This is the best cake I have ever eaten. EVER! If I believed in reincarnation, I would come back as this cake. The recipe appeared a few days ago on “The Girl Who Ate Everything” and when I saw it my insides leapt for joy.
I have to admit, though, that cooking anything with this much butter was fairly intimidating, even for someone like me who was pretty much raised on pork fat and shortening. I am no stranger to fats and oils. Not bragging, just stating the facts. I should probably follow up this post with 12 super healthy recipes to make up for this one lapse in good judgement. But…wait till you taste this thing. Gosh!
Update 9/26/2012. For a great Autumn twist on this cinnamon roll cake, try Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cake. Wildly delicious!
This recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything via Picky Palate
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) real butter, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans, (optional)
- 3 cups flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) real butter, melted
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 5 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Topping:
Cake:
Glaze:
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix the 2 sticks of softened butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and pecans until well combined. Set aside.
- In an electric or stand mixer mix the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs and vanilla.
- Once combined well, slowly stir in the 1/2 cup melted butter.
- Pour batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
- Drop topping evenly over cake batter by the tablespoonsful and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center
- Place powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle over warm cake.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
The culprits. Dang them. The salt went on walk about during the photo shoot, but he was back in time for the party in the bowl.
/
/
In a large bowl, put the softened butter (please, no margarine), brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon.
/
/
Add the pecans…or leave them out. Your choice.
/
/
Whip them up together until well blended. Set aside.
/
/
Flour –check
/
/
Salt–check
/
/
Sugar–check
/
/
Baking powder–check
/
/
Egg–check
/
/
Vanilla extract–check
/
/
Milk–check.
/
/
Everyone present and accounted for, Ma’am.
/
/
Mix ingredients just until blended.
/
/
With the mixer on low speed, pour in the melted butter slowly.
/
/
Pour the batter into a buttered 9″ x 13″ pan.
/
/
Spread the batter evenly in the pan.
/
/
Okay, since I am posting these step-by-step photos nearly two years AFTER I posted this recipe, I need to make a clarification about this particular picture. I tried something new this time around with the topping. I softened it a little in the microwave before I put it on top of the batter. It was the same consistency as the batter and seemed to work okay. Generally the topping is thicker than the batter and may seem as though it is not blending well with the batter. Please note: Do not make marbling the topping and batter too much of a concern. There will be “clumps” of topping. That’s the way it is supposed to be. DO NOT over-mix the batter and topping together. Just swirl them together with a knife. Some of the topping will stay on top of the batter and some of it will go to the bottom of the batter and some of it will tunnel all the way through the batter, top to bottom.
/
/
Normally, this would not look quite so soupy. Like I said previously, it still worked out okay.
/
/
This is a picture I took two years ago the first time I made this cake. You can see the difference between the stiffer topping and the other picture which shows a more liquid topping. (I got the topping in the other picture a little bit too warm in the microwave. I probably won’t use that method again.)
/
/
This is the baked cake prior to adding the glaze. You can see the texture of the cake, with its hills and valleys. There are tunnels where the topping melted through the cake–excellent. You will also see that there are some lighter parts where there is only cake. Everything else is a mix of cake and topping, generally with the topping resting above and the cake below. Click on the picture to get an enlarged view.
/
/
After the cake comes out of the oven, mix up the glaze. It comes together so easily.
/
/
Pour the glaze over the warm cake. Cinnamon, butter, sugar, butter, sugar, butter, butter, flour and a couple of other things.
/
/
So go make this cake. Eat one piece and give the rest away. The five forksful you eat right out of the pan when this thing is still warm from the oven does not count as your one piece.
/
This is your piece…
/
/
/
About Terri @ that's some good cookin'
This just looks so awesome! I am so afraid to make it with all that butter, esp since it’s only going to be for hubby and me!
cut back on the sugar and butter by 1/3 in the cake, make 1/2 the topping and it’d still be a very tasty cake, and not so hard on your poor liver.
n82: Got any friends? Invite ‘em over. Or split the cake between two or more smaller pans and reduce the cooking time. Save one for yourself, give the others away. Or halve the recipe. Or print out a picture of the cake, put it on your fridge with a big sign that says, “I am a strong woman. I can walk away from ultimate evil.”
Goodness gracious, Terri. This looks fabulous!
Oh yes, Miss Jeanne. This is one insanely good dessert. Yes, oh yes.
this looks awesome and I am going to make it this afternoon! The BF will love it!!
Thank you for sharing! Debbi
That’s great! Drop back by and let me know how it works out for you.
Made this for a potluck tonight and it was quickly gone. Very good recipe for a big group!
So glad you and your guests enjoyed it! Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment.
This looks delicious. I can’t wait to make it. Thank you for sharing.
Melissa, thank you. All I can say is that this is crazy good! I am forever grateful to the person that invented this recipe!
Anything worth come back as- reincarnated- is DEFINITELY worth catching my attention!
It looks fabulous!
Kristin, it IS fabulous. I wish I could meet the woman that invented it. She has my deepest admiration and awe!
Terri, I just pulled this cake out of the oven, and can’t wait to eat it! Your recipes are always awesome, and I also printed out your Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe from the TK Blog, -which is how I came across this cake. Thank you so much for the inspiration. I would die if I had to cook or bake the same thing all the time!!!
I made this yummy cake last night, and it is definitely a keeper. I did however have a little trouble with the topping. I don’t know if I just didn’t let the butter soften quite enough, but it was a little bit stiff and I had a hard time with the marbeling. I was a little overzealous, and most of the topping ended up on the bottom of the cake. Of course, it’s still good, but the presentation wasn’t quite as pretty as it should be. Next time I think I’ll melt the butter for the topping (or at least make sure the butter is really really soft) and see if that helps. There will be a next time! As always, thank you for the great recipes.
Hi Shari. I’m glad that you liked the recipe, but sorry that you had some trouble with swirling the topping. However, it does seem to me that I remember the topping as being a bit stiff. I think that the last time I made it (February) I used smaller dollops than tablespoon size to help counter this problem. I’ll get back to you on this in a day or two. My mom is coming for dinner tonight, so it would be a good time to make this cake again and refresh my memory! Since this has become, by far, the most visited recipe on my site (thanks to Pinterest), I really ought to spruce things up and do a step-by-step.
Thanks so much for dropping by and leaving comments. All in all, it’s an intimidating thing to be a food blogger, so nice comments are always a plus. I appreciate your honesty in saying that you had trouble with the topping. But, like I said, I’ll make this cake tonight and remind myself of the “how-to’s.
I made the cake this morning to share with a friend and her family. I added 2 small peeled and chopped granny smith apples and only made half of the icing. It was fabulous!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Jennifer, adding chopped apples sounds really great. I’ll have to try that one as well.
This looks amazing, I can honestly believe it is one of your most visited posts. I’m hosting a brunch in December for my women’s club and trying to plan the menu now. Guess I have my first recipe! And, I think I will add the Granny Smith apples, sounds so much healthier, right!
Whew! Good girl; get on top of the menu now and when December rolls around you won’t have to stress about the food for the brunch. And yes, right about the apples. I think that they will taste great with this cake. I still haven’t tried it with the apples, but I’m thinking that this weekend will be a great time to give it a go. Cinnamon Roll Apple Cake–holy cow, even writing it sounds wonderful.