This Kentucky Butter Cake recipe is CRAZY moist, buttery and coated with a sweet buttery sauce that crusts the outside and soaks into the cake making it amazing for days. What you get is a stunning, sweet, buttery, soft cake that is as perfect on its own as it is topped with strawberries and whipped cream!
Kentucky Butter Cake: What To Expect
- Simple Ingredients. Chances are you have everything in your kitchen right now to make this incredibly delicious cake.
- Great to make ahead! I am going to tell you this Kentucky Butter Cake is even better the second day! It gives the cake a chance to absorb all the sugar syrup while relaxing a bit and settling into all its moisture. Certainly it can be enjoyed the same day, but if you have patience, give it a day to become its best self!
- Flavor. While at heart, this is simply a butter cake, the way all the flavors combine with the buttery sugar syrup makes it extra vanilla, while giving it a slightly crunchy crust. Kind of like a huge glazed donut.
- So many serving options! Serve this with whipped cream and strawberries for the best strawberry shortcake of your life!
What Is Kentucky Butter Cake?
Kentucky Butter is the most delicious vanilla pound cake you will ever have. The texture is dense, but tender and it’s topped with a RIDICULOUS butter/sugar/vanilla sauce that soaks into the cake while also leaving it crispy and sweet on top. It’s perfect on its own, along with a cup of coffee, topped with ice cream, or with whipped cream and strawberries. The possibilities are endless.
Ingredients / What You Will Need
Like I said above, this cake recipe is made up of simple ingredients, so I recommend using high quality ingredients. The flavors make the cake! Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to the recipe card for the full ingredient list and instructions.
- Butter. I use salted butter i this recipe, but you can also use unsalted if that’s what you have on-hand or prefer. You use butter in both the cake and the butter glaze.
- Sugars: Use granulated sugar in the cake batter and the butter glaze, and I also use powdered sugar to garnish the cake when done!
- Eggs. Use large sized eggs in this recipe as well as all my baking recipes unless otherwise stated.
- Vanilla extract. You can also use vanilla bean paste if you have that too. Vanilla bean paste will make the cake and the syrup slightly darker in color due to the vanilla beans.
- Dry Ingredients: All purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and kosher salt.
- Buttermilk. Using buttermilk in this recipe makes the cake tender. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own at home easily. Use My Homemade Buttermilk Recipe!
How To Make Kentucky Butter Cake
The batter goes together in a snap…
- Prep the Pan: Make sure you heavily grease your bundt pan. You can use baking spray/nonstick spray, or you can coat it with butter or shortening and dust it with flour or powdered sugar. You need to make sure your pan is greased liberally because not only will the cake stick, but the sugar syrup can also stick a but too.
TIP: If you do use nonstick baking spray I recommend that you spray it just before adding the batter. I’ve found this technique helps prevent sticking more than spraying the pan and letting it sit before adding the cake batter.
- The batter goes together easily and all the ingredients can be added at the same time just like you would for a cake mix. This cake is pretty foolproof!
- Once the cake is baked make the sugar syrup. Cook the butter, sugar, vanilla, and some water together until the sugar is dissolved, but doesn’t come to a boil.
- Poke holes all in the warm cake and then pour the sugar sauce all over the top! Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan. You can even let it sit overnight in the pan, just run a butter knife around the edges to help the cake from sticking.
Tips:
- Make sure your butter is completely room temperature so you don’t get any lumps! Since you mix everything together at the same time the butter needs to mix in well. If your butter isn’t quite room temperature mix it with the granulated sugar alone to combine and then add in all the other ingredients.
- Allow the bundt cake to cool completely in the pan so the sauce has time to soak in. You can even leave the cake in the pan overnight if you want! The cake gets better the longer it sits!
- Loosen the cake from the sides of the pan with a butter knife! When it’s time, flip the cake out of the pan loosen the cake at its edges to help the process along.
- Finish the cake with a sprinkle of powdered sugar! Dusting it with powdered sugar not only makes it pretty, but helps hide any imperfections in the cake.
Serving Ideas:
The slices are perfect, the flavor is perfect, and you will probably be eating this for breakfast, lunch, and dessert until it’s gone!
- On its own because it’s perfect!
- With fresh fruit and whipped cream!
