How the perfect peanut butter cookie pushed Nancy Silverton to become a better baker

Kentucky Butter Cake

Makes 1 12-inch cake

To know me is to know that this is a very “Nancy” cake, and my co-author, Carolynn, knows me well. So, when she saw a picture of it online for the first time, knowing I would be drawn to how plain and straightforward it is, she sent it to me. I immediately thought: “Oh, my God! A butter cake with a simple glaze. What could be more perfect?” It seemed so obvious, and yet I had never made one, and had never heard of this cake. It turns out, Kentucky Butter Cake is a thing. It first appeared in 1963 when a woman named Nell Lewis entered the cake into a Pillsbury Bake-Off— and won. In recent years, just about every blogger out there has published a recipe for it, as has The New York Times. And what’s incredible is this: All these years later, all the recipes are identical. Nobody has touched a thing.

The cake is like a cross between a pound cake and a yellow cake, with different ratios of flour, butter, and sugar. It’s moist and flavorful, with a tender, delicate crumb. But what makes it really stand out is the glaze. When the cake comes out of the oven, you poke it all over with a skewer, so the glaze seeps down into the cake. Then you invert the cake and glaze the top side as well. Some of the glaze stays on the cake instead of going in the cake, hardening into a thin exterior glaze with a discernible, delicate crunch.
The result is like everything you want in a glazed old- fashioned doughnut, without it being fried. I added bourbon to the glaze, otherwise this is the classic. If you don’t want to make it with bourbon, just eliminate it.
This cake is best the day after it’s made.

Ingredients 

For the cake

• 224 grams (1 cup) buttermilk (preferably whole-milk or low-fat), shaken
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 420 grams (3 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 400 grams (2 cups) granulated sugar
• 1½ teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 226 grams (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed and left at room temperature until pliable but not greasy

For the glaze

• 141 grams (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cubed
• grams (1½ cups) granulated sugar
• ¼ cup Kentucky bourbon (or another bourbon; optional)
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

Instructions

1. To make the cake, adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 325°F. Coat the baking mold (or pan) with cooking spray.

2. Whisk the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Put the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle and mix on low speed for about 15 seconds to combine the ingredients. Add the butter and half of the buttermilk mixture and mix on low speed until no flour is visible, about 30 seconds. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the remaining buttermilk mixture. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the batter is pale, smooth, and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl and paddle whenever ingredients are accumulating. Stop the mixer, remove the bowl and paddle from the stand, and clean them with the spatula, scraping the bowl from the bottom up to release any ingredients that may be stuck there.

3. Scrape the batter into the prepared mold (or pan) and smooth out the top with an offset spatula. Place the mold (or pan) on a large baking sheet.

4. Place the baking sheet with the cake on it on the center rack of the oven and bake until the cake is golden brown and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 60 to 75 minutes, rotating the pan front to back halfway through the baking time so it bakes evenly. Remove the cake from the oven.

5. To make the glaze, when the cake comes out of the oven, combine the butter, sugar, bourbon, vanilla, and 60 grams (¼ cup) water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium- high heat. Reduce the heat and gently simmer until the glaze is slightly thickened and sticky, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

6. While the cake is still warm, use a skewer or toothpick to poke about 40 holes in it, penetrating about three-fourths of the way to the bottom. Dip a pastry brush into the glaze and, using about one- third of the glaze, dab a generous amount of glaze over the surface of the cake, going back over the cake two or three times to create a thick, even layer.

7. To remove the cake from the pan, run the tip of a paring knife around the top edge of the pan to loosen any stuck bits. Place a cake round or large platter on top of the cake pan, invert the cake, and lift off the pan. Generously dab about half of the remaining glaze evenly over the surface of the cake, going back over the cake two or three times. Set the cake aside for about 1 hour for the glaze to set. Warm the remaining glaze over low heat and serve it on the side for people to drizzle over their portion of cake.