A traditional recipe Dutch Butter Cake, (aka Boterkoek),is a subtlety almond flavoured flat cake with a texture between cake and shortbread. The perfect accompaniment to a hot cuppa!
Dutch Butter Cake is, unsurprisingly, made with a whole lot of butter! Plus a few other store cupboard ingredients such as flour, eggs and sugar.
I also add ground almonds to mine, plus vanilla extract, lemon zest, a little almond extract and a bit of salt to help bring out the flavours. However, you can you can just flavour with vanilla and/or almond extract if you prefer.
The cake is meant to be flat and quite dense hence the shortbread/cake texture.
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Key features of Dutch Butter Cake…
Texture of crumbly shortbread meets cake✔️
Almond flavour undertones✔️
Simple ingredients✔️
Traditional Dutch recipe✔️
Perfect with a hot drink✔️
Stores well for up to 5 days✔️
Dutch Butter Cake reminds me of the cakes served at breakfast when abroad in Europe (ok so I did party use that as an excuse to myself to have a piece for breakfast this morning!).
The recipe is reminiscent of my Italian Almond Cake which is currently proving very popular on Ella's Better Bakes.
When all the ingredients have been mixed in you will find that you have more of a dough than a cake batter. As such it needs pressing into the tin rather than pouring in. But don't press too hard or the final baked version will be too dense.
If your kitchen is hot you would be wise to refrigerate the dough whilst in the tin for 10 minutes before baking. My kitchen is at normal temperature(the UK is rarely hot!), so I don't tend to do this. Bear in mind that If the dough is too cold though it means your Dutch Butter cake will be too dense when baked.
Variations
There are several regional variants of the Dutch Butter Cake.
Marzipan layer Dutch Butter Cake (Boterkoek)
A popular variant is to put a layer of marzipan through the cake. If you choose this variant then leave out the almond essence otherwise it will be an almond overload!
Dust your work surface with some icing sugar so that the marzipan does not stick. Then take 250 grams of ready made marzipan and roll it out to the diameter of your tin (in this case 20cm).
Next weigh your mixed cake dough/batter and then split it in half. Put half into your tin and press down lightly.
Add the layer of marzipan and then cover with the rest of your cake mix.
Bake as per instructions in this recipe.
Ginger layer Dutch Butter Cake (Boterkoek)
To make this variant you will need 6 balls of stem ginger from a jar. Chop 4 of them into ½ cm pieces and roll them in a little spare flour, this prevents them from sticking together.
Again omit the almond essence from the recipe.
Fold the chopped ginger in after your have folded in all of the flour.
Rather than using flaked almonds, decorate with 2 sliced stem ginger balls and bake as per recipe card instructions.
Tops Tips
Use almond extract not essence
Almond essence has a far more artificial taste. I always recommend using almond extract when baking any of my recipes.
Room temperature butter and eggs
Your butter needs to be soft enough to squidge between your fingers with just a tiny bit of resistance. Too hard and it will not beat down and too soft and won't hold air whilst creaming and your cake will be dense.
Crucially important for any bake is to use eggs at room temperature. If not they will not amalgamate with the other ingredients and you risk spoiling the final outcome.
Overworking the dough
One of the biggest mistakes people make when baking is overworking the flour, this is why it is always best to fold the flour in rather than beating it. Folding the flour in means minimal mixing and thus the gluten in the flour does not become stretched and your cake will not be rubbery.
Overbaking
Dutch Butter Cake should have a soft texture. It should be softer than shortbread but not light like cake. Overbaking your Dutch Butter Cake will give it a crisp biscuity texture. The cake is done just as the edges turn golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave it to cool in the tin to set for 15 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
If you are a fan of all things almond you may like to try my Almond, blueberry and limoncello bundt cake or my Persian love cake with rosewater.
What makes this cake so good?
For one thing it can be whipped up in 10 minutes, it really is just so simple.
