High Altitude Brown Sugar Cinnamon Layer Cake
Naked layers of soft, fluffy brown sugar cinnamon cake, coated in cinnamon sugar and filled with pretty piped cinnamon 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
- 1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 large egg white, room temperature
- ¾ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ½ tsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled for 10 minutes
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon Sugar
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
Buttercream
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder, optional
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
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 bowl, sift together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, then whisk until evenly distributed.
- Separately, whisk together the egg, egg white, milk, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, melted butter, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk just until moistened and combined.
- Divide the batter between the pans, and bang the pans on the counter a few times to pop the air bubbles.
- Bake the cakes for about 20-23 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely. Remove the cakes from the pans, wrap individually in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Chilling them will help to tighten the cake crumb, making it easier to coat them in the cinnamon sugar without breaking the cake.
Cinnamon Sugar
- Remove the plastic wrap from the cakes, and use a pastry brush to very lightly brush the sides of the cakes with the melted butter - this will give the cinnamon sugar something to stick to.
- In a shallow bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Gently dip the sides of the cakes in the cinnamon sugar to coat the edges.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, meringue powder, salt and cinnamon, mixing until combined. Add the vanilla, and increase the speed to medium (#6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer). Whip for 4-5 minutes, until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl down several times. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 1 minute to pop any large air bubbles.
- Fit a piping bag with tip 1M, and fill with the buttercream.
- Place one of the cakes on a cake stand or cake plate and pipe the buttercream in decorative swirls on top of the cake. Place the second cake layer on top, and finish piping the buttercream on top of the cake.
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