- Warm with a scoop of ice cream
- Use any leftover sliced thin for French Toast!
Variations:
- Add in a 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract to add a little different flavor!
- Use bourbon or rum in the glaze instead of water to give it a boozy twist!
- Add mini chocolate chips if you love chocolate!
Looking for more Bundt Cake Recipes? Try These:
- Sour Cream Blueberry Bundt Cake
- Praline Bundt Cake
- Fudge Filled Vanilla Bundt Cake
- Marble Pound Cake
This recipe was originally posted in 2015, but has been updated with new tips in 2024!
Print
Kentucky Butter Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 75 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: serves 12 1x
- Category: Cake
- Method: Oven/Stove Top
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
Kentucky Butter Cake is the moistest vanilla pound cake ever, made with simple ingredients.
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup butter, cubed at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk
Butter Glaze
- 1/3 cup butter
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F/165°C. Grease a 10- inch bundt pan with butter or shortening very liberally. Dust the pan with flour and set aside.
- Place all the cake ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low for 30 seconds and then increase the speed to medium and mix for 3 minutes.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 65-75 minutes until a toothpick entered into the center comes out clean.
- When the cake is done make the glaze. Combine all ingredients into a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir continuously until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Do not bring to a boil.
- Poke holes all over the warm cake using a knife and pour the glaze evenly on the cake while still in the pan.
- Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan and then invert the cake onto a serving plate.
- I actually like to make this cake a day in advance, finding it to be more moist and flavorful when it rests overnight.
Notes
Store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 514
- Sugar: 47.1 g
- Sodium: 296.3 mg
- Fat: 23 g
- Carbohydrates: 71.4 g
- Protein: 6.2 g
- Cholesterol: 118.5 mg
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Baking Substitute Options
Has anybody used soy milk or another milk alternative?
You could use, but your cake will be dry. I’m not a dairy guy, but for my baking, I don’t substitute. I’ve tried and it’s not even close.
I think the recipe depends on the acid provided by the buttermilk to activate the leavening. If you want to use a non-dairy milk product, you probably still want to follow the directions provided for replacing buttermilk with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar plus enough milk to make one cup.
This is the best cake. I absolutely love it. I don’t know about next day third day etc. is
My family loves it and it’s going to be a tradition in my desserts. And did I say so easy to make! Nothing more to say except delicious
Thank you so much for the review! So glad you like it!
Ah-mazing recipe for a butter cake! Made this for Father’s Day and it was a hit!! 🙂
Some additions I made: 1) didn’t have buttermilk, so I added 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to 1/2 cup heavy cream + 1/2 cup water 2) added the zest of 1 lemon + juice of 1/2 a lemon 3) a pinch of grated nutmeg 4) vanilla bean paste in place of vanilla extract and 5) 1/2 tablespoon Frangelico Liqueur. Only issue I had with this cake was that it stuck to my Nordic Ware Heritage Premier Gold Bundt pan and sadly, did not come out in 1 piece. 🙁 Hmm. If anyone has suggestions for how to easy-release a cake from a bundt pan, I’d greatly appreciate it!
Thank you, Shelly! This is the first recipe I’ve tried from your website … and will be one of many, I’m sure. <3
Love your adaptations!! Thank you so much for the review!
The first time I made this cake, sadly my first broken cake from a Bundt pan. The flavor was so great that I didn’t want to throw it out. Soooo, I then did some reading after a suggestion from a colleague. Then came my first time making cake pops. My coworkers loved them. There was no way I was going to throw out that flavor. So that’s my recommendation if it happens again. But you have to really grease and flour the pan.
You need to use a baker’s pan release called “goop”. You can make it yourself cheaply at home and it lasts forever. You take equal parts flour, oil, and butter, put them in a mixer and mix until there are no lumps. Generously grease your pan with this and nothing sticks. It’s cheaper than buying the spray and easier than greasing and them trying to flour the pan. It’s an all in one pan release used by baker’s for ages. If you have a pan than has any sort of crevices or designs, you will want to use a small pastry brush to put it on. Good luck.
