Kentucky Butter Cake
I mentioned the other week that I got a promotion at work. With this promotion, I’m now managing people for the first time. Being a boss has been an interesting transition over the last few weeks.
I have to confess that when I found out about the job, Hubby and I did play the SNL short “Like A Boss” on the TV, blaring through the speakers, pointing to me when it said “Like a boss”. Which is quite frequently if you recall… (If you haven’t seen the skit, Google it sometime when you’re home. It’s somewhat inappropriate but pretty funny).
So now that I’m a boss, I get to make some of the rules at work which has been fun. One thing I changed was how birthdays are celebrated in the group. You see, birthdays are a big deal in my world. I love celebrating other people’s birthdays *almost* as much as my own.
Since the previous manager was doing nothing to celebrate birthdays, I had a blank slate to start with. I decided that we’d celebrate at the last staff meeting of the month with some homemade baked good. For the first time since making that executive decision, it was time to celebrate April birthdays at staff meeting.
I decided on this Kentucky Butter Cake because one of the reviews online said it tasted like a glazed doughnut. Enough said, I’m in. Since staff meeting is in the morning, I figured this was a nice bridge between breakfast and dessert.
This bundt was a HUGE success. The cake itself is a nice sturdy cake with a bit of tang from the buttermilk. And the glaze is to.die.for. It’s a butter syrup that’s poured over the hot bundt (after piercing holes throughout). And then the whole thing is cooled in the pan. So that glaze gets soaked throughout the cake and forms a nice crust on the outside edges.
My team loved the new tradition of celebrating birthdays once a month at staff meeting (and the coworkers who got leftovers approve as well). Although I’ve set the bar pretty high with this cake. It’s going to be a tough act to follow next month.
One Year Ago: Red Cabbage Slaw with Cilantro and Lime Dressing and Pulled Pork Sliders with Red Cabbage Slaw
Two Years Ago: Homemade Peeps and Hot Cross Buns
Three Years Ago: Raspberry Curd
Four Years Ago: Raspberry Cheesecake Swirl Brownies
Five Years Ago: Plum Rolls (Zwetschgenschnecken)
Kentucky Butter Cake Bundt
This bundt cake tastes just like a glazed doughnut!
Yield: Serves 10-12
Ingredients:
For the Cake
3 cups unbleached flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup butter
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
For the Glaze
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
3 Tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
For the Cake
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Blend in buttermilk, butter, vanilla and eggs. Beat for 3 minutes at medium speed. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
During the last 15 minutes of baking time, prepare the glaze.
For the Glaze
In a saucepan combine the sugar, butter, vanilla, and the water. Cook over medium heat, until fully melted and combined, but do not boil.
Prick holes in the still warm cake. Slowly pour sauce over cake. Let cake cool before removing from pan.
Recipe from AllRecipes.com
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Jen, I think I just died and went to heaven! Long live the Ring Ding!! LOL
http://www.simplysweeter.blogspot.com
Love this theme, so fun! The whole menu sounds delicious 🙂
Hi Jen,
Wow! These babies look really authentic. I’ve seen a lot of faux Ding Dongs in my day, and yours rank right up there. Very nice job!
🙂 Jane
Oh, I LOVE Ding Dongs!!! And yours look fabulous!
Even at 8a on a monday morning, I feel like I could eat a whole stack of those. Great job, they look delicious!
There is a local baking partnership here in the Los Angeles area that makes individual sized cakes and treats. They also recreate classic favorites such as the Ho-Ho. Thought you might enjoy the link. http://www.cakemonkey.com/
Oh your Ding Dongs look perfect. Absolutely perfect!! They make me want to jump up and make them now. Goodness!! Thanks for sharing the photos and recipe with us. I’ve yet to make the 7-minute frosting, so I’m looking forward to that.
Oh my, what a great recipe!
You’re killing me! Now I have to think about when I can fit Ring Dings into my schedule this week! They’d be so much better from scratch than they would out of the box…
These & oatmeal creme pies were my absolute favorite as a kid. I think they were called King Dons when I ate them. I definitely need to try this!
Oh, how fun. WIsh I had a couple right now.
Ring Dings! :)But that’s what they were called when Drake’s made them and we lived in NYC. Once we moved to FL they were Ding Dongs. Or do I have that backwards, hmm now I’m not exactly sure. Either way it wasn’t I that ate them but my Mom. I’ll have to give them a whirl for her and score some brownie points, hee-hee!
