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Y’all, this cake. Brown butter cake with a bit of caramel filling and brown butter buttercream. It’s an insane flavor combo that I’m totally diggin’. But then we’re taking the decor up a notch by using a homemade stencil to create a silver shark on a blue ombre background! Let’s dive in.

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Thank you to Barnabas Gold for providing products for me to use and review in this post.

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Inspiration

The whole idea with this cake started with edible silver leaf. Barnabas Gold was kind enough to send me some, and I was so excited to play around. I think that silver looks stunning on a rich blue. Blue and silver makes me think of my husband’s work, and their mascot is a shark, hence the shark cake was beginning to take shape.

Flavor wise, I’m obsessed with brown butter. So I immediately wanted to do a brown butter cake. Caramel was an obvious flavor pairing, but I decided to keep that just as a filling. Black cocoa sounded like a good choice too. It was all coming together.

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Brown Butter Cake

Like many home bakers, the majority of my cake and cupcake recipes are butter based. That’s great and all, but I wanted to come up with a good, non-chocolate, oil based cake recipe. Oil based cakes tend to be more moist and I find them easier to make.

Even though I consider this an oil based cake, we are using melted brown butter in the recipe as well. The brown sugar leans into the caramel, toffee like flavors found in brown butter. This combo is insanely delicious.

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Top Tips for Cakes

Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature. This will help everything blend nicely and give your cupcakes a nice texture.
Scrape down your bowl regularly to incorporate any ingredients hiding out at the bottom.
Do NOT over mix. Once you add the wet and dry ingredients, stir just to combine.
Wilton baking strips will give you a flat top and prevent the edges from caramelizing.
Use an electronic scale to divide your cake batter into the pans.

Brown Butter Buttercream

To be totally honest, I was nervous about using brown butter in this easy buttercream recipe because brown butter just isn’t as stable at room temperature. It ended up tasting incredible though, so I can’t be too upset.

But, to continue this whole honesty bit, I wish I had used a basic American buttercream as my base instead. In Texas, it’s been over 100℉ the majority of this month, so it’s flippin’ HOT right now. Even with the air conditioning blasting, my house is a hot, muggy mess.

However, even with this intense heat, I was able to stack and fill this gorgeous cake without any issues. I truly expected catastrophe at every turn, but it worked out really well!

Blue Ombre Cake

To create the color variations on this blue ombre cake, I used a bit of black cocoa powder. This allowed me to achieve rich colors without a single drop of black gel color. The colors turned out darker than I intended, but I love it. You’ll find reduced amounts of black cocoa in the recipe below, so feel free to add more for a darker finish.

I also meant for the colors to blur into each other a bit more, but I ended up with pretty crisp lines. While I love the finished cake, for a more blurred effect, make sure to wiggle your spatula through the colors as you scrape your cake.

Sample Cake Template in the Resource Library

Creating a Silver Shark

Y’all, I sketch out a lot of cake ideas that are sitting in a fat folder just waiting to be made one day. This cake design came to me just a few weeks ago, but I just had to bring it to life as soon as possible.

Watch this step by step video to find out exactly how to pull off this look. Basically, I created my own stencil with parchment paper and wrapped that around my finished cake. Then I carefully applied edible silver leaf to the exposed shark shape before removing the stencil. You can use this technique with almost any shape or design.

Choosing Edible Silver Leaf

Whenever you are applying metal to food that you intend to eat, it’s very important that you are using trustworthy products. Pure gold and pure silver will pass through your body with no effect, but if there are other metals in the leaf, it can cause issues.

I’m using edible silver leaf from Barnabas Gold. They are a high quality company that I have been a fan of for years and can definitely recommend. Make sure that you choose their edible leaf options because they sell products for many different uses.

Related Reading: Use Gold Flakes on Macarons

Stressed The HECK Out

I absolutely adore this cake. It tastes great and looks gorgeous. And it’s done. This bad boy stressed me the heck out. It was a very quick turnaround to get everything done and posted here to Bakes & Blunders. On top of all that, Ben was doing his final assessments this same week, so I was a busy lady.

As much as I love this cake, it made me so nervous every step of the way. This is the most ambitious design using edible gold or silver that I’ve ever attempted. I haven’t been that terrified of a cake in a long time! But it’s done and it’s great. Phew.

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Enjoy!

I really hope you get to enjoy the rich, warm flavors of brown butter, caramel, and black cocoa that you’ll find in this cake recipe. It’s a delicious and unique combination that anyone will enjoy. And if you decide to try your hand at the edible silver leaf decoration, I’d love to hear how that works out for you.

