Recipe courtesy of Stevie Stewart for Food Network Kitchen

Philadelphia-Style Butter Cake

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  • Level: Easy
  • Total: 3 hr 20 min (includes rising and cooling)
  • Active: 25 min
  • Yield: 10 to 12 servings
This rich sheet cake features a unique combination of a yeast dough and a gooey, buttery vanilla filling. When baked, the top develops a beautiful golden, crackly crust, but what’s underneath makes this cake so special — a buttery, irresistible filling that you’ll want every last bit of the cake to sop up. Buter cake hails from Northeast Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs and is said to have originated when German bakers adapted the traditional butterkuchen for sale in bakeries. It’s fortunately very easy to make at home with standard baking ingredients and just a bit of patience for rising and cooling.

Ingredients

Dough:

Filling:

Directions

  1. For the dough: Heat the milk in a small saucepan over low heat until it reaches 105 to 115 degrees F. Pour it into a small bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Leave for 5 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, cream the butter, sugar and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla and mix together until incorporated, about 1 minute. Switch to a dough hook and add the flour and yeast mixture. Begin at low speed to hydrate the flour. Then increase to medium and beat until the dough becomes soft and smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, 2 to 3 minutes.
  3. Lightly coat a large bowl with vegetable oil. Turn the dough out into the bowl, turning it to coat all sides with oil. Cover with plastic and let sit at room temperature until doubled in volume, 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.
  4. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with butter. Turn the dough out onto the pan and gently push with your fingers until it reaches the edges and comes about three-quarters of the way up the sides of the pan (about 1 inch). Set aside.
  5. For the filling: Combine the butter and superfine sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated after each. Beat in the milk and vanilla until just incorporated. Switch to low speed and beat in the flour and salt until just incorporated. Spread the filling evenly over the dough. Let the dough rise slightly while the oven is preheating, about 20 minutes.
  6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the cake, rotating the pan halfway through, until golden brown and a matte crust has formed but the center is still wobbly, about 30 minutes (see Cook’s Note).
  7. Cool the cake to room temperature before cutting and serving. The cake is best served the same day it’s baked, but it can be stored at room temperature, covered, for up to 3 days.

Cook’s Note

When measuring flour, we spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off excess. (Scooping directly from the bag compacts the flour, resulting in dry baked goods.) The filling for the cake should be very runny. It will be super wobbly when it comes out of the oven but will firm slightly as it cools. When you cut into the cake, the filling oozes out and seeps onto the bottom of the pan. The crust is drier and is perfect for sopping up the luscious filling.