Bourbon Brown Butter Vanilla Pound Cake

Hi BB! Welcome to Day 12 of the Twelve Days of Pound Cake! This is the final day of our twelve day journey, and today, I have my Bourbon Brown Butter Vanilla Pound Cake. Because every holiday table needs a vanilla pound cake, but we need not be bored to tears by it.

This particular vanilla pound cake is anything but boring. Any time you begin a cake with brown butter, you know it’s definitely not a snooze. But, when you take the additional step of adding a little bit of bourbon to the butter after browning, you intensify the vanilla flavor even more, and add subtle caramel notes to the cake that make it even more exceptional. 

The glaze on this cake is one for the books. Why, you ask? Because it’s a bourbon blackberry cream cheese glaze, that’s why. Smooth, sweet, and a lil’ smoky, this one leaves you all tingly for all the right reasons. 

In this Post:

The Recipe

Bourbon Brown Butter Vanilla Pound Cake

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This Bourbon Brown Butter Vanilla Pound Cake has incredibly deep vanilla flavor from the vanilla bean, which is complemented by the subtly delicious notes of caramel and vanilla from the bourbon. Blackberry, one of bourbon’s best friends, tops this cake in a dreamy cream cheese glaze. It’s truly amazing!

• Total Time: 5-7 hours
• Yield: 18 servings 1x

Ingredients

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For the Batter:

• 345 g (1 1/2 c) unsalted butter, browned and re-solidified in the refrigerator
• 3 tbsp bourbon
• 384 g (3 c) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 500 g (2 1/2 c) granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean or 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 6 eggs, room temperature
• 227 g (1 c) full-fat sour cream, room temperature

For the Vanilla Simple Syrup:

• 84 g (1/3 c) water
• 67 g (1/3 c) granulated sugar
• 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the Blackberry Bourbon Cream Cheese Glaze:

• 154 g (2/3 c) cream cheese, room temperature
• 240 g (2 c) confectioner’s sugar
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 3 tbsp blackberry preserves
• 1/2 tbsp bourbon (optional), or 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 –2 1/2 tsp whole milk

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Instructions

To Make the Brown Butter:

1. Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. 
2. Allow the butter to melt fully, then begin gently stirring. Continue stirring constantly. 
3. The butter will go through stages. At first, it will simply look like melted butter. Continue stirring.
4. The next step of brown butter is the foamy step. This is the longest part of the brown butter process. Continue stirring.
5. The foamy brown butter will lessen (but not eliminate entirely), and you’ll start to notice browned bits on the sides and bottom of your saucepan. These are browned milk solids, and this is the objective!
6. Once you see the browned bits on the bottom of your saucepan, remove the brown butter to a heat-proof bowl or mason jar to cool completely. Add bourbon and combine.
7. Once the brown butter has come to room temperature, allow it to chill in the refrigerator until 45 minutes to an hour before your baking time. This butter is going to be creamed for our recipe, so it needs to be re-solidified.

To Make the Batter:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.  It is highly recommended to use an oven thermometer for this recipe, since proper oven temperature will impact the finished product.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and kosher salt. 
3. Use a sharp knife to carefully cut the vanilla bean pod lengthwise. Use the knife to scrape the vanilla beans from the pod.
4. Place the granulated sugar in another medium bowl. Add the vanilla beans and massage the beans into the sugar. Alternatively, you can add the sugar to a deli cup, add the vanilla beans to the sugar, securely place the lid on the deli cup, and shake to your heart’s content! Place the vanilla bean pod itself in the sour cream, so that it can infuse the sour cream with some more vanilla flavor.
5. Place the room temperature brown butter in a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer.  Mix on low speed until smooth.
6. Slowly add the infused granulated sugar and mix on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy.  
7. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing each egg until it’s fully incorporated before adding the next egg.  Scrape the bowl as needed to ensure even mixing.
8. Add vanilla extract (if using) and mix until thoroughly combined. If you used a vanilla bean in this recipe, you can skip this step.
9. Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until nearly combined.
10. Remove the vanilla bean pod from the sour cream. Add all of the sour cream and mix on low speed until nearly combined.  
11. Add the second half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until nearly combined.  Stop mixing just before the mixture is fully together.
12. Using a rubber spatula, fully scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.  Keep mixing until the batter is smooth and consistent.
13. Bake the cake at a true 325°F for 65-75 minutes, or until an instant read thermometer reads 212°F.  
14. Allow the cake to rest for ten minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

To Make the Vanilla Simple Syrup:

1. Place granulated sugar, water, and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil.
2. Remove from the heat and add pure vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
3. Once the cake is fully cooled, brush with the fully cooled simple syrup.

To Make the Blackberry Bourbon Cream Cheese Glaze:

1. Place blackberry preserves, fine sea salt, and ½ tbsp bourbon in a small bowl. Stir to combine; the blackberry preserves will loosen a bit.
2. Run the blackberry mixture through a fine mesh strainer into another small bowl. This will remove the hard seeds. Set aside.
3. Place the room temperature cream cheese in a large mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, mix until completely smooth.
4. Add the confectioner’s sugar, fine sea salt, vanilla extract, 3 tbsp of the blackberry mixture, and 1 tsp of whole milk. Using a small whisk, stir to combine. Do not be fooled into adding additional ingredients too quickly! The more you stir, the more the glaze will come together.
5. If absolutely necessary, add up to two more teaspoons of whole milk, ½ teaspoon at a time. Stir until the glaze has the consistency of thick honey.
6. Using a spouted measuring cup, squeeze bottle, or spoon, pour the glaze over the completely cooled cake. If desired, top with decorating sugar.
7. Enjoy!

