a donutButtermilk bar
also: buttermilk donut
Split down the middle like it fell apart, which is how you know it is the right one.
Cake batter cut in a bar rather than a ring, fried so it splits open along the top, and glazed heavily enough that the glaze runs into the split.
The story Tradition
Tradition holds — the bar is a West Coast case staple and a test of a cake bench: too warm a batter and it will not crack, too cold and it breaks apart. It belongs to the same family as the old-fashioned, which cracks for the same reason, and shops that make a good one tend to make a good old-fashioned too.
No published history names an inventor or a first shop, and this project has not found one.
How it is done Tradition
Buttermilk cake batter, rested cold, cut in rectangles, fried at a temperature low enough that the crust sets before the lift finishes. Glaze while warm.
Today Tradition
Priced as a bar rather than a ring in most shops, which is to say a little more.
The particulars
| dough | cake |
|---|---|
| finish | glazed |
| region | Southern California, The United States |
| confidence | medium · needs verification · updated 2026-09-16 |
Who it runs with
Where we got it
- Cake doughnut — Wikipedia · link
Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.