Computing cross-correlation of two images using OpenCV
On closer inspection, I discovered that the erroneous correlation result resembles the correct result, but shifted up and to the left. The former was displayed in scientific format, so it was hard to see the pattern at first.

The reason is that taking the conjugate is equivalent to flipping the whole zero-padded kernel, and not just the original kernel (which is what we want). 

The naive response would be to simply select another ROI from the output. However, the result is actually shifted circularly, so that wouldn't work. The correct result is present, but disjoint. 

There are two possible solutions: flip the kernel before zero-padding it and computing the DFT, or change the location of the image in the zero-pad buffer. 

What I did was place the image with the upper-left corner at (kernel.cols-1, kernel.rows-1). The kernel is at (0,0), but taking the conjugate flips it vertically and horizontally. Multiplying the DFTs implicitly flips it again (convolution). 

Because the DFT multiplication property is equivalent to a circular convolution, the kernel buffer wraps around diagonally. So it will be the trailing portion, or "wrapped" part of the kernel buffer that "slides" across the image, and not the leading edge. 

2D circular convolution can be visualized as a plain containing infinite adjacent copies of the zero-padded image. Rather than wrapping the zero-padded kernel around, it can be visualized as linear convolution with the lower-right copy, with adjacent copies providing the "history."

111100000 | 111100000
111100000 | 111100000
000000000 | 000000000
000000000 | 000000000
----------------------
111100000 | 111100000
111100000 | 111100000
000000000 | 000000000
000000000 | 000000000


For correlation with a 2x2 kernel, you could change it to this:

000000000 | 000000000
011110000 | 011110000
011110000 | 011110000
000000000 | 000000000
----------------------
000000000 | 000000000
011110000 | 011110000
011110000 | 011110000
000000000 | 000000000


You might think that the image should actually be shifted down and to the right by one more space, so that the "wrapped" kernel buffer will start with the kernel overlapping only the upper-left element of the image. The idea being that, convolution will first flip the conjugate kernel to look like this:

110000000
110000000
000000000
000000000


However, this is incorrect. The conjugate symmetry of the Fourier Transform states that flipping a signal, or an image, is equivalent to taking the complex conjugate of its Fourier Transform. However, the computer representation of the time-series is different than expected. For a 1D signal:

[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 0, 0 ]


flips to:

[ 1, 0, 0, 4, 3, 2 ]


and not:

[ 0, 0, 4, 3, 2, 1 ]


Carrying this over to 2D, our 2x2 kernel would actually look like this, after conjugating its DFT:

100000001
000000000
000000000
100000001


It's difficult to visualize how to index the correlation using this kernel. However, in 1D, this can be interpreted as flipping the array, and then circular shifting by one to the right. In 2D, it flips the kernel vertically and horizontally, and then circular shifts it down and right by one. What this means is that the kernel will be up and to the left by one more than expected at the start of convolution. I'll scale the kernel by 2 to make this easier to show. So instead of this (kernel 2s, image 1s) :

000000000
022000000
022111000
001111000


We have this (note that the image has been moved accordingly):

220000000
221110000
011110000
000000000


Remember that I'm showing the wrapped portion of the kernel buffer here, at the start of convolution.

This is hard to really show without an animation, but this is the best I could do here.

Here's the code:

// copy image to buffer
int col_offset = ( CORRELATE ) ? ( kernel.cols - 1 ) : ( 0 );
int row_offset = ( CORRELATE ) ? ( kernel.rows - 1 ) : ( 0 );
cv::Mat image_roi( dft_buf, cv::Rect( col_offset, row_offset, img_in.cols, img_in.rows ) );
img_in.copyTo( image_roi );

// Compute DFT of image, and multiply it with kernel DFT
int non_zero_rows = ( CORRELATE ) ? ( img_in.rows + kernel.rows - 1 ) : ( img_in.rows );
cv::dft( dft_buf, dft_buf, 0, non_zero_rows );
cv::mulSpectrums( dft_buf, kernel_dft, dft_buf, 0, CORRELATE );

// Compute IDFT
dft( dft_buf, dft_buf, cv::DFT_INVERSE + cv::DFT_SCALE, kernel.rows/2 + img_in.rows );

// Select ROI from result, and either copy or pass reference to output buffer
col_offset = ( kernel.cols % 2 ) ? ( kernel.cols/2 ) : ( kernel.cols/2 - 1 ); // is odd?
row_offset = ( kernel.rows % 2 ) ? ( kernel.rows/2 ) : ( kernel.rows/2 - 1 );
cv::Mat result_roi( dft_buf, cv::Rect( col_offset, row_offset, img_in.cols, img_in.rows ) );
result_roi.copyTo( img_out );