Golden brown butter, combines with the warm flavor of brown sugar, to create a soft, moist, brown butter cake. Topped with a creamy smooth, vanilla cream cheese frosting and a delicious espresso cream cheese frosting. Every bite is a bite of heaven.

I’ve been on a bit of a Brown Butter kick recently. It’s such a simple and easy way to elevate a baked good. Brown Butter adds depth to the flavor and an underlying level of warmth, and I’ve been loooving it! It’s actually quite funny, because when I was little, I would make Rice Krispie treats on the stove, and on several occasions, I left my butter for too “long.” When I was little, I always thought I had over cooked my butter… but now I know better, I was actually making brown butter! Which explain why those Rice Krispie treats always tasted sooo good.

Now I can tell you, I know exactly how to make brown butter, and it’s the most magical addition to this cake. The brown butter takes a regular ole vanilla cake, and adds such warmth and deliciousness to it. I also really wanted to make sure that this cake had that golden flavor throughout it, so instead of white sugar, we use brown sugar, which deepens the color and flavor of the cake. The brown sugar, also helps keep the cake moist, as there’s more moisture in the brown sugar in comparison to white sugar, because of the molasses in the brown sugar.

The finishing touch for this cake is the frosting. There’s two different flavors of frosting — a vanilla cream cheese frosting, and an espresso cream cheese frosting. Both frostings are smooth and silky, and the best part is, they’re made from the same batch of frosting. For the espresso frosting, we just add in a little espresso powder to elevate the flavor.

The success of this cake is the brown butter, which is actually incredibly easy to make. (I mean I made it all the time on accident when I was little, so I have full confidence that you can make it too.) All you need are a few simple tips.

Tip One: Cut the butter up into pieces. This will help it to melt evenly, and brown faster.

Tip Two: Start with a cold pan. This will help keep the butter from splattering too much, and it will help you maintain control over the butter as it’s browning.

Tip Three: Stir constantly, this will help the butter to brown without burning.

Tip Four: Don’t be afraid of the bubbles. When the butter starts bubbling, that’s a good sign, it means it’s close to the point where it turns brown.

Tip Five: Don’t over cook it. When the butter has browned, remove it from the heat. If it’s turning black, it’s burning.

Alright, now let’s cover how to make it!

How to make Brown Butter Cake

For the Brown Butter

1. Cut your butter up into four slices, add the butter to a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, stirring constantly, let the butter melt.

2. Then it will start to get foamy, keep stirring and the butter will start to develop brown speckles. Remove from the heat, and pour it into a bowl.

For the Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350° degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the hot water, vanilla extract, and vinegar, then add in the brown butter.
4. Fold together the wet and dry ingredients.
5. Line a 8 1/4″x8 1/4″ glass baking dish with parchment paper. Pour the cake batter into the baking dish.
6. Bake the cake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted into the middle and comes out clean.
7. Remove the cake from the oven, and let cool for 20 minutes.

For the Frosting

1. In a mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer, cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar, until it’s creamy like butter. Cream in the vanilla extract.
2. Transfer half of the frosting to a separate mixing bowl. Add the espresso powder to half of the cream cheese frosting, and use the electric hand mixer to cream it in.
3. To frost the cake, make sure the cake is completely cool. Starting on one corner of the cake, and using a cake spatula, make quick strokes with the frosting, alternating between stroke direction and frosting color. Go around the cake, until the entire cake is covered. If there’s any spots that look like they need another layer, you can add on another schmere of frosting.