Butterscotch Finger Cakes

By Addie

These cakes are modeled after the TastyKake Butterscotch Krimpet, a snack cake delight from lunchboxes of yore. Krimpets are a classic, small rectangular cakes with distinctly wavy sides that come in butterscotch and at one time, jelly flavors.

The cake is easy to put together and bake, and by flipping it upside down, the bottom becomes a nice flat surface to frost. There's no way we could cut the distinctly wavy Krimpet sides of our cakes, so we used a frosting comb to make waves on the top before cutting the cake into individual bars.

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• ..........................
• Frosting:
• 1/3 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk (if necessary)

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F, grease and flour a 9 x 13-inch pan.

2. For the cake: Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl at least once. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions. Add the extracts and mix to combine.

3. Whisk the cake flour, baking powder and salt together, and add to the butter mixture alternately with the milk.

4. Pour the batter into the pan, spread it out, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is springy to the touch and a pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes.

5. After 10 minutes, loosen the sides of the cake from the pan. Place a piece of parchment ant a cooling rack on top of the pan, and turn everything upside to finish cooling completely.

6. For the frosting: Put the butterscotch chips and half of the butter in a heatproof bowl, and melt together over low heat or at low power in the microwave. Stir until smooth; if it looks a little broken, that's ok.

7. Put the other half of the butter in a mixing bowl with half of the confectioners'sugar. Mix until smooth, then add the melted chip mixture. Add the rest of the sugar and beat again until you have a smooth frosting. Add the milk if necessary to make the frosting a spreadable consistency.

8. To invoke the traditional Krimpet waviness, use a cake comb to put waves in the frosting.

9. Cut the cake in thirds lengthwise, then in nine rows of one and a half-inch strips to make 27 pieces.
...............................

REVIEWS:

I'm from Philly, have eaten Tastycakes all my life and this is an insult to even put this cake in the same category. I thought it was awful, barely edible, not worth the calories. The cake was dry and dense, nothing like a Tastycake.

I've served this cake many times with great success. Being a mid-Atlantic transplant to the northwest, my fellow former east-coasters enjoy the nostalgic quality. This is a great cake for birthdays at the workplace and easy to put together the night before.

This came out very well and makes a great cake for parties, especially with kids! It was very easy to put together also. For the frosting I used a cream cheese-butter frosting and added vanilla butternut flavoring to it. I think that worked very well. I used a cake comb to make it look just like the picture. Everyone loved it!

I'm sorry, but I'm from the "Philly" area also. I say sorry because this is NOT like "Tasty Kake" "Krimpets. The use of butterscotch chips is all wrong, and the cake is more like a sponge cake, which is what I make, and I have a butterscotch frosting recipe that calls for brown sugar, butter and milk, and is cooked in a double boiler..

Very tasty cake! Seems like the icing could be a little less fudgy in texture, expect more glaze like - but thick. Maybe I will fuss with it a little if I make them again. The cake was also a little delicate for cutting into rectangular shape - though it worked, and a bit delicate for the lunch box. Bottom line - buttery and sweet, what isn't there to love?

This is a great recipe, spot on to the real thing! It also freezes extremely well -- I sliced them all up and froze them in groups of two so that I can have them around when the snack attacks happen -- just nuke them for 30 seconds and they're good to eat! It's nice to have one of my favorite treats whenever I want without worrying about all those gross preservatives, though holy cow is it high in fat. I wonder if the amount of butter in the recipe could be reduced without significantly affecting the cakes.
I made this last night to rave reviews. I used a 1/2 cup of the chips, and the frosting was light & fluffy. I bake a lot of cakes and the butterscotch flavor was a very nice change.

This is an excellent recipe. It's easy and quick to put together - and the results are fantastic. The cake is delicious and has enough texture to stand up to the lunch box. I know the frosting is more firm than a 'real' Krimpet - but it tastes good and handles transport. The second time I made it was for a friend. I was distracted and melted ALL the butter for the frosting, and with extended beating, it turned out pretty OK - took the cake in one piece, and they were delighted. It also does freeze extremely well.

My husband's family is from Philly and he spent nearly every summer there as a kid. I have no basis for comparison, but he's an expert on the Butterscotch Krimpet. His official review? Very good cake layer, nice and moist and a very fine crumb, if a bit too tall. The frosting had the right flavor but wasn't fluffy enough even with the addition of milk, in fact it hardened up quite a bit in the fridge, to an almost fudge-like consistency. I will be trying this again with a slightly different frosting, but overall pretty good.