German Butter Cake (Butterkuchen)

4.93 from 14 votes

Classic German Butterkuchen is fluffy, sweet, and delicious! It's a simple yeasted cake topped with blocks of butter and sprinkled with sugar!

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Resting Time1 20

Total Time2 20

Course: Afternoon Kaffee, Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: German

Keyword: butterkuchen, cake

Servings:

Calories: 175kcal

In a large stand mixing bowl, add flour, sugar and yeast, and whisk together.
Add lukewarm milk, egg, salt and extracts and knead together with the dough hook on low speed for 10-15 minutes or until the dough has come together.
Place the dough in a greased bowl.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or proofing bag and set it somewhere warm to rest for 45 minutes to 1 hour until it has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Grease an 18" x 13" baking sheet with butter.
After the dough has doubled in size and be very soft and puffy.
Knock out any air in the dough by briefly kneading it and place it on the lined baking sheet.
Gently stretch and press the dough out from the center until the dough reaches the edges of the pan.
Cover the pan and let the dough rest somewhere warm for 10 more minutes.
While the dough rests, cut the cold butter into 1/4" cubes.
After 10 minutes, dimple the dough about every 3/4" with the handle of a wooden spoon.
Press the cubes of butter into the dimples. If you don't have enough dimples for the butter, just add more!
Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the cake - don't miss the edges.
Let the assembled dough rest for 10 more minutes.
Bake for 30 minutes on the middle rack, rotate the pan after 15 minutes so that it bakes evenly.
Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack before slicing.

Unlike many other yeasted doughs, this one doesn't need to be completely smooth. Because the pan holds the shape of the cake and we want it to have a light and fluffy texture it's actually better to under knead the dough rather than over knead it.

If the dough keeps shrinking back when stretching it out, let it sit and rest for five minutes, then continue to stretch it. Let it rest to allow the gluten in the dough to relax.

Make sure the butter that you press into the dough is cold - this creates the characteristic dimples and puddles of moisture in the cake.

Cut the butter no bigger than 1/4" cubes, if they are too big, the butter won't be dispersed enough.

Make sure to bake the dough soon after stretching it out and adding the butter. You don't want to let the dough proof for too long. Otherwise it won't puff up enough in the oven.