The perfect butter cake recipe simplified through your fingertips

Looking for cake making recipes that feature butter as the main ingredient? You are at the right place, for we have the perfect cake recipe, baked in a bundt pan with a buttery glaze to top it off. There’s no calorie counting with this one. If you are someone who appreciates the good stuff gets hands-on with the delicious butter cake recipe. We’ve also got some tips at the end for the recipe to be 100% foolproof.

Butter Cake Recipe

(Serves 12)

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• - 360 gm all-purpose flour
• - 1 tsp salt
• - ¾ tsp baking powder
• - ½ tsp baking soda
• - 225 gm unsalted butter, softened
• - 400 gm granulated sugar
• - 4 eggs
• - 240 ml whole milk

For the Glaze:

• - 70 gm unsalted butter
• - 150 gm granulated sugar
• - 60 ml water
• - 1½ tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and take a 10-inch bundt pan, if nonstick, first grease with butter then sprinkle flour to coat. Shake out the excess.
2. Take a big bowl, add flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and give it a mix.
3. Take a mixing bowl, with a handheld electric whisk or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add butter and sugar, and beat at medium speed, for 3 minutes, until fluffy. Make sure you pause to scrape the sides of the bowl.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then gradually add the flour mixture alternating with milk, mixing after each addition.
5. Pour the batter into the bundt pan covering each crevice.
6. Bake for one hour. Once baked, check with a toothpick inserted in three different spots to check if it comes out clean.
7. To make the glaze, heat butter, sugar, and water in a small saucepan, bringing to a simmer over medium heat. Cook while stirring constantly until it turns opaque and slightly thickens. This takes around 2 minutes. Once done, add the vanilla and mix.
8. Pour the glaze over the cake, still in the pan. Let it cool until warm, the cake will soak the glaze in this time. Then invert the cake onto a wire rack, and let it cool completely before slicing and serving.

Tips & Tricks for the Perfect Butter Cake

As you can see, butter cake is one of the easiest cakes to bake, it's perfect to snack on, eat alongside tea, and even gift to people who love simple cakes. But despite its simplicity, if you take the baking and the steps leading to it, too casually, then the butter cake recipe is not at fault, you might have goofed up somewhere.

Temperature of the Ingredients

To make the butter cake smooth and moist, it is crucial to use eggs at room temperature. Do not forget this step, for the pillowyness of your butter cake is at stake. Cold eggs just lead to a lumpy mixture and may require more than the usual mixing time to get the required result. In case you’re short on time, dip the eggs in warm water, for a couple of minutes to bring down the coldness. The kind of butter asked is crucial too. Room temperature butter versus cold butter versus melted butter will give completely different results.

Flour Measurement

Use exactly as specified otherwise you might end up with a dense and dry piece of brick or a wet cake that doesn't bake right. Getting the flour measurement right is one of the most critical aspects of baking a perfect butter cake. If you don't have a weighing scale, use the spoon and level method and measure out the flour in it.

Pan Preparation

Check your bundt pan, is it nonstick? If yes, great, if not you’ll need to grease it, then flour it lightly, and tap off the excess to set the nonstick coating. This extra step ensures that your cake will release easily, preserving its beautiful shape and intricate details.

Filling the Pan

Don’t play dodgeball with the batter, rotate, and use a spatula to make sure it's evenly distributed with no air trapped anywhere. This is especially for bundt pans which have crevices in them. This ensures your cake is baked in the shape intended for it.

Working with the Oven

Resist the urge to open the oven door while your cake is baking. Each time you do, you release the carefully built-up hot air, which can lead to uneven baking and potentially cause your cake to sink or fall. Do the toothpick test only after the oven timer is over.

Ingredient Freshness

This one does not apply here, but we’ll state the example anyway, say you’re making a yeasty cake. For some reason, you trusted the ancient yeast powder on your kitchen shelf which was all but forgotten, until recently. But hours pass by and your dough doesn't rise, and guess what? You added expired yeast to your dough. Check the label of the packaged ingredients before using them so you don't cause any wastage or fall sick from using expired ones.