Brown Butter Carrot Cake

How to Brown Butter

This simple trick elevates the flavors here SO much. A skillet works better than a saucepan for browning butter because there’s more surface area for the brown bits to develop. Here’s how to brown butter:

1. In a medium skillet set over medium heat, melt the butter.
2. Swirling the pan occasionally, continue to cook the butter. It should become foamy with audible cracking and popping noises.
3. Once the crackling stops, continue to swirl the pan until the butter develops a nutty aroma and brown bits start to form at the bottom.
4. Once the bits are amber in color, about 2 to 3 minutes after the popping stops, remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl, then set it aside to cool completely.
5. Learn all my tips and tricks for browning butter in my How to Brown Butter article here.

How to *Properly* Prepare Carrots for Carrot Cake

• Fresh carrots only: For extra moist Carrot Cake, shred fresh carrots – don’t use pre-shredded packaged ones. Freshly grated carrots are more flavorful and much more moist!
• Farmer’s markets: Whenever possible, buy your carrots at the farmer’s market. They’re SO much sweeter!
• Coarse grating: Don’t grate your carrots too finely. You want carrot “confetti” in your cake, so the bigger holes on your box grate work better.
• If you have one, use your food processor: You can also use your food processor’s grating attachment to make grating quicker and easier.
• Buy extra: 3 cups of freshly shredded carrots equals about 4 medium carrots, but buy extra just in case.

Carrot Cake Spices

• This recipe is written for a well-rounded flavor, with the spices harmoniously balancing out the sweetness and richness.
• Please note that new spices are much more flavorful, and older spices carry less flavor – so adjust accordingly based on the age of your spices.
• If your spices are expired, toss them and purchase new ones – otherwise, your cake may be bland.

The Best Frosting For Carrot Cake

Arguably the best part of Carrot Cake! Here are my best Cream Cheese Frosting tips:

1. Cool room temperature ingredients: For the best and creamiest frosting, be sure your cream cheese and butter are at room temperature.
2. Cream cheese: Use full-fat bricks of cream cheese, not reduced-fat cream cheese or tubs meant for spreading on bagels.
3. Scrape the bowl: Beat in a large bowl until completely smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom of your bowl often, until there are no lumps. Even if you have a paddle attachment that scrapes the sides as it goes, I still recommend scraping down the paddle and bottom of the bowl to ensure no lumps.
4. Sift: Don’t skip sifting the powdered sugar! It’s a pain, but it’s necessary to ensure smooth frosting.
5. Vanilla paste: For those beautiful vanilla speckles and a gourmet appearance, use vanilla paste over vanilla extract.

How to Decorate Carrot Cake

• Simplicity: The cream cheese frosting is a little looser than your classic buttercream, so you won’t be able to do intricate, detailed designs. I personally prefer a more basic or “naked cake” look for carrot cake anyway.
• Nuts: A border of chopped nuts on top of the cake makes a simple yet elegant final garnish. Feel free to add more chopped nuts as a bottom border, too, if you wish.
• Cute details: If you want to add a cute finishing touch, check out my article on How to Make Decorative Edible Carrots.

More Spring Recipes:

• Carrot Cake Cupcakes
• Lemon Bundt Cake
• Strawberry Bundt Cake
• Angel Food Cake Recipe
• Glazed Lemon Cookies

More Brown Butter Recipes:

• Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Cookie Cups
• Brown Butter Coffee Cake
• Brown Butter Peach Cobbler
• Malted Brown Butter Brownies