Butter Sauce:

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Okay before I get into the nitty gritty here, some back story is required. I had recently watched Alton Brown make a pound cake on Good Eats. If you have ever watched Good Eats before, you know that Alton Brown is like Bill Nye the Science Guy for food. He explains the science behind the recipe. Pretty cool stuff but in hindsight waaaaay too much information for someone with so little experience. Why is this a problem? Because watching that show made me think that I knew better than the person who posted this 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars recipe. Yeeeeaaahhhh.

So there were some specific things that I “learned” in this show that tripped me up:

1. Butter does different things to a recipe depending upon which state it is in. Melted butter has a different effect on the outcome of a recipe than room temp, softened butter.

2. Something about dry ingredients versus wet ingredients and the order these are combined as it relates to the emulsion of fats blah blah I have no idea…but it made me THINK I did. And thinking is a dangerous thing.

So first I preheat the oven to 325. Next, the recipe says to put the dry ingredients in first. But I know better having watched Good Eats. I’m practically an expert. So I put the dry ingredients together in a bowl and skip straight to putting the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl.

I decide to start with the buttermilk for no particular reason, then I put in the 4 eggs. So far so good…

Next comes the butter, and you all know how I roll when it comes to butter…

So yeah, I put that big ole brick of butter in…

and….

…my mixture decides to exit the bowl. 4 eggs and a cup of buttermilk. EVERYWHERE. {This photo doesn’t show the half of it my friends!}

Sooo obviously I have to start over. Think I’ll follow the recipe this time. Like, EXACTLY.

I was feeling a little nervous about using all purpose flour in a cake {Alton says it’s less refined than cake flour, like irregular shards of wheat} but at this point I am in NO place to question ANYTHING.

So the recipe says to:

“In a large bowl, mix the flour, 2 cups sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda.”

I follow that to the letter. No more thinking for me!

Then, salvaging my butter from the previous mishap, I

“Blend in buttermilk, 1 cup of butter, 2 teaspoons of vanilla and 4 eggs. Beat for 3 minutes at medium speed.”

But….

…I notice the batter is a little lumpy. Upon closer inspection it appears that the lumps are actually tiny chunks of butter. Ugh.

Now I remember Alton Brown saying something about butter, fats, and air bubbles….

Anyhow I’m certain this is NOT a good thing.

There’s really nothing I can do though. And this is my tester cake afterall. So I schlep it into the prepared bundt pan and hope for the best.

In the oven the thing goes. It’s a really long hour that I have to wait. I can imagine that this is how a guy feels when he is waiting for his wife to give birth. Anticipation. Fear. Hunger. All of the emotions are there. I look through the oven door and I can swear I’m seeing butter geysers erupt out of the thing. Gnarly stuff. I’m pretty sure Alton Brown hasn’t done food experiments like this.

When there is about 10 minutes left I start the butter sauce, which is a bit of a misnomer because it’s mostly sugar. Sugar and butter and vanilla, oh my! If all else fails, at least I have the sauce! Oh and this is how you do it:

“In a saucepan combine the remaining 3/4 cups sugar, 1/3 cup butter, 2 teaspoons vanilla, and the water. Cook over medium heat, until fully melted and combined, but do not boil.” {try not to over-taste, mmmkay?}

I manage that without any mishaps. Whew!

Finally the cake is done.

It looks a little strange on top but it’s hard to say until you cut into it and there is one more step before inverting:

“Prick holes in the still warm cake. Slowly pour sauce over cake. Let cake cool before removing from pan.”

By now hubby is home and trying to impose his will on my baking. So he decides to take over from here, thank you very much you screwed it up enough, and uses a kebab skewer to poke the holes. I don’t disagree with this method so I tell him to poke about thirty holes. Which he does ’cause I said so. Then he carefully spoons the sugar butter sauce over the holes.

I tell him to only use about half and to use the rest to glaze the top. The recipe doesn’t say to do this but I figure it can’t hurt.

Anyhow this is the result:

Most of the sauce drips off which is fine because I just scoop it up with the slices.

Overall the cake is a little dense, like cornbread, but that sauce is just so good it covers a multitude of sins.

And the boy likes it so…

…I consider it a success!

Epilogue:

In true hater fashion, my husband decides to piggy back off my mistakes and makes the cake for the funeral. Of course, he knows what not to do now so it comes as no surprise that his cake rises a good 3 inches higher and is lighter and fluffier in texture. He tries poking the holes with a straw instead of a skewer as recommended by a reviewer on All Recipes, but this method allows too much glaze in and it doesn’t crystalize. It sorta just looks like wet cake. He also doesn’t pour any on top which is a shame. So in a way my cake is actually better on account of the way the butter sauce/glaze was applied. Hehehe….nice try hubby!