Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

Every week, I make some sort of homemade sweet treat for my family, and to share with friends & neighbors.  Every now & then I get a little adventurous, but I like to do a few things & do them really well.  So I typically stick to 3 things:  sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, & my brown sugar bundt cake.

I can’t recall how I came across this cake, but I’m pretty sure I went through every cookbook in this house looking for something other than a standard white or yellow cake.  Or anything that required sifting or random special ingredients that no one would keep on hand normally.  And that’s moist & delicious.  I don’t ask for much.

This cake is not hard & if you bake anything at all, you’ll definitely have what it takes to make it.  The hardest thing about this cake is that it’s a bundt, which means taking the time to butter & flour a bundt pan.  No cooking spray here, trust me I tried.

Enough talk, let’s bake this cake!

Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

• 2 1/4 cups flour + extra for the bundt pan
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (you could leave this out)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup room temperature butter + extra for the bundt pan
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 cup milk

The Process

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
   • *** THE NEXT 2 STEPS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ***
2. Butter the bundt pan VERY well.  This is important to keep the cake from sticking & make it turn out easily.  BUTTER THE PAN REALLY REALLY WELL.
3. Put 1/4 cup flour in the bundt pan.  Swirl it around tapping the pan to coat all the butter with the flour.  MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO BARE SPOTS.
   • *** NOW THAT THAT’S DONE, THE REST IS EASY ***
4. Mix the butter & sugar until they are nice & creamy.
5. Add the eggs & vanilla, and mix it in well.
6. Mix the flour, baking powder, & salt in a separate bowl.
7. Add the combined flour mixture to the wet ingredients a little at a time alternating with the milk.  I roughly break this into 3rds, add 1/3 of the flour mixture then 1/4 cup of milk – alternate until it’s all added & mixed in.
8. Bake for 50-55 minutes.  Cool in the pan for another 5 minutes or so.
9. Turn out onto a wire rack and cool for another 5-10 minutes at least.  If you’re not going to ice your cake, you can skip this step & turn it out directly onto your cake plate.
10. After you glaze it (recipe below), let it sit for the glaze to set up then carefully move it to your cake plate.

The Icing/Glaze

* Note:  these measurements are not exact.  I just kinda “eyeball it” & this is about how much I think it takes *

• 3/4 or up to 1 cup confectioners/powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/4 teaspoon of flavoring (I use vanilla or lemon)

Mix everything together in a medium bowl until smooth & creamy.  Taste it.  Add more flavoring if you need to.

Drizzle it over your cake in any pattern you like.  There’s no right or wrong.  In fact, our daughter did the icing on this cake!  Yes I gave up control – actually walked out of the kitchen – and let her do what she wanted with it.  Turned out so great it barely made it to the cake plate!

Brown Sugar Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze.  Serve it & bask in the oohs & ahhs over how pretty & delicious it is!

TIPS:

1. You could also glaze the cake on wax or parchment paper.
2. To move it to the cake plate use a spatula to help slide it from the rack or paper to the cake plate.
3. To make buttering a bundt pan easier & get into all the nooks & crannies
   • use room temperature butter (not melted, not straight from the fridge, but not too soft either).
   • unwrap a stick of semi-soft room temp butter halfway.  Hold the wrapped part of the butter & rub the unwrapped portion all over the inside of the pan.
   • if your butter is too soft (but not melted), drop a dollop in the bundt pan then grab a paper towel (or food service glove, if you have/use those).  Get in there with your covered hand and spread it around.
4. I don’t have a tip for flouring the bundt pan other than to do it over the sink until you get great at it – practice makes perfect.  It will probably be messy but DO NOT SKIP it or you will end up with cake crumbles not a bundt cake.  Those might be good on homemade ice cream though.
   • If you happen to have gaps after flouring your pan, you can either start all over OR dab a little butter on the spot(s) & flour over it again.

If you make this cake, I promise everyone will love you (or hate you if they are counting calories).  I know it’s good because my grandmother loves it and she really only eats 3 people’s food – her own, her niece’s, and mine.  Yep I finally made the cut!  Each of us has a specialty desert that we’re known for (and expected to make & bring to everything).  This is mine.  I hope you like it as much as we do!