Growing up as the daughter of a pastor, I spent the majority of my Sunday’s at church. When I wasn’t attending the service, I could be found running around the property playing hide-and-seek with my siblings and other pastors’ kids, volunteering in the nursery, or scoping out the visitor’s table where a pink box of donuts sat. Every Sunday morning, my dad picked up a box of donuts from the local shop, Donut Star, and brought them to the visitor’s table. After the final service ended and congregants had gone home, my siblings and I had first dibs on the leftover donuts. Our great reward.
Emily always picked the apple fritters larger than her face, Scotty liked Long Johns, preferably covered with chocolate, and I had eyes for old fashioneds. Their dense cakiness with only a touch of sugary glaze are the stuff dreams are made of. Not to mention their shape – I loved to break off each petal of the flower, taking my time, before finally enjoying the inner ring.
Why am I telling you about church donuts? Because this cake recipe is the closest thing I’ve ever made to an old-fashioned donut. Alison makes this comparison in her recipe notes and she couldn’t be more spot on.
blurry, but you get the idea. the cake really holds its structure
This recipe alone tells me that Alison used to work at Milk Bar in New York. If you’ve ever had a Milk Bar Birthday Truffle, you know how rich, compact, (and addictive) their cakes are. This browned butter-buttermilk cake is also incredibly rich and dense. It relies on the frosting glaze to provide most of the sweetness. The cake itself is like eating a doughy version of butter. Heavenly, but also taxing on the stomach if you know what I mean. One piece of cake is all I can handle in a day.
The baking process is rather simple, and doesn’t require a mixer. It’s a simple whisk dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, then combine them without overmixing. The wet ingredients list includes a melted and browned stick of butter, in addition to a full cup of buttermilk. The frosting also contains buttermilk and more browned butter, mixed with a cup of powdered sugar. All in all, there’s just a lot of butter.
see what I mean??
A few quick notes about my cake. For some reason, the texture of my cake looked kind of lumpy. I noticed as I poured the batter into the cake pan that it didn’t ooze and spread like a normal batter. I had to push it out to fill the pan with a spatula. I hoped that the lumps would melt and soften in the oven, but they maintained their structure. I can’t quite tell why this happened. Did I not mix the batter enough? I thought I did? I’m not an experienced baker, so I don’t have many ideas beyond that. Regardless of the lumps, they didn’t seem to negatively affect the cake’s flavor and soft, dense texture. Also note that the frosting comes together, and hardens, very quickly, so be ready to pour it over the cake as soon as it forms. And don’t forget to sprinkle flaky sea salt over the top!
194 recipes cooked, 31 to go.
