my go-to for when guests come to town (and for whenever I want cake). I add a couple of tbsp of bourbon to the glaze, because I like the complexity. Side note: I've made it as a dump cake and as a cream-the-butter & sugar cake and the texture is different. The dump cake has a slightly coarser, moister crumb whereas the cream-the-butter cake had a much dryer, finer crumb. I prefer the former.