This easy layer cake has a more simplistic look to it but don’t be fooled, this Brown Butter Caramel Cake is well worth the time and effort. You and your guests mouths will be watering with each bite!
Brown Butter Caramel Cake is a two layer naked cake made with toffee bits and salted caramel frosting! The perfect summer cake or show stopping centerpiece.
Brown Butter Caramel Cake is a naked cake based on an old fashioned southern caramel cake. If you’re wondering what a naked cake means, it simply means a cake that has barely or no frosting on the outer edge of the cake.
Basically it shows off the cakes color and texture, as well as the fillings with very minimal to no frosting covering it up.
Don’t be intimidated when you get to the recipe card and you see 120 minutes for total time. I’m telling you right now, this Brown Butter Caramel Cake is so worth the time it takes to make it, you’ll never want another cake.
This brown butter cake is perfect to make for special occasions, get togethers, or even for a tea party! Whatever you decide to make this cake for, it will definitely be a hit with your friends and family!
Naked cakes are also great for people like me who are intimidated or just plain suck at decorating, like me. No worries about a crumb layer or make sure there aren’t any seams showing or the icing is just perfect.
Naked cakes are beautiful in their imperfections.
Check out these other simple desserts:
EASY Fruit Pizza
Banana Pudding Cake
Edible Cookie Dough Recipe (Easy!)
Lemon Poke Cake
Brown Butter Caramel Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Brown Butter Caramel Cake:
- 1 3/4 cups butter
- 2 cups light brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 5 large eggs , room temperature
- 3 1/4 flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup milk
- 11 ounces toffee bits
- Cooking spray
Salted Caramel Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup caramel sauce
Garnish:
- 1/2 cup pecans
Instructions
Brown Butter Caramel Cake:
- Start by browning your butter. Place butter in a heavy saucepan and heat over low-medium temperature. Swirl every couple of minutes. Continue to cook butter until it turns a light brown and smells nutty. Little browned bits will develop on the bottom, scrape them up, but leave them in the mixture. This process will take 10-15 minutes. Allow browned butter to cool to room temperature before continuing.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of 2 9-inch springform pans with parchment paper. Coat with cooking spray. Apply cake insulators.
- Place cooled browned butter, included solid bits scraped off the bottom, in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl.
- Add both brown and white sugars. Blend until a grainy mixture forms. Add vanilla, blend. Add eggs, one at a time, combining well.
- Sift together baking powder, salt and flour.
- Alternate adding dry ingredients and milk to cake better, combing fully after each addition.
- Fold in toffee bits.
- Equally divide cake batter between both cake pans.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then loosely cover tops with aluminum foil and continue to bake for another 30 minutes or until cakes pass the toothpick test.
- Remove and allow to cool on a baking rack for 10 minutes. Remove from cake pans to cooling rack and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes.
Salted Caramel Frosting:
- In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until pale and fluffy.
- Add powdered sugar, blending well.
- Add caramel sauce.
- Since caramel sauce consistency can differ greatly, you might need to add a small amount of milk or powdered sugar until you get to a frosting texture. The linked version has salt built into the recipe, if the sauce you are using does not, you might need to add salt as well.
- Place one round cake on serving tray, if you do not use pan insulators, you might need to cut off the top to make it level. Frost center with half of the salted caramel frosting. Top with second cake and frost the top. This is a “naked cake” so leave the sides free of frosting.
- Garnish with whole pecans.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was!
This sounds amazing. Can I substitute AP flour with cake flour? Thank you!
You surely can! Cake flour just creates a slightly less dense cake- fluffier and more air. Make sure to soft the AP flour well and don’t overmix.
Loved the cake! Modified it a little (tend to do that to recipes). Made it gluten free (daughter has celiac), added cocoa powder and couldn’t find caramel chips so I used cinnamon chips. Thanks for posting!
I’m glad you enjoyed it Heidi and thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and leave me a note. It makes all the work with it!
G’day! Your cake so reminds me of childhood yum!
Cheers! Joanne
Browned Butter Caramel Cake sounds awesome! I love the fact you have made the directions so simple and easy to understand!!
Two things…250 is NOT the correct baking temp. Also I couldn’t find caramel chips so I used toffee pieces from Heath. Salted caramel is YUMMO, however makes way to much I’d cut that recipe in half next time.
Hi there, Nicci! You are absolutely correct, the right temperature is 350 degrees. Sometimes I’m typing and reading so fast, I don’t catch my own mistakes. Mistakes prove we are human 🙂
I’m sure butterscotch chips work just as well. I like the way toffee chips melt and are just a little chewy.
I used the rest of the caramel to drizzle after the cake cut. Cause who does’t want more salted caramel??
Thanks for the feedback!!!!