After taking pictures of the red velvet cake and forgetting to pose the blue ribbon I won for it in any of the photos before it was devoured, I smacked myself on the forehead and vowed I’d use the ribbons in future photos with award-winning recipes.  Well, oops, I did it again.  (I played with your heart, got lost in the game.  Oh baby, baby…)  Not a big deal, but annoying that I have these ribbons and have never shown them off!  And this was my last blue-ribbon recipe I needed to share. Oh well.

So as you may have guessed after my little rant, I won first place for this cake in the “bundt cakes” class this year, and Marina, my foodie Mama who gave me the recipe, has won multiple blue ribbons for it before me.  It is visually impressive with pretty swirls running through the cake, and the cake itself is very moist with a great butterscotch flavor.

A tip on making the swirls is to fold your knife or spatula across from the short ends of the pan and not in a line down the middle.  This is hard to explain.  Let me see if I can do better.  Make a folding motion from one side of the pan across to the other side and keep doing it that way all the way around.   If you start at the front with it facing  you, you will plunk your knife down one one side, pull it under and toward you, then back up right before it hits the other side, in a circular motion, then turn your pan and repeat the folding motion all the way around.  Is that clear as mud?  Good, let’s do this.

BUTTERSCOTCH SWIRL CAKE

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs, divided use
1 tablespoon rum extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 (3.5 oz) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
¾ cup butterscotch ice cream topping*

Butterscotch Glaze
¼ cup (½ stick) butter, cubed
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350° F and grease and flour a 10″ bundt pan (I used Miracle Pan Release). Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add 5 of the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in extracts. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well after each addition.

Transfer 2 cups of batter to another large bowl; beat in the pudding mix, butterscotch topping and remaining egg until well blended. Pour half of the plain batter into prepared pan. Top with half of the butterscotch batter; cut through with a knife or spatula to swirl. Repeat layers and swirl.

Bake for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For glaze, in a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar and milk. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat; add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Drizzle over cake; sprinkle with pecans.

*I made my own butterscotch topping by bringing ½ cup packed brown sugar, ½ cup heavy cream, ¼ cup unsalted butter, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt (use only ¼ teaspoon if you only have table salt) to a gentle boil and cooking 5 minutes before adding 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla and cooling completely.

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Reminder: Tonight I will be doing the drawing for both the Eggland’s Best prize pack (enter here) and the chocolate chip cookies for The Postcard Project.  If you signed up for the Postcard Project and have sent at least one piece of mail, be sure to return to the spreadsheet to indicate how many pieces of mail you sent, as I will be drawing from those that have put a number in that column only.  If you have sent mail this week and haven’t added your name, be sure to do so for a chance to win. Thanks to everyone who participated this week!