Brown-Butter-and-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake

This week's bake at Tuesdays With Dorie (TWD) where we are currently baking from the lovely book "Baking Chez Moi", by Dorie Greenspan is Brown-Butter-and-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake. 

According to Dorie, "The French call this a weekend cake because it will last all weekend, and it's good with so many kinds of weekend meals and outings."

I've made the cake twice, the first time, I've used a hand whisk. The cake did not really rise, the texture inside is full of holes, obviously I may have done something wrong during the mixing of the batter! But the cake tasted really good! 

The first bake ; lots of holes and did not rise that much at all.

Interestingly, this cake is baked in a loaf pan which is placed on two baking sheets that are stacked up together with the top sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

The second bake : turned out really nice.

Made the cake the second time, this time using the stand mixer with the balloon whisk attachment, from the whisking of the eggs, right through to the adding of the brown butter, which is the last step before baking. The cake bakes up really nice, well risen and moist, with lovely golden crust. I was really impatient to slice into it, but did as Dorie suggested, to wrap it in plastic wrap and leave it overnight for the flavours to develop. 

When I sliced it the next morning, I was all smiles as the crumbs are moist, there's no holes like the first time I've made it, and it smells really nice with the vanilla. It has a tight, dense but soft crumbs. The cake is buttery with the lovely scent of the vanilla and the light fragrance from the rum.  The only changes I made was to reduce the sugar to 180gm from the original 250gm, and the sweetness was just right for us. I've used salted butter and have omitted the salt. And I've lined the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, though it was not mentioned in the recipe, I always do that with my bakes.

As for the browning of the butter, Dorie mentioned that it takes just seconds for the butter to turn from a deep honey-brown to black, so keep a lookout for it, do not turn your back on it! (just love her friendly and easy to understand instructions!). I'm so relieved that I've managed to brown the butter to a deep honey-brown without any blunders! :)

I like eating thin slices of this cake, with a cup of warm tea. Though it cannot be seen clearly from the photo, the tiny specks of vanilla seeds are all over the cake. A tasty buttery fragrant cake!

To see the other bakers take on this cake, do stop by Tuesdays With Dorie (TWD).

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Cook-Your-Books #20 @ kitchen flavours