Simple brown butter cake

I have developed a weakness for complicated cake recipes. The ones with multiple components and varying degrees of preparation required. Something involving a cake base, some sort of filling, possibly an interesting syrup, maybe even a separate crunch layer and at least two types of cream or frosting. You know, the kind of recipes that read almost like a novel and leave you mildly exhausted. Those recipes excite me in a “challenge accepted!” kind of a way. One might even say I am slightly obsessed and keep actively seeking more complexity. But sometimes, simplicity has to take centre stage. Just like in this brown butter cake.

The most complex thing about this cake is browning the butter. And if you have ever tried it, then you know that butter essentially browns itself. Using specifically browned butter adds a tremendous amount of deep flavour to an otherwise typical cake. I like to add pecans to this cake because they are easily my favourite nuts, but use whatever you like or have on hand. The nutty filling/topping is added in two portions, thereby creating an easy “in-built” (in-baked?) layering within the cake. Yogurt can be switched out for sour cream and if you don’t care for whole wheat flour, all white can be used instead.

Brown butter cake ingredients:

For the cake:

• 140g butter
• 140g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 100g yogurt
• 280g flour (140g white, 140g whole wheat)
• 1tsp baking powder

For the filling:

• 1c (100g) pecans
• 2tbsp (30g) sugar
• 1.5tsp (5g) cinnamon

Directions:

1. As usual, toast 100g of nuts you intend to use as described here.
2. Meanwhile, melt 140g of butter in a medium pan and start browning it as explained here.
3. Once the butter is brown, carefully pour it into a mixer bowl, add 140g sugar and let it cool a little. Mixing it will help to cool it faster.
4. While you wait, preheat your oven to 165C (330F). Butter, flour and line a pan for your cake (I used 15cm but I suggest you use a larger one if you don’t want your baked cake to have a slight mushroom top). Roughly chop toasted nuts and mix them with 30g sugar and 5g cinnamon.
5. Add 1 egg to butter and sugar, and blend on medium speed until the batter is pale.
6. Then add 100g yogurt and 1tsp vanilla extract, blending until well combined.
7. Finally add 140g of white and 140g of whole wheat flours along with 1tsp of baking powder and mix until uniform. The batter will be quite thick.
8. Spread roughly half of the batter in the prepared pan and add half of cinnamon nuts.
9. Then top with the remaining batter and the rest of the nuts, gently pushing them in.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-45 minutes, depending on the pan size. Check by lightly pushing the top of the cake with your hand, it should spring back when ready. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack before inverting it out of the pan onto a platter.

Store the cake covered at room temperature.

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