Buttermilk-Pecan Bundt Cake

Author Notes

This buttermilk pecan cake is a perfect snacking cake. I’ll gladly eat it a few times per day, for at least three days straight. With a delightful contrast between the toasty exterior and the moist—yet light—interior, it tastes just as good on day three as it does when it first comes out of the oven.

When eaten plain, this cake has a subtle sweetness, accented with the harmonious and comforting flavors of vanilla and toasted pecans. It’s a humble looking cake, but you can easily dress it up with a dusting of powdered sugar or any combination of frosting or toppings. In the morning, I’ll eat it slathered with softened butter and sprinkled with crunchy salt. In the afternoon, I enjoy it toasted briefly under the broiler and then finished with a dollop of Nutella. Fresh fruit and whipped cream would also be a welcome combination for this cake.

The recipe is adapted from Carl Erskine’s book Tales From the Dodger Dugout. If you’re a baseball fan, you may recognize Carl Erskine as a pitcher from the famed Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950’s. According to Erskine, this cake became a good luck charm for the team during their 1955 championship season. Teammate Frank Kellert had his family in Oklahoma mail buttermilk cakes to the Dodger clubhouse all throughout that year, including during the World Series against the rival Yankees. According to Erskine, “We didn’t want to go into the World Series without a supply of buttermilk cake.”

The secret to this cake is the amount of vanilla extract used—the recipe calls for ¼ cup. At first glance, this might seem like an obscene amount of vanilla to add to a cake. But the vanilla doesn’t overpower it; instead, it adds an intoxicating aroma and perfectly complementary flavor. —Josh Cohen