High Altitude Maple Walnut Cake
A high altitude recipe for maple walnut cake, made of two layers of brown butter walnut cake, frosted with brown butter maple buttercream.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Cake
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ⅓ cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ cup walnuts, finely chopped
Buttercream
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- ½ tsp maple extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tbsp meringue powder
- 2 tbsp milk, if needed
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of two 6-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter until nutty, golden brown milk solids form at the bottom of the pan. This process might take about 10 minutes. First the butter will hiss and splatter as the water evaporates, then as it quiets down, a layer of foam will form on top of the butter. This means the butter is done. Immediately remove from the heat, and scrape the butter, including the brown milk solids, into a large bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk, and sour cream to the brown butter and whisk until combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger, then whisk until everything is evenly distributed.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking until moistened, then fold in the chopped walnuts.
- Divide the batter between the pans, and bake for about 28-32 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently touched, or a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pans for 20 minutes (the top of the cake will settle and flatten as the cake cools).
- After 20 minutes, run a knife around the edges, and turn the cakes out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Wrap the cake layers individually in plastic wrap, and cool completely.Note: The reason for wrapping the cakes is that this cake recipe is a bit more dense, and since it's butter based, it develops a crust while baking. Wrapping the cake while warm allows the steam to soften the crust and keeps the cake very moist.
Buttercream
- While the cake cools, make the browned butter for the buttercream. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter until nutty, golden brown milk solids form at the bottom of the pan. This process might take about 10 minutes. First the butter will hiss and splatter as the water evaporates, then as it quiets down, a layer of foam will form on top of the butter. This means the butter is done. Immediately remove from the heat, and scrape the butter, including the brown milk solids, into a bowl. Let cool completely to room temperature, until it returns to a spreadable solid consistency. You can speed this up by putting the butter in the refrigerator, and stirring it every 20 minutes, until it's firm, but still spreadable.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cooled browned butter with the maple syrup, maple extract and vanilla extract for 1 minute, until smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt, and beat for 4-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl down several times while mixing, and add the milk if the buttercream seems too dry. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 2 more minutes.
- Fit a piping bag with tip 1M, and fill with the buttercream.
- Place one of the cooled cake layers on a cake board or cake pedestal, and pipe rosettes onto the cake. Place the second layer of cake on top, and pipe more buttercream rosettes on top. Decorate with walnuts.Note: With the unfrosted sides, naked cakes can dry out more quickly than a cake that's completely covered with frosting. Keep the cake in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Notes
Recipe Variations:
- To make enough frosting to completely cover the cake (instead of frosting it as a naked cake), increase the buttercream recipe by 1 1/2 times.
- For a larger 8-inch cake, double the cake recipe and the buttercream recipe.
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