Brown Butter Cake with Cherries

This sly cake started out disguised as a white cake but morphed itself into the beautiful brown butter cake with cherries you see before you!



Can you smell it? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone if you bang your nose into the screen trying!

I’ve always been wary of using a recipe with browned butter. What if I happened to burn it instead of brown it? It’s such a fine line to walk. I believe I was successful, though. What do you think?



My initial idea was to frost the cake to give it a little something extra since it looked like this before...



Pretty but lacking, no? Well only after I made the "frosting" with granulated sugar did I realize it had all the texture of sandpaper. It overpowered the cake. So I scraped it off. Unfortunately I couldn't get all of it off! Disaster! I was ready to cry. Now, wait.. I'll stick it under the broiler to caramelize the sugar!



Now that is perfection!


Brown Butter Cake with Cherries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, browned
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup skim milk
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup cherries, pitted and diced, then dusted with flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown butter and allow to cool. In mixer bowl, beat egg and sugar until very well mixed. Add cooled butter, mixing until a pasty consistency is reached.



In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder. In yet another bowl, combine milk and almond extract. Alternating flour mixture and milk mixture, add to paste mixture and beat well. Stop mixer, scrape down the sides and add cherries, mixing just enough to incorporate. Pour into a well buttered and floured bundt pan. Bake 30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool completely before removing from pan.