Ground almonds and almond extract: yep here we go again, the hero of yet another cake is the almonds. This time though they are further enhanced with a little almond extract. You can however just make this recipe with flour alone, simply replace the almonds with the same amount of self raising flour.
Vanilla extract: a teaspoon of vanilla extract helps soothe the almond extract down a bit. It acts like a calming influence so the almond extract does not completely take over the show.
Egg wash: the egg wash on Dutch butter cake gives it a lovely chewy top, with is enhanced with a sprinkling of almond flakes which toast as they bake. However, you can omit the egg wash if you prefer and spread over some pre-warmed apricot jam over your baked cake instead.
How to make Dutch butter cake
As always weigh out your ingredients first, it just makes life easier and it will then take literally minutes to bring the cake together.
Beat your softened butter a little, to be sure it is pliable enough. Then beat in the sugar until soft and spreadable, this takes 1-2 minutes. Beating this way adds air to the Dutch Butter Cake.
Beat your egg and add to the butter and sugar mixture along with a little sifted flour. The flour ensures the mixture doesn't curdle. Beat until amalgamated.
Add your flavourings and beat in briefly.
Then add the rest of your sifted flour and fold in, before folding in your ground almonds.
Don't worry if you mixture is quite stiff. It is meant to be like that.
Add the mixture to your greased and lined cake tin and level out.
Hint: to get a level surface simply cover the cake dough with a piece of clingfilm and smooth over.
Beat your remaining egg and paint over the cake dough to glaze it. Sprinkle with a handful of almonds.
Bake in the centre of the over for 30 minutes, until just golden around the edges. Don't be tempted to bake until completely golden all over, this will dry out your Dutch Butter Cake and you will not have the soft texture needed.
And that really is it. I hope you enjoy this recipe, I absolutely adore it!
Please do rate the recipe and leave me a comment if you can.
📖 Recipe
Dutch butter cake (Boterkoek)
Here's what you'll need...
- 20 cm loose bottomed sandwich cake tin
- stand mixer or hand mixer with beater attachment fitted (not the whisk)
Ingredients you'll need...
Dutch Butter Cake
- 150 g Unsalted butter at room temperature, but not overly soft
- 150 g Golden caster sugar or white caster sugar
- 2 Large eggs one lightly beaten for the cake and the other used for the glaze, both at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon Almond extract extract gives a nicer flavour than essence
- Zest of 1 medium lemon
- 150 g Plain flour
- ¼ teaspoon Fine salt
- 50 g Ground almonds
- Handful of flaked almonds
Here's what we do...
- Heat your oven to 170°C/150°C fan/340°F/Gas mark 3.
- Grease your cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.
- Fit the beaters to your stand mixer or hand mixer and beat your softened butter a little to be sure it is the right texture. The butter should stick to the bowl rather than the beater when soft enough.
- Add your sugar and beat together until light and fluffy. This takes about 1-2 minutes. It should be easily spreadable when ready. Wipe your bowl down as you go with your spatula to be sure everything is evenly mixed together.
- Sift together your flour and salt and set aside.
- Add your one lightly beaten egg (keep the other egg back for your egg wash) and a little flour to your beaten butter and sugar and beat together on a medium setting until combined. Scrape down your bowl intermittently to be sure that everything is fully mixed in.
- Add your vanilla extract, almond extract and lemon zest and beat in briefly.
- Add the rest of your sifted flour and salt and fold in gently with your spatula.
- Then add your ground almonds and fold in.
- Once everything is fully mixed, tip into your prepared cake and level out. The easiest way to do this is to take a piece of clingfilm, place it over the mixture and press to flatten it out. Do not press down too hard though or your cake will be very dense.
- Beat your other egg and spread over the cake to glaze it using your pastry brush (only use as much as is needed to cover the cake).
- Sprinkle over your flaked almonds.
- Bake in the centre of your oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean and the cake edges are golden.
- When baked run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the tin, then leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.
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