TWD-Brown-Butter-and-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake

I made this simple, but delicious cake this weekend. It had a really dense crumb and was bursting with buttery, sugary goodness. It was fragrant with Madagascar vanilla bean and the house smelled wonderful while it was baking. And what a gorgeous golden color when sliced! It was a little dry, but perfect with a cup of coffee to moisten things up on the palate. I would definitely make this again and try out some different flavor profiles. The recipe called for rum, but I wanted the butter and vanilla flavors to be the star of the show!

The cake was very easy to make and called for simple ingredients and techniques. I wanted to make sure that the cake had a lot of flavor, so I used European butter with a higher fat content. I also used an extra long and plump vanilla pod to get as much vanilla flavor as possible.

The batter was loaded with vanilla bean specks and the aroma when I folded in the beautiful liquid browned-butter was spectacular. And what a lot of butter it was! I was worried I had used too much as the batter was just drowning in it. However, once it was all folded in, the batter was thick, smooth, glossy and perfect.

Once the batter was in the pan, I baked it for 60 minutes.  I tented the pan with foil about 40 minutes in to prevent the cake from browning too quickly.  The finished product was a rich golden brown color.

So there you have it! Weekend Cake! A staple in the repertoire of every French baker. Always on hand for impromptu guests, family snacking or a sweet reward for the happy baker. Bon Weekend!