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butter cake

Frosting in the Cake Cake

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Yes, you’re seeing double – it’s a Frosting in the Cake Cake.

I almost renamed it Ugly Frosting Cake but that’s not very appetizing. The cake is plain and you might overlook it at a pot-luck, but that would be a mistake.

This ultra-ultra moist and still somehow fluffy dessert will wow your family and friends. Promise.

Frosting in the Cake

I visited my sister a couple of weeks ago and the conversation as usual came around to recipes. She has muscadine grapes on her property (not to mention blueberries, strawberries, and a newly-planted fig tree) and made some wonderful jelly with them.

We also chatted about a cake that I haven’t made in years that’s dumped into one bowl along with a can of frosting, then mixed all together and baked. So….it’s a Frosting in the Cake Cake because the frosting is actually in it – not on top!

Frosting in the Cake

I get high and mighty about making cakes from scratch, but I make an exception with this one. The recipe came from a Taste of Home bulletin board over ten years ago that since has been shut down.

I don’t know if the person who originally created it got in a hurry and decided to heck with it and dumped the frosting in the batter, but I’m glad they did. This is one of the best cakes I’ve ever tasted. No kidding.

Frosting in the Cake

There’s a very thin, almost chewy caramely layer on top of the cake. Be sure and get the corner piece to get the most of that.

I’ve found that a butter cake mix and a buttercream frosting is the best combination. Others have experimented with a strawberry cake mix/frosting combo and I once made a chocolate combo, but be sure and try the butter cake combo first.

The flavor is unbelievable – buttery, kind of vanilla-y, but not. It’s hard to describe.

Oh, and if you want it prettier just sprinkle some powdered sugar on top. For heaven’s sake don’t frost it though!

Frosting in the Cake

Frosting in the Cake Cake

Yield: 20 pieces
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

Wonderful flavor, ultra-ultra moist and yet still fluffy. One of the best cakes you'll ever have.

Ingredients

  • 1 boxed butter cake mix
  • 3/4 C oil
  • 1 C milk
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 can buttercream frosting

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spray and flour a 13x9" cake pan.
  2. In a large stand mixer, combine all of the ingredients. Start mixer on low (it will slosh about a bit until blended), then turn it up a little to mix until lumps are gone (1-2 minutes).
  3. Bake cake for 40 to 45 minutes until the top is a medium-dark caramel brown.
  4. Let cool on a rack. Dust with powdered sugar if desired before serving.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

Careful when you start the mixer - the milk will slosh around so make sure and start it on very low, then turn it up a little after mixed or you'll have milky batter all over your kitchen!

The brands I used this time are Duncan Hines Butter Cake mix with Pillsbury Butter Cream frosting.  It's perfect and soooooooo good!

Next time I might try a butter pecan cake mix with butter cream frosting.  Oh, and what about an orange cake mix with butter cream frosting.  The combinations are endless, but please try the butter cake mix and butter cream frosting first.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 20 pieces Serving Size: 1 piece
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 115Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 42mgSodium: 30mgCarbohydrates: 4gFiber: 0gSugar: 2gProtein: 2g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© sblades
Category: Cakes

Kouign Amann (French Butter Cake!)

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It was hard to choose among the four Cake Slice Bakers November choices, but I finally chose Kouign Amann (koo-ween a-mon), a French yeast-based butter cake (more bready than cakey). When I saw the delicate layers, sugary butter top, and caramelized bottom layer, I knew this was the one!

This technique for layering dough with cold butter then folding, rolling and repeating is called laminating. You end up with a buttery, layered bread. Kouign Amann is layered with sugar as well, so it’s also a rich sweet bread with a thin, chewy caramel layer on the bottom.

 

Putting the dough together was actually fairly easy (messy, but easy). It was stickier than I thought it should be so I added a couple of tablespoons more of flour while mixing so it would form the elastic dough.

The dough a dream to roll out; soft and manageable. I did have a little problem with the cold butter poking out on the last roll, but it just melted into the dough as it baked. Yum.

Bret and I agreed that it will be an excellent breakfast bread and Roger Pizey even gives a tip that you can create the dough and put it in the refrigerator overnight, then bake for breakfast in the morning. You can see the layers better in this photo:

I’m excited to learn to laminate dough so I won’t be afraid of it in other recipes (croissants anyone?). The total time to make this Kouign Amann recipe is about 3 hours, but that includes the rising time. Expand your horizons and try something new and challenging!

Don’t forget to visit the other Cake Slice Bakers choices (below the recipe) to see what they’ve created this month!

Kouign Amann

Kouign Amann (French Butter Cake)

Yield: 8 servings
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Total Time: 2 minutes

Rich, buttery, sweet cake with the thin caramel layer on the bottom.