Hope you have a safe and Happy Memorial Day weekend!
~ingrid
omigosh YUM!! they sure do remind me of hostess cupcakes
Your ding dongs look perfect! Great job!
I’ve been thinking of making these for my mother for her birthday next week…but since she LOVE chocolate peanut butter, I thought I would fill the cakes with a peanut butter version of the white cream. Any suggestions on what peanut butter cream I should fill them with??
I would love your input, I trust you more than myself in this matter, haha.
FYI for anyone interested, I made mine into cupcakes since I don’t have round cake pans. The cupcakes take about 25 minutes to bake at the same temp. Really good but tons of work! Oh yeah I got 32 cupcakes using 1/4 cup batter in each cup. I had plenty of filling but I had to made a little more ganache, BUT I was a little heavy with it in the beginning so if you keep that in mind you could have enough.
Love these…I am an East Coat gal and I knew what you meant lol! I will NOT buy these for my kids with what is used for ingredients, but you have inspired me to make them! Thanks!
Sorry to say but mine fell apart and it was entirely to much work. Much better to just go to the store and buy them.
These look just like the original, but I bet they’re so much more tasty. Great job!
beantownbaker — January 5th, 2013 @ 11:44 pm
They sure are better than the original – a lot more work though, but definitely worth it!
Can the coffee be substitutes with anything else?
beantownbaker — January 17th, 2013 @ 4:51 pm
The coffee just enhances the chocolate flavor. You can just use water instead if you don’t have any coffee or don’t like coffee.
I just made these for my mothers birthday(ring dings are the only dessert she enjoys) they came out great! Awesome recipe
beantownbaker — February 3rd, 2013 @ 9:46 pm
So glad you enjoyed them. Happy birthday to your mother!
hey.. made these.. testing recipes for a summer camp job I start this June.. so good, but might stick with cupcakes for kids..
took cake chunks and extra frosting.. made cake balls! Rolled in melted peanut butter then dripped chocolate over… YUM… love your site.. looking for more camp ideas.. kid friendly!
beantownbaker — February 24th, 2013 @ 10:28 am
Cupcakes definitely would be less messy for kids. I really like the portability of bars and brownies. I have tons of those on my blog too.
Making cake balls with PB and chocolate on top sounds amazing!
Never had these before but look good! I might just use the whole cake and cut out rings with the cutter and fill them up in the whole cake then cover in choc. What if you put marshmallow filling? Do you think it would be to soft to cut into pieces of cake?
OMG Jen, just saw this recipe linked from HuffPo article! Sorry, can’t get the link on my phone. 🙁 Slide show on manufactured foods that taste better homemade.
beantownbaker — August 4th, 2013 @ 6:43 pm
Thanks for letting me know! I found the post.
Amazing results. Rarely do I find the recipes that claim to be “just like” the original actually live up to those claims. This one did. LOVE.
beantownbaker — August 27th, 2013 @ 7:58 am
So glad you enjoyed them!
The recipe says to use filling same day. I need to make the cakes a day or 2 ahead of party. If I fill them right away, will they hold for a day or so in the refrigerator ? I don’ t want them to get soggy.
Can these be frozen?
Made these for a friend’s birthday party. Definitely time intensive…assembly took me forever. I made 16 cupcakes and 24 mini-cupcakes and had lots of extra cake batter. The cake is amazing, super moist and flavorful…but fally-aparty so hard to work with when dipping in ganache or spreading ganache over it. After I spent hours making these, they ended up smashed together in one side of the pan that I packed them in to the party. i would highly recommend transporting them in a cupcake tin or something where they will not move. The ganache never “dried” for me so mine were gooey on the outside too, and pretty much a mess to eat. Don’t get me wrong, they taste amazing and everyone enjoyed eating them…but if I was to do it over again, I would just use the ingredients to make a cake.
Do you have to use hot coffee? Can you just use plain hot water.
I don’t know what happened. I made Red Velvet “Fwinkies” (fake Twinkies), but covered them with chocolate so basically a hybrid or a Fwinkho. I have a delectovals pan. After piping in the 7-minute frosting, I dipped the bottoms in melted chocolate to seal and then covered the top in chocolate. The next day, I took them to a sorority luncheon as a treat. Well, the cream filling disappeared and I have to wonder did sealing the bottoms with the warm melted chocolate basically disintegrate the cream filling? I want to make something like this for a gender reveal next week, but I may have to change up the cream filling because I can’t leave the bottoms bare. Any advice?
Thank you!