Buttermilk Breakfast Cake

— 1 (18.25 oz.) package white cake mix

— 1 cup buttermilk

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— 1/2 cup melted butter

— 5 large eggs

— 3 tablespoons light brown sugar

— 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

— Shortening

— 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Buttermilk-Vanilla Glaze

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer 1 ½ minutes or until thoroughly blended; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir together brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Grease a 12 cup Bundt pan with shortening; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon granulated sugar.

Spoon one third of batter into prepared pan; sprinkle brown sugar mixture evenly over batter. Top with remaining batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack, and cool 20 minutes. Drizzle Buttermilk-Vanilla Glaze over slightly warm cake.

Buttermilk-Vanilla Glaze

— 1 cup powdered sugar

— 1 tablespoon melted butter

— 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

— 1 to 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Stir together first 3 ingredients and 1 tablespoon buttermilk until smooth, adding additional 1 tablespoon buttermilk, if necessary, for desired consistency.

 

We were going to have a breakfast get together at church when I found this recipe in my “breakfast” folder.

The recipe had been torn from the May 2008 issue of Southern Living magazine.

Some of the ingredients listed for this cake weren’t in our pantry or refrigerator, so I added them to my grocery list. I headed to the grocery bright and early Saturday morning because we had big plans for the rest of the day — trying to find a new mattress for our bed.

When I got to the boxed-cake mix area of the store, I looked at every white cake mix they had and not one of them was 18.25 ounces. They were generally about 15 or 16 ounces. I ended up buying two store brand mixes because they were on sale for $1 each.

Later in the afternoon, I started making this cake.

I greased a bundt pan liberally and then sprinkled a tablespoon of sugar into it. After shaking the sugar around in the pan, I saw it wasn’t enough, so for good measure, I added two more tablespoons and shook the pan again; now it looked well coated.

I’m not sure I’ve ever used this method with baking a cake; typically I do the grease and flour method to keep the cake from sticking to the pan. I was curious but hopeful the cake wouldn’t stick to the pan.

I put the pan aside and then mixed the cinnamon and brown sugar in a small bowl. Then I poured one cake mix into a bowl and placed it on my kitchen scale. I added enough of the second cake mix to equal 18.25 ounces.

I melted the butter, added it to the cake mix and then poured in the buttermilk. I turned on my stand mixer and set the timer for 1.5 minutes, this seemed like a long time, but the batter looked really good — smooth and fluffy — when the timer sounded.

I added the eggs one at a time, though I was tempted to just dump them all in at once. After each egg was added, I let the mixer do its job until the egg was well blended into the batter.

When the batter was ready, I poured some into the prepared pan. I wasn’t sure I’d used 1/3 of the batter, so I poured some more in then sprinkled the cinnamon mixture evenly over the batter. I added the rest of the batter to the pan and placed it in the preheated oven. I set the timer for 45 minutes.

When the timer sounded, the cake wasn’t quite done so I let it bake about 5 more minutes. When I removed it from the oven I let it sit in the pan for 15 minutes then turned it out onto a rack to continue cooling.

The cake stuck in one small spot, but I gently scraped the stuck part out of the pan and put it back on the cake. I figured the glaze would cover  it.

I got busy doing other things at home and ended up letting the cake cool completely before mixing up the glaze. When I did mix the glaze ingredients together, I started just like the recipe said, with one tablespoon of buttermilk. After stirring the four glaze ingredients together, I decided I needed more buttermilk and ended up using another tablespoon.

I placed the cake on one of my cake stands and slowly poured the glaze on top, then thought, “It’s a pretty cake, I hope it tastes good.”

Before going to bed I covered the cake with a cake dome.

Sunday morning came and I decide to slice the cake before heading to church to make it easier on the fellowship committee members.

I kept watching to see if anyone was going to take a piece of my cake, but no one did. Finally, Carlee, a real sweet teenager, took the first piece.

When Brad and I went through the line, I was the second person to take a piece and thought not many people were going to try it. Brad took a piece and we headed to a table to dig in.

Brad and I thought the cake was pretty good, but I was thinking it was more on the line of just OK.

I was surprised the cinnamon sugar mixture hadn’t really swirled through the cake like I thought it would. It seemed to have sunk in the batter and was really close to the outside edge.

I looked for Carlee to get her opinion, but didn’t see her. When I went to get my cake stand before heading to Sunday School the cake was almost gone. My Aunt Carolyn was standing close by and I asked her if she wanted a few pieces of cake to take home, and she did.

I covered the remaining few pieces of cake and took it to my car so I wouldn’t have to carry it around the whole morning.

When I got to my Sunday School class I heard my classmate, Larry, mention the cake and he gave me a thumbs up.

I heard from a few other people who had tried the cake and they all gave me good reviews.

On Monday, Carolyn called to let me know that she had enjoyed the cake and my cousin Vickie, who was in from Alabama for the weekend, agreed.

With the compliments I got on this cake, I’d said I nailed this recipe and I’ll hang on to it for my self-made cookbook.

The next time I make this breakfast cake I’ll probably just use one cake mix, even if it’s just 16 ounces and see how it turns out.

Sarah Condley is an amateur baker and chef who is compiling a cookbook of her favorite recipes.