A simple and rich butter cake is a delight at afternoon tea. My butter cake recipe is very easy to make – you don’t even need a mixer!
This cake can be made in a normal size using a large mold, or you can make a bunch of mini cakes like I did. I personally love to make the mini cake versions of butter cake because they look great when you serve afternoon tea.
I recommend using silicone molds when making mini butter cakes because they are quite light and tend to stick more to small metal molds. For a large cake, a properly greased and floured metal mold will work just fine.
How To Make A Butter Cake
I have been on a cake making spree recently, and after making a nutty and sweet praline cake, I wanted something a little more light and rich. This butter cake recipe only needs a few simple ingredients – the most important of which is high quality butter!
Ingredients
- 300 grams Flour – AP flour works fine here. About 2.5 cups.
- 225 grams Butter – melted. I recommend using European style butter instead of American as it is richer. You want the butterfat percentage to be 82% or higher. I use one that is 82.5% but you can go as high as 85%.
- 250 grams Sugar – granulated. This is roughly one and a quarter cups.
- 350 ml Buttermilk – I used kefir which is a substitute that works 1:1 so you can use whatever is more convenient for you to find.
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla Powder – can use a 1:1 of vanilla extract if that is easier for you.
* Like with most baking recipes, it is better to use weight than volume when measuring ingredients. I did put some conversions from metric to help those that don’t have a kitchen scale, but if you bake often you might want to consider investing in one.
Butter Cake Instructions
In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients by hand. If you have a sifter, sift the flour first to ensure there are no clumps.
In another bowl add the melted butter. If it is very hot, allow it a few minutes to cool down. Then trickle in the buttermilk while whisking constantly. Now it should be cool enough to add the eggs without cooking them. Just beat them in one at a time.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and whisk together. Do not overmix, so stop whisking as soon as the batter is homogenous. If you overmix you are liable to end up with a more dense cake.
Spoon the batter into your molds. Here I use some silicone vortex mini bundt molds I picked up at my local cake supply store. Make sure to use a mold with a wider opening than the sides (so no fancy mousse entremet molds; you’ll have trouble removing the cakes).
Place the tray in an oven preheated to 175C or 350F. Bake these mini butter cakes for about 13-16 minutes depending on your oven. To check doneness, insert a toothpick into the largest part and if it comes back clean the cakes are done.
Let the butter cake cool in the molds for 10 minutes, then remove and place on a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. Enjoy!
Butter Cake
Equipment
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Bowl
- 4 Silicone Baking Molds (6 unit) | Most trays hold 6-8 compartments, but you need a total of 24 for a recipe of this size. If you cut the recipe in half you will of course need less molds.
Ingredients
- 300 grams Flour AP flour works fine here. About 2.5 cups.
- 225 grams Butter melted. I recommend using European style butter instead of American as it is richer. You want the butterfat percentage to be 82% or higher. I use one that is 82.5% but you can go as high as 85%.
- 250 grams Sugar granulated. This is roughly one and a quarter cups.
- 350 ml Buttermilk I used kefir which is a substitute that works 1:1 so you can use whatever is more convenient for you to find.
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla Powder can use a 1:1 of vanilla extract if that is easier for you.
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 175C or 350F
- In a bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. If you have a sifter you can sift the flour to ensure no clumps.
- In another bowl add the melted butter. If it is super hot, wait a few minutes to let it cool. Trickle the buttermilk in while whisking constantly. This will cool down the butter the rest of the way. Beat the eggs in one at a time.
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Mix only enough to combine, do not overmix or the cake can get too dense.
- Fill your cake molds and place them in the oven to bake for around 13-16 minutes. Stick a toothpick into the thickest part and if it comes out clean your cakes are done.
- Let rest 10 minutes in the molds, then pop out and place them on a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. Enjoy!
Mini-bundt Butter Cake