Equipment

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Notes

• Not a fan of blackberries? Replace the blackberry preserves with raspberry preserves (or even my Vanilla Glaze) and this cake will be just as spectacular!

Want to master this Bourbon Brown Butter Vanilla Pound Cake? I’ve gathered all of the best resources just below! These resources will help you learn everything that you need to know to make the best version of this cake. Keep reading to make your most impressive pound cake yet!

• Author: Shani
• Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 65-75 minutes
• Category: Dessert

Ingredients in the Bourbon Brown Butter Vanilla Pound Cake

In this section, we’re going to take a quick, fun tour of the cake ingredients. Like the cake, I promise it’s not a snooze. 😊 I promise, if you take the time to look at the ingredients in this cake, you’ll come away with a better understanding of why these ingredients do what they do in this cake. So let’s get started!

All-purpose flour is the foundation of your cake – it provides structure and creates the basic “skeleton.” When mixed with wet ingredients and baked, flour helps create the soft, tender texture we love in cake.

Kosher salt isn’t just for savory foods – it actually makes sweet things taste better by enhancing all the other flavors and controlling the sugar level. Don’t skip the salt, else you’ll be asking for an overly sweet cake where the spices might run a lil’ rampant!

Baking Soda: This cake contains sour cream, so I chose baking soda for the leavener. Baking soda needs acid to activate, and the acid in the sour cream helps this activation.

Brown Butter: That’s right, BB. This cake uses brown butter. It’s an additional step but it lends massive flavor. In this particular recipe, we actually need to infuse the brown butter with bourbon and then re-solidify the brown butter. This step ensures that it can work together with the sugars to cream. This process adds additional leavening to the cake.

Bourbon brings rich, warm, and cozy flavors into your cake – plus, it helps keep everything nice and moist. The great news is that while the cake bakes, the alcohol cooks off, so you’re just left with those yummy flavors mixing with the browned butter.

Granulated sugar does more than sweeten – it helps make your cake tender and moist. And, granulated sugar is the key player for the caramelization on the outside of your cake!

Eggs are the glue that holds everything together. They provide structure while also making the cake rich and tender. Make sure to use room temperature eggs; they mix much better than cold ones.

Vanilla bean brings an incredibly rich flavor to your cake – it’s packed with tons of tiny seeds that add those classic black specks and big vanilla flavor. If you’re using vanilla extract instead, you’ll still get that wonderful vanilla taste (though not quite as intense), and it’s much easier since you just measure and pour.

Full-Fat Sour Cream adds delicious flavor, and the high fat content in the sour cream provides tenderizing qualities that keep the proteins (from the flour and the egg whites) from becoming too tough.

Techniques for the Best Cakes

One of the absolute best things about this Bourbon Brown Butter Vanilla Pound Cake is the addition of the bourbon brown brown butter to make the absolute best vanilla pound cake ever. To help you achieve perfect results, both with the brown butter and the cake, I’ve included links to some key techniques below that will ensure that this cake turns out beautifully for you every time!

These resources cover so many fun techniques that will take your baking to the next level, and will allow your confidence to soar to new heights!

• How to Brown Butter
• My Favorite Bundt Pans
• Sifting: Quick Technique, Huge Impact
• Meet Your Kitchen BFF–Your Digital Kitchen Scale!
• Technique Tips for the Best Pound Cakes
• How to Cream Butter and Sugar (With New Video!)
• Baking 101: How to Measure Ingredients
• How to Grease a Bundt Pan
• The Best Tools for Perfect Pound Cakes
• Knowing When to Stop a Technique
• Begin with Butter Home Baking Academy | Perfect Pound Cakes Class!

These resources are super helpful to help you build consistency and confidence on your baking journey. Happy reading!

Need equipment? Not sure if you have everything that you need to make this amazing cake? No worries! I’ve got you covered there too!

Important Tools

BB, Begin with Butter has its own Amazon Storefront, where you can find all of the amazing equipment that I used in this Bourbon Brown Butter Vanilla Pound Cake! Want even more specific product recommendations? Check out the product links, below.

I do get paid a commission when you purchase, but these are the tools that I use all the time in my own kitchen.

If you have these tools already, great! Think of this as a checklist to help you build the confidence that you’ll need to execute this cake!

• Taylor Oven Thermometer
• ThermoWorks Square Dot Thermometer
• Ozeri Pronto Digital Food Scale
• OXO Digital Food Scale
• KitchenAid Hand Mixer
• KitchenAid Stand Mixer 
• Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl Set
• Deli Containers for Prep
• OXO Spatula Set
• Sifter
• My Absolute Favorite Pound Cake Pans

Conclusion: Vanilla Cake,  But Make it Fashion

This vanilla cake is guaranteed to have people talking…in the best way. Dressed in its blackberry bourbon cream cheese glaze, it’s a wonder to the eyes and the palette.

(Not a blackberry fan? Replace the blackberry preserves with raspberry preserves, or even use my Vanilla Glaze recipe for your topper!)

Friend, thank you for joining me for the Twelve Days of Pound Cake 2024: Sweet, Spice, and Everything Nice (working title). It’s been my honor to be the conductor on this train, and I hope you enjoy making one (or twelve!) of these cakes very soon. 

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about this cake, BB! When you make it, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @beginwithbutter so that I can share your beautiful creation!

Got questions after reading this article? No problem! Send an email to bakingbestie@beginwithbutter.com and let’s chat!

Fin.