Ingredients

  • 1/3 oz fresh yeast
  • 3/4 C warm water
  • 1 C superfine sugar (I used regular sugar)
  • 1 3/4 C. bread flour, sifted and extra for dusting, (I used all-purpose flour)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 C (1 stick) butter, cubed and chilled, plus an extra 2 tbsp melted butter

Instructions

  1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water (warm to the touch, not hot) with a pinch of sugar in a small bowl.  Let sit for about 10 minutes until bubbles appear.
  2. Sift the flour and place it and the salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Using the dough hook, slowly add the yeast batter on a low speed until fully mixed.    Increase the speed to medium for 4 or 5 minutes until the dough has become nice and elastic. (It will be a little sticky, but If too sticky, add another tablespoon or so of flour.) Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and leave in a warm place for 1 hour
  3. Lightly flour your rolling surface and dump the dough out onto it, patting the flour in lightly with your fingers.  Roll out into a 10"x12" rectangle.
  4. Bring the dough around so that the short side of the rectangle is facing you.  Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar vertically down the middle third of the dough.  Sprinkle the cubed butter evenly over the sugar.  Fold the left-hand third of the pastry over the top of the butter and sprinkle 2 tbsp. sugar over the pastry then fold the right-hand side over and sprinkle another 2 tbsp. sugar.  Fold the top third toward you and the bottom third up to cover the fold you have just made.
  5. Place a piece of parchment paper on a plate, then place the dough on it, seam down.  Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  6. Sprinkle your rolling surface generously with sugar and remove the dough from the refrigerator.  Pat dry if liquid has collected on it.  Roll out again to the same size, and repeat the folding (with the sugar sprinkled on the layers - no more butter) and chill for another 30 minutes.
  7. Preheat the oven to 400°.  Grease and line an 8" springform pan (or 8"round by 2" high pan) with parchment paper.
  8. Roll out the dough for a final time on a sugared surface and into a round shape to fit into your pan.  Pour the melted butter over the top and bake for 30 minutes until dark golden brown.  (I also sprinkled a little more sugar over the buttered top before baking.)
  9. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes in the pan.  Turn out onto a rack and remove the parchment paper.  Let cool.
  10. *If you like, make the dough the day before and leave in the cake pan overnight, then you can serve with coffee at breakfast.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

Weigh out your yeast - it's not an entire envelope.  I used Rapid Rise yeast.

I didn't have an 8" springform pan, so I used an 8" round by 2" deep cake pan.

I used all purpose flour and it worked out beautifully.  Go ahead and use bread flour if you have it - it has more protein and will make the cake more chewy.

Instead of cubes, next time I will slice the butter thinly, let it chill again, then place it on the dough.  The cubes tended to poke through the dough.

The dough seemed a little wet each time after the chilling process, so I patted it dry before the next folding routine.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1 piece
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 235Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 8mgSodium: 171mgCarbohydrates: 47gFiber: 1gSugar: 25gProtein: 4g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© Roger Pizey - World's Best Cakes
Category: Cakes

 

Kentucky Butter Cake

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Whenever I think of Kentucky, I think of big hats, horses and moonshine.  Oh, and the Kentucky Brown – a decadent sandwich with turkey, tomatoes, bacon, cheese and a little cream, broiled and served open-faced.  I’ve never had one, but they sound wonderful.  I’m putting that in my “to try” pile.  Definitely.

This Kentucky Butter Cake recipe adapted from AllRecipes is just as decadent as the Brown, but in a different way.  It’s loaded with butter and buttermilk and has a wonderful butter glaze poured over the warm cake.  

Here’s a photo just after I poured the glaze on it.  I poked quite a few holes, as you can see, so the glaze would soak down into the cake.

Kentucky Butter Cake

I also made sure that the glaze puddled and ran down the outer edges of the cake.  That gave it a bit of a buttery sugar glaze on the outside, too.

The recipe said it was better after sitting and soaking in a day, but who can wait a day!  

We did let it cool completely and I made a bit of homemade whipped cream to plop on top. It’s wonderful, although I liked it better without the whipped cream.  

The cake is so delicious that it doesn’t need any toppings.  Notice the moist edges of the cake where the glaze settled in:

Kentucky Butter Cake2

I have to admit, Kentucky Butter Cake is better the second day, if that’s possible.  I cut up a few fresh strawberries and enjoyed it with a cup of coffee for an afternoon dessert.  

It’s got a pound cake-ish texture, but that glaze gives the cake it’s own deliciousness.

When I turned it out of the pan, I flipped the cake again so that the buttery top would still be the top of the cake instead of the brown sides.  You just can’t beat that glazy, cracked topping.

Sliced butter cake

Kentucky Butter Cake

Yield: 14 slices
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Delicious, dense buttery cake with a fantastic glaze!  

Ingredients

  • 1 C butter, , cubed and at room temperature
  • 2 C sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 3 C all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 C buttermilk
  • Glaze:
  • 1/3 C butter
  • 3/4 C granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 2 tsp . vanilla

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour a 10" bundt pan well and set aside.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Blend until well combined. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Slowly add to the wet mixture and mix for 10 seconds.  Slowly pour the buttermilk in and mix for 2 minutes.
  3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 65 to 70 minutes until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and place on a rack.
  4. While the cake is still warm, combine the ingredients for the glaze in a small saucepan and stir on medium-low heat until the butter is melted and sugar is mostly dissolved.  Do not boil the mixture.
  5. Poke holes in the cake with a butter knife and pour the glaze evenly over it while it's still in the pan.  Cool the cake completely and then invert it onto a cake plate.

Notes

Tips and Stuff :

When poking the holes in the cake, make sure the knife goes almost all the way to the bottom of the cake so the glaze will soak down into it.

Watch the glaze that puddles in the middle - it might overflow and drip down the middle hole of the pan.

I also slightly pulled the cake away from the sides of the pan while pouring the glaze so it would drip down on the sides of the cake.

To remove the cake, carefully run a butter knife around the edges of the pan as well as around the middle hole of the pan to release.

Next time I will use maple flavoring in the glaze. I think that would take it to another wonderful level! 

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 14 slices Serving Size: 1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 437Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 100mgSodium: 439mgCarbohydrates: 61gFiber: 1gSugar: 41gProtein: 5g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© adapted from All Recipes.com
Category: Cakes