A really great name makes something good even better, don’t you think?
Consider finding the perfect shade of delicate petal pink nail polish, only to discover it’s called “No Pre-Nup” (which coincidentally happens to pair quite nicely with a color the soft pink of a ballet shoe called “High Maintenance”). And isn’t it more fun to crack open a cold can of craft beer knowing it’s called “Audrey Hopburn” (Great Lakes Brewery’s IPA) or “Beehave” (Greenport Harbor Brewing Co.’s honey summer ale). Watching the Kentucky Derby is infinitely more exciting if you’re cheering on a horse named “Riding Miss Daisy” or “Atswhatimtalkinbout”.
Recipes are no exception. I’d rather eat a cake called Better Than Sex Chocolate Cake over a plain old chocolate cake any day. (Although, that’s setting an awfully high bar depending on the person in question.) A Juicy Lucy burger is absolutely more appealing than a regular cheeseburger; a creamy rum, pineapple, and coconut cocktail already sounds delicious, but call it a Painkiller and it gets that much better. And I’d obviously choose a snickerdoodle over a sugar cookie, because…I shouldn’t need to explain that.
Which brings me to today’s recipe: farmhouse buttermilk cake. Just the name itself conjures up all sorts of images for me: a fire crackling in a cozy hearth, a woman in a well-worn apron standing at the stove stirring a pot as fragrant savory-scented steam rises, rosy-cheeked children racing inside after a long romp in the pastures, a slab of creamy yellow butter melting on a warm slice of homemade oat-flecked bread.
Let’s get this out of the way first: farmhouse buttermilk cake is a rustic cake. If you are looking for something ethereal and pretty, you should probably stop reading now. The interior of the cake is a cheery yellow with a sturdy crumb. It’s moist and tender but not delicate, and the topping is even less so. It comes from the King Arthur Flour recipe archives, which is always my go-to spot for old-fashioned, New England-y baked goods, as they do excel in that arena.
Hand in hand with its rustic appearance is the slapdash, can’t-mess-it-up method of assembling the topping. You stir together melted butter and sugar, then add milk and chopped pecans to make a thick glaze. You pour this (and not even carefully!) over the warm cake as soon as it emerges from the oven, then you bake it for another 10 minutes with the glaze on top.
It looks horribly runny at first and as if you’ve made a truly epic mess of it all. But as it sits, the glaze thickens and sets into a firm-yet-gooey, praline-like consistency. It’s almost like a soft layer of fudge with a thin, crackly top.
It is—in short—perfect. The topping is very sweet but the cake is not (I use less sugar than the original recipe in the cake itself), and the nuts add a lovely crunch to each bite. It’s a bit difficult to stop eating, to be perfectly honest, so consider yourself warned.
And although its rustic, its actually quite striking in my opinion. Sheet cakes aren’t always impressive looking, but this one is, with its craggy nut-studded top.
Recipe Notes: I’ve only ever made this cake with pecans, but I suspect you could easily use other nuts like walnuts. I wouldn’t do only almonds, but they’d be nice in combination with hazelnuts or macadamias, and peanuts would probably be weird and amazing.
Farmhouse Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
For the cake
8 tablespoons (113g) butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups (372g) packed brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (454g) buttermilk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups (361g) all-purpose flour
For the topping
6 tablespoons (85g) melted butter
1 cup (213g) packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (57g) milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (113g) chopped pecans
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9" x 13" pan with butter—you can use parchment but I find greasing it lightly to be easier and parchment unnecessary here.
In a large bowl (I use a stand mixer here but you can do it by hand), beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes on medium-high speed.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each.
Add the buttermilk and vanilla and mix well.
Add the baking soda, salt, and flour and beat until the batter just comes together.
Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes.
Just before the cake is ready, make the topping: Stir together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add the milk, salt, and nuts.
Remove the cake from the oven and pour the glaze evenly over the top. Return the cake to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes, then take it out.
The glaze will look like it hasn’t set enough, but let the cake sit out and cool at room temperature and the topping will firm up as it goes.
You can, obviously, eat it immediately but it’s best to let it sit for an hour or two before slicing. It is even better the second day, especially if you refrigerate it!