The Gooey Butter Cake Reviewers are Making ‘Twice a Week’

When I ate my first butter cake, I really didn’t know what I was trying. It looked like an ordinary vanilla cake, with hard edges and a deep brown crust. A single scoop of vanilla ice cream sat directly on top, melting and soaking into the crust.

The cake didn’t look too special, but I was quickly realized the beauty of butter cake after my first bite. There are two cakes that keep me up at night. Two cakes I can’t shake. The first is my grandma’s chocolate cake, which was on the table at every celebration I can remember. It’s a perfect cake, which never once tasted off.

The other, to no surprise, is a butter cake, which I first tried at a little American restaurant near my home. I had heard of this cake—it was the talk of the town. So, when I eventually got to try it, I was thrilled by the taste. Ever since then, there’s been a special place for butter cakes in my heart.

Thankfully, Allrecipes has a few great butter cake recipes that I love and are some of the best anywhere.

How to Enjoy a Butter Cake

Texturally, butter cake is perfect if done right. The outside should be golden-brown and firm, but the inside is moist and rich. The cake should not be overly sweet, but rather, a balance between rich and sweet.

Butter cake should always be served with a scoop of ice cream because it helps cut through the richness. My personal choice is vanilla, but go with your favorite. If all the parts come together, what you’re left with is a cake that few others can rival. 

Pound cakes are similar, but they are generally much simpler because they include a pound of each ingredient: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. A true pound cake can be quite dense, which you won’t find as often in a butter cake because the ingredients aren’t equal measurements, and there are a few extra ingredients too, including milk, vanilla, baking powder or baking soda. 

Some butter cakes include a cream cheese layer over the batter before the cake goes in the oven. The result is like a sweet layer of frosting that helps make a gooier cake. Two other recipes use bundt pans that can give your butter cake a distinct look. If that’s the look you’re going for, amazing! If not, you can likely use any old cake pan you have in your kitchen.

Community Tips and Praise

Butter cakes are so good, some in our Allrecipes community are making them twice in a week. See what our Allrecipes community says about our butter cake recipes:

• “This butter cake recipe is rich and delicious,” says recipe creator Carol. “It can be made for many uses and frosted if you like. You can also add soft fruit, such as blueberries or strawberries.”
• “This cake is amazing—in fact, it was so good I have had to make it twice in a week because it was gone so fast,” says recipe reviewer Shannon. “My brother said it reminded him of really good pancakes, so I topped the second one with a maple glaze. Easy to make, worth the effort!”
• “The first time I made this cake, I did not cream the butter and sugar long enough and it produced a cake that was coarse in texture, much like cornbread to quote some of the reviewers here,” says one Allrecipes community member. “When I made the cake a second time, I creamed the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, then added the eggs and vanilla and mixed until just blended before adding the flour and milk, stirring by hand. This produced a cake with a much finer texture.”

Try One of Our Recipes

Our Kentucky Butter cake has over 900 5-star ratings and over 1000 reviews. Our gooey butter cake recipes aren’t far behind either. No matter which cake you want to make, you can’t go wrong with these recipes.