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. If using vanilla bean, 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 buttermilk, so that it can infuse the buttermilk with some more vanilla flavor.
5. Place the room temperature brown butter and neutral oil 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 buttermilk. Add all of the buttermilk 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. Prepare a 12- or 15-cup bundt pan as you normally would. Add the batter to the bundt pan and tap to ensure even distribution and also to break any large bubbles that might be in the batter. 
14. Bake the cake at a true 325°F for 65-75 minutes, or until an instant read thermometer reads 212°F. Poke several holes in the bottom of the cake and use a spoon to add about ⅓ of the Bourbon Butter Sauce. After ten minutes, invert onto a cooling rack and gently use a pastry brush to brush the rest of the Bourbon Butter Sauce into the still-warm cake. Be very careful with this step, as brushing too aggressively will cause the cake to break.  
15. Allow the cake to cool completely.

To Make the Bourbon Butter Sauce

1. Before beginning, determine if you’d like more or less alcohol taste in your final Bourbon Butter Sauce.
2. Add granulated sugar, water, and fine sea salt to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, allowing it to simmer only until the solids are dissolved.
3. Add butter and allow it to melt fully into the water/sugar mixture. If you want less alcohol taste, add bourbon at this time. Simmer on low/medium heat until the mixture thickens into a loose syrup texture.
4. If you want a more alcohol-forward cake, simmer the sauce, without the bourbon, until the sauce has reduced by half. Once the sauce has reduced, remove from heat and add the bourbon. 
5. Stir together to combine and then spread on the cake. If the sauce has cooled and thickened, heat over medium heat until it loosens and then add to the cake. Allow to cool completely before adding the salted caramel sauce.

To Make the Salted Caramel Sauce

1. Start with caution.  Caramel is hot sugar and the steam it produces can cause burns.
2. Place granulated sugar in the bottom of a large (at least 2 ½-quart), heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Turn heat to high medium and watch sugar carefully as it begins to melt. 
3. Once the sugar begins to melt, stir with a balloon whisk like this one, and gently break up any clumps. It’s important that the whisk not have a metal handle, since a metal handle will conduct heat from the pan.
4. Keep stirring constantly until all of the lumps of sugar melt and the sugar has a slightly nutty smell.
5. Add all of the butter and continue whisking.  The mixture will bubble A LOT when you add the butter and there will be a lot of steam, so be careful with this step.
6. Stir butter into the mixture gently until it’s fully incorporated, then remove the mixture from the heat.
7. Add all of the heavy cream at one time while the mixture is off the heat.  Again, the mixture will bubble so be careful!  Stir the mixture until everything is fully combined.
8. Add the salt and stir to combine.  Caramel will be very loose at this point.
9. Pour caramel into a heat-safe container (like a mason jar) and allow to cool completely on the countertop.
10. Once fully cooled, check the consistency to make sure that it pours very slowly. If it doesn’t pour at all, microwave for 5-second intervals, stirring in between intervals. It is ready when it pours very slowly.