Brown Butter Vanilla Almond Cake

This is a recipe for a layer cake suitable for stacking very tall or multi-tiered cakes. The browned butter and butter vanilla emulsion gives this cake a rich nutty flavour, and the addition of almond flour takes it to another level. Texture-wise, it has a tight moist crumb, but not too heavy, and it cuts very cleanly.  It is sturdy but not as dense as a pound cake or mud cake.

I’ve made variations of this cake many times with different nut flours—pecan, hazelnut, walnut, pistachio… But almond remains my favourite.

Baker’s Tips

LorAnn’s butter vanilla emulsion is available at Bulk Barn and Amazon. I love its rich creamy vanilla flavour. (Shoutout to Sadiya @sadiyahashmi_ for introducing this to me!) If unavailable, you can replace it with vanilla paste or extract.
 
If you’ve never browned butter before, stir the butter often with a spatula and take the pot off heat just as brown specks start to form, then immediately pour it to another bowl so it doesn’t continue to burn in the pot. You can always return the butter back to the pot if it hasn’t browned enough to your liking.

To finish this cake, I recommend German buttercream, my favourite. I can eat it by the spoonful! What sets it apart from the crowd-favourite Swiss meringue buttercream? Swiss tastes silky-smooth and buttery, while German is much creamier and less buttery—think ice-cream!

Both buttercreams are very sturdy and can withstand warm weather, but I find that Swiss will develop a glistening sheen, like very soft butter, whereas German tends to maintain its matte finish.

Detailed recipe is here, by Stella Parks at Serious Eats. Don’t be intimidated by her long write-up; if you can make a custard and have a stand mixer, then you can make this buttercream!  The basic steps are:

• Make a thick custard with all ingredients except butter
• Strain the custard through a fine mesh strainer to remove any cooked egg bits or cornstarch lumps
• Add your strained room temperature custard to your whipped room temperature butter
• Whip on medium-high for several minutes in your stand mixer, scrape the bowl every so often, until it looks like buttercream

Once you’ve tried (and loved) the original vanilla version, try experimenting with other flavours!

• Cream cheese: recipe here
• Lemon/citrus: Add zest and juice at the end
• Caramel: Add caramel sauce by the spoonfuls at the end
• Burnt sugar: Caramelize the sugar until just before burning; immediately pour in the milk and stir to dissolve. Whisk the eggs with additional brown sugar
• Spiced or tea flavoured: Steep the milk with spices or teas
• Berries: Replace milk with berry juice

 Try pairing this cake with tangy berries and jam (recipe provided), I promise you won’t regret it!

This recipe makes enough for:

• An eight-inch cake: 1 to 2 layers
• A six or seven-inch cake: 3 layers
• A five-inch cake: 4 tall layers