Week 39: Butterscotch Cake

Gosh this Butterscotch Bundt is pretty! This cake started out as a non-chocolate version of the Tunnel of Fudge Cake. But then things went awry and it turned into more of a “ribbon of butterscotch” as opposed to a tunnel. It all turned out okay, more than okay. I’ll explain.

Here’s my mise en place. I was using all the measurements from the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, replacing butterscotch chips for chocolate chips, butterscotch pudding for chocolate pudding, and yellow cake mix for devil’s food.

I was so jazzed about this recipe, I bought some of the ingredients a couple months ago. Not thinking, I picked up instant butterscotch pudding instead of cook and serve. In a last ditch effort to follow directions, I looked for cook and serve butterscotch pudding, but couldn’t find any. “What would happen anyway if I just prepared the pudding by cooking it?” I asked myself. I pressed on, pretending like the pudding thing wouldn’t be a problem.

I whisked the pudding mix into the milk over medium heat. Why is it so clumpy?

I added the butterscotch chips once most of the clumps had disappeared.

Then the filling got runny. It was like butterscotch soup. I realized this was likely because the pudding mix was instant and was meant to be prepared in a fridge, not in a saucepan over medium heat. I refrigerated the mixture in hopes it would thicken. Meanwhile, I made the cake batter. This was the easiest part. Just dump the cake mix, oil, eggs, sour cream, and Baileys into a large bowl and mix!

I poured about half the batter into my prepared bundt pan. Then I removed the butterscotch filling from the fridge and started to CAREFULLY spoon the mixture on top of the batter, being careful not to touch the sides of the pan. But the cold butterscotch filling would have none of it and started to slide all over the place, coming into contact with the edges of the pan. I tried to keep the sliding under control, but I soon gave up. The filling wasn’t behaving like the cook and serve pudding filling did when I prepared the Tunnel of Fudge Cake. I completed the ring of butterscotch, haphazardly slopping it around until about half the filling was placed. I took a few bites of the leftover filling and tossed the rest. I was so caught up in the crisis, I didn’t take photos. I poured the rest of the cake batter into the pan and used a butter knife to swirl the filling around like you would when making a marble cake and said a prayer to the baking gods.

All the while I was thinking about how I was going to have to hit up a bakery the next morning so I wouldn’t show up to the party empty-handed!

The cake baked at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. I let it cool in its pan for 30 minutes on a wire rack.

Then I started fiddling around with a small offset spatula, sticking it down the sides of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Based on past experience, I expected this cake to come out in two distinct layers since there was an unwieldy layer of butterscotch filling milling about the center of the cake. But to my surprise, the cake slid out in one solid piece. There was some filling leakage, as evidenced by the giant crater in the photo below. But it was nothing some delicious butterscotch glaze couldn’t fix!

I let the cake chill out, covered, overnight. The next morning I prepared the glaze. I mixed sugar, butter, and corn syrup in a saucepan over a medium heat.

I let it all come to a rolling boil and it cooked for about 2 minutes.

Then I whisked in the cream and cooked it a few more minutes.

I drizzled the glaze over the cake and sprinkled it with chopped pecans.

A slice revealed the cake indeed contained a modest ribbon of butterscotch.

Because the base of this recipe is yellow cake mix, it was positively delicious. Yellow cake mix is just… a miracle. There’s so much you can do with it and the results are always positively delicious!

Here’s the original recipe that I was attempting to make. If you follow the directions and use cook and serve pudding, you’ll have much better luck!