I found a home-made cake release on Pinterest. Works for my dark metal 10 cup bundt pan better than anything else I’ve tried. Just mix equal parts of Crisco, flour, and vegetable oil. I don’t use this often, so when planning a bundt cake, I make a small amount with 2 Tbsp of each ingredient. Enough to coat the pan with little or no leftover. Takes lot of mixing to get flour to blend in. Slather it on the bundt pan with a paper towel or (better) a silicone basting brush, as thickly as possible. Nothing else. Fill pan with cake batter. Bake as called for in your recipe. Cool and turn out according to you recipe. Yes, I still sometimes need to loosen a little around the edges.
I have made this cake about 10 times now and it is awesome. Today I tried something new and did a brown butter glaze. I didn’t change any ingredients, I just cooked my butter on medium for about 10 minutes while constantly stirring until it browned and then added the rest of the glaze ingredients. It was definitely a noticeable change in flavor. Really good!
Love brown butter! I will have to try that!
Hi Shelly! Long time C&C fan! I lived in Kentucky for 6 years and I had to beg beg beg one of the older gals in our Church group for her cake recipe like this. She added OJ to the batter and glaze and it’s a knockout! I’m so glad I found this version. It’s a keeper!
OH what a GREAT idea!! I bet that would so good…you’re getting my brain going with all sorts of citrus versions!
How much OJ to the batter and how much to the glaze? I would like to try that
Hola Shelly ,lo primero es felicitarte por tu sitio ya que siempre encuentro ricas recetas. Prepare este queque y es delicioso. Vivo en un pueblo chico donde no es fácil encontrar muchos ingredientes pero los reemplazo y las recetas funcionan igual.. En chile la crema ácida es muy cara y la sal kosher no sabría donde buscarla , quizás en Santiago que es la capital..en todo caso usted siempre tiene alternativas, gracias y felicidades…
Hola María! You no soy Shelly, pero acabo de encontrar esa receta, y ver a su comentario. Nada mas queria decir hola de California! Tambien, se puede poner una cuchara grande de vinagre en una taza de leche para
sustituir a la crema ácida en cosas así (yo tenía que hacer apenas, porque se me olvide a comprar!), y nada mas usa un poco menos de la sal regular en lugar de sal Kosher, como 3/4 cuchara en lugar de una. Ese pastel es riquisima, Y si es mejor el segundo dia, a lo mejor el tercer tambien, vamos a ver. 😉 Es gigante! Salió como una pulgada encima de los lados de la cacerola! A lo mejor la próxima vez, voy a tratarlo con más mantequilla, o a lo mejor yo puse demasiado harina. Espero que ese fue un alluda, y lo siento para los errores en mi Espanol.
Shelly, this cake is amazing! I’ve made it 3 different ways in the last few months. The first time was exactly by your recipe. Another time, I added some chocolate chips to the cake batter. And yet another time, I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the butter glaze. Regardless of what you do, this cake is AWESOME!
Great idea adding chocolate chips!
Okay…so I’ve been on the hunt for buttermilk recipes (we bought a quart for a specific recipe and I needed to use some up), and this cake is BY FAR the best thing I’ve ever made or tasted in my life. We’re wondering about adapting it to use with a donut cake tin to share with my family on Christmas morning – any recommendations for how to adjust the recipe / cook times / temperatures for this? (Of course, I know to make more glaze than usual!)
I bought a bundt cake pan b/c I saw this recipe on Pinterest and I am so happy I did. I used Challenge butter unsalted which was a blessing since I used table salt instead of kosher by mistake. This was so wonderful. Definitely my house’s new favorite. I will probably make a strawberry syrup and homemade whip cream for it. Go big or go home right? Thank you for the recipe.
So glad you enjoyed this! Challenge butter is great and I buy it whenever I can find it! They don’t sell it everywhere by me, but I can find it at the Whole Foods occasionally and I buy it in bulk! lol! I’ve mad eit without too and it still turns out great though 🙂
Just popped my first KB Cake out of the pan. It looks and smells amazing! We have a big bowl of strawberries macerating in the fridge to spoon over the slices when cut it after while. The Bundt pan was almost to the top, so I’m not sure if my pan is on the small side, but it didn’t cook over. Can’t wait to taste this beautiful cake! I would love to leave a pic, but I don’t see an icon as directed.
Thank you! Happy baking, everyone!
Oh strange! I see the icon on my end. I’ll check and see it there is a glitch!