When I found this cake on Completely Delicious, what sold me was the fact that it was a combination of several cakes from Alisa Huntsman’s Sky High Cakes. This is the book I used repeatedly myself and yet never without changing things around. This was the clue that I found a recipe of a cake maker. Annalise of Completely Delicious called it her Triple Browned Cake; I changed the title but then followed the instructions trusting in the outcome. I was not disappointed; this is a lovely cake and each bite is pure heaven. Recipe makes a 9-inch triple layer cake.
BROWN BUTTER CAKE
3-3/4 cups cake flour
1-3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2-1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
1-3/4 cups buttermilk
5 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla
extract
1 batch of Brown Sugar Meringue Buttercream
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Line three* 9-inch round cake pans with parchment and grease with butter and flour.
• In a saucepan over medium low heat, melt the butter completely.
• Then let it continue to cook until it turns golden brown in color. Don’t stir it, but swirl the pan periodically to ensure it browns easily. Keep your eyes on it; you don’t want it to burn.
• When sufficiently browned, put the butter in the fridge to solidify. This will take about 20-30 minutes. You want the butter to still be soft, but no longer liquid.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and the salt.
• Add the brown sugar, brown butter, and 1 cup of the buttermilk. Mix on medium speed until smooth.
• In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and the remaining 3/4 cup of buttermilk.
• Add to the mixer in three additions, mixing after each until just combined.
• Then turn the mixer up to medium high and beat for a few minutes until smooth.
• Divide the batter evenly between the three prepared cake pans.
• Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35-45 minutes.
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, before inverting onto a cake pan to cool completely before icing.
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, before inverting onto a cake pan to cool completely before icing.
• For a truly nice looking cake, spread even amount of icing between the layers. The outside of the cake does not need as much icing in my opinion as between the cake layers.
*I only have 2 matching cake pans. So I did a little math and used a scale to determine the weight of the batter. Then I divided it into thirds and filled the 2 pans. When those were done, I poured the remaining one third into a pan and baked it separately.
