Have you ever baked with brown butter? With just an extra couple of steps, this technique adds a rich, toasted flavour that turns a simple sheet cake into something irresistible. Top it off with Butter Popcorn flavoured buttercream and a generous swirl of caramel for the perfect winter bake!

Queen Butter Popcorn Flavour for Icing is available at Woolworths now.

Prep:
20 min
Cook:
40 min
Serves:
16

Ingredients

Cake

  1. 270g unsalted butter

  2. 1 cup (220g) caster sugar

  3. ½ cup (110g) brown sugar, firmly packed

  4. 2 tsp Queen Vanilla Bean Paste

  5. 3 large eggs, room temperature

  6. 2 ¼ cups (340g) plain flour

  7. 2 tsp baking powder

  8. ½ tsp baking soda

  9. ½ tsp salt

  10. 1 cup (250ml) milk, room temperature

Buttercream

  1. 200g unsalted butter, room temperature

  2. 2 1/3 cup (350g) icing sugar

  3. 2-3 tsp Queen Butter Popcorn Flavour for Icing

Caramel

  1. 100g ready to use caramel

  2. 1 tbsp full cream milk

Method - Brown Butter

  1. Step 1

    Prepare brown butter ahead of time as you will need to chill it; place butter in a small heavy based saucepan over a medium heat and stir until it melts completely. Continue cooking until mixture starts to boil, stirring frequently until the milk solids start to turn brown, about 5 minutes. Take care not to burn - it will continue to brown even after removed from the heat, so take it off early and have a bowl ready.

  2. Step 2

    Pour melted butter and browned bits into a bowl and chill until solidified, about 1 hour in the fridge or 30 minutes in the freezer. When ready to make the cake, remove from the fridge and allow to soften for 30 minutes.

Method - Cake

  1. Step 1

    Preheat oven to 170°C (fan forced). Grease and line the base of 20 x 30cm baking tin.

  2. Step 2

    In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the brown butter until smooth and lightened in colour, about 5 minutes. Add sugar and Vanilla Bean Paste, mix for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one and a time, beating to incorporate.

  3. Step 3

    Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

  4. Step 4

    Add 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by 1/3 of the milk to mixer, beating until just incorporated. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Pour batter into prepared tray and bake for 35-40 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in tray before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Method - Buttercream

  1. Step 1

    In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth and lightened in colour. Add icing sugar and beat on low until just combined, increase to high and mix until light & fluffy. Add Butter Popcorn Flavour for Icing, mixing to combine. Spread over cooled sheet cake.

  2. Step 2

    Combine caramel and milk in a small bowl, mixing to create a sauce. Swirl through buttercream to serve.

Notes:

Brown butter will lose water weight as it is browned, you should end up with 200g of butter once browning, but if you have less, make up the remaining with additional butter.

If you prefer not to use brown butter in your cake batter, simply use 200g unsalted butter in its place.

Comments & Reviews

Is the brown butter used for the cake batter? It doesn’t really make it very clear.

Annette

Hi Annette, the brown butter is used in the cake batter. Thanks for the feedback, we’ll add a little not in the method to make it clearer 🙂 – The Queen Team

Queen Fine Foods

This cake is a winner – huge success at home! But you can do without the caramel swirl at the end, as that makes it too sweet. The reference to bicarb soda in Step 3 of the Cake method threw me, as there is no reference to bicarb soda in the list of ingredients, so I took a guess and added 1 tsp bicarb soda. Will definitely be making this again!

Roula

Hi Roula! Thank you for the feedback, so glad you liked this recipe 🙂 Thanks for picking up the bicarb, we’ve now added it to the ingredients list! – The Queen Team

Queen Fine Foods