vanilla browned butter cake with truffle frosting.

It's been a long (very) Fat Tuesday. Fat, because my roommate and I totally went HAM on the bread pudding served at the Mardi Gras dinner at the dining hall tonight. And then Andrea and I devoured half this browned butter cake in approximately 30 minutes, max. Long, because I had an exam this past Sunday and today, and a ton of other things on top of that. Thankfully, that higher power up there was looking out for me and caused the physics page to crash today. And so my physics online homework was delayed!

And so I proceeded to use the remainder of my time researching HTML. Because I wanted to add a Recipe Index to my blog and didn't realize it was so easy! You just go on "Pages" on your dashboard and make a page with whatever name you want.

But here's the tricky part. You need to make sure to SHOW your pages! This is the most difficult part. But I'm warning you guys now. Cause I'm such a tech pro. I'm soo ready to answer questions to work in the computer labs. And also prepared to bake enough cakes until they accept me just for my food.


But anyway, so now I have a Recipe Index. I'm super excited.

This took far too long to make.

A quick little description of the cake ^^^

I took a bit of just the cake (no frosting) and topped it with a teeny bit
of blueberry preserves. Amazing combination.

*I made up this frosting recipe! Have you ever made white sauce for pasta? Or heard of a roux? It is essentially flour and a little milk cooked over stovetop until reduced and thickened. I made a roux and chilled it till very thick before beating into the butter chocolate mixture that turned into delicious frosting. I used the truffles from this cake and crushed them before folding them into the frosting for texture. Trust me, you want to do this.

Also the browned butter flavor kind of becomes less detectable with the frosting. I knew this would happen, but adore chocolate frosting too much to have cared. Cake is cake right? If you want the browned butter flavor to shine, skip this frosting and just thinly layer the cake with heated blueberry preserves and whipped cream. I have tried this combination and can guarantee it will be delicious.

Vanilla Browned Butter Cake
from here.

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour 
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 1 cup sugar 
• 2 large eggs, room temp 
• 1 tspn vanilla extract 
• 3/4 cup milk (low fat is fine, so are other types! like almond milk) 

1. Melt butter over stovetop until foamy and bubbling and toasty. Watch out, because it will burn quickly. Take off stove as soon as it starts browning and becomes fragrant. Let cool slightly.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. 
3. Mix butter, eggs, vanilla, and milk well. 
4. Add dry to wet. 
5. Bake in 2 greased round cake pans (or 12 greased/lined muffin pans) at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes. Do not let overbake. They will bake fairly quickly. 
6. Cool completely before frosting. 

Chocolate Frosting 

I created this!

• 2 Tb flour 
• 3/4 cup milk 
• 2 sticks (or 1 cup) butter, room temp 
• 1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar 
• 3 Tb cocoa 
• 1/8 tspn instant coffee 
• 1 cup ricotta 
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips, melted & slightly cooled
• 1/4 cup chopped truffles 

1. Mix the flour and milk in a saucepan. Heat to a simmer, frequently stirring, until the mixture thickens significantly. The mixture may also brown - this is okay. Let cool completely. This is the roux.
2. Beat butter. Beat in sugar and cocoa. 
3. Crush the instant coffee in your fingers before adding to the butter. 
4. Whip in the ricotta, the roux, and chocolate very well. 
5. Fold in the truffles.