While you’re at it, go ahead and send this recipe to a friend who may be interested in the recipe or tutorial. Thanks for stopping by. Happy Baking!

Brown Butter Cake with Brown Butter Buttercream

Brown butter cake filled with a caramel drizzle and frosted with brown butter buttercream.

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Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Birthday, Brown Butter, Cake, Caramel, Fall, Frosting

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 40

Assembly 1

Total Time 2 25

Servings 20 servings

Calories 458kcal

Ingredients

Brown Butter

14 oz unsalted butter

Brown Butter cake

8 oz all purpose flour
4 oz cake flour
2 Tbsps instant vanilla pudding mix optional
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
5 oz brown sugar
10 oz sugar
8 fl oz milk
8 fl oz water
2 fl oz canola oil
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 eggs

Brown Butter Buttercream

4 oz pasteurized egg whites (from a carton)
20 oz powdered sugar sifted
8 oz unsalted butter room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsps black cocoa powder sifted (optional)
royal blue and violet gel colors

Assembly

2- 3 oz caramel sauce

Instructions

Brown Butter

Place the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally at first. Once the butter is completely melted, stir more frequently.
Continue cooking until the butter has a nice amber color on the bottom. This can take 15- 20 minutes depending on the heat. Set the brown butter aside to cool. You will need 2 ounces for the cake batter and 8 ounces (at room temperature) for the buttercream.

Brown Butter Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly coat three 6 inch cake pans in baking spray and line the bottoms with parchment rounds. Set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the flours, pudding mix (if using), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
In a separate bowl, combine sugars, milk, water, oil, 2 ounces of melted brown butter, vanilla, and eggs. Use an immersion blender or a whisk to combine the wet ingredients.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix gently until just combined. A few small lumps are okay.
Use an electric scale to divide the batter between the three pans. You should end up with roughly 15- 16 ounces of batter in each pan. Bake 35- 40 minutes. The cakes should spring back when poked, a skewer should come out clean, and they should be starting to pull away from the edge of the pan.
Cool cake layers in the pans for about 10 minutes. Invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely. Wrap each layer in cling wrap and place in the fridge for at least one hour, or even overnight.

Brown Butter Buttercream

In a stand mixer, whip egg whites and powdered sugar on a medium high speed for 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium and begin adding the butter and 8 ounces of room temperature brown butter a tablespoon at a time. Scrape the bowl down as needed.
Once all of the butter has been added, return the speed to medium high and whip for another 5 minutes. Scrape the bowl down and add the vanilla. Whip to combine. Taste and adjust flavors as necessary.
If you are NOT creating the ombre effect, your buttercream is ready. To create the ombre effect, divide the buttercream into 4 bowls, roughly 10 ounces each. One bowl will remain white.
In bowl 2, add 5 drops of royal blue gel color. Mix to combine.
In bowl 3, add 1 tablespoon of sifted black cocoa powder, 5 drops of royal blue gel color, and 1 drop of violet gel color. Mix to combine.
In bowl 4, add 2 tablespoons of sifted black cocoa powder, 5 drops of royal blue gel color, and 2 drops of violet gel color. Mix to combine.

Assembly

Place a layer of cake on a cake board. Pipe a thin layer of (white) buttercream onto the cake. Smooth, then use your spatula to create a swirl in the frosting. Pipe a dam around the edge of the cake. Swirl caramel sauce into the divot made by the spatula. Repeat with the next layer.
Place the final layer of cake upside down on the cake. Use the white buttercream to crumb coat the stacked cake. Chill in the fridge until firm, about 30 minutes.
Start with the light blue frosting, cover the top of the cake and smooth. Pipe 2 bands of frosting around the cake (starting at the top). Mix a bit of frosting from bowl 2 (light blue) with a bit of frosting from bowl 3 (medium blue). Use this color to pipe 2 more bands around the cake.
Now use the medium blue frosting from bowl 3 to pipe 2 more bands around the cake. Mix a bit of bowl 3 with a bit of bowl 4 and pipe 2 more bands. Finish with 2 bands of bowl 4.
Wiggle your offset spatula around the cake where the different colors meet for a more blended look. Scrape and smooth until you have a sharp, smooth cake.
Chill until firm before decorating. Otherwise, enjoy!

Notes

I suggest making the brown butter in advance. Just bring it to room temperature before baking.
For deeper colors, make the buttercream a few days in advance and let the frosting sit (covered) in the fridge to develop further.

Brown Butter Cake with a Silver Leaf Shark

Inspiration