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layer cakes

Apple Cake with Brown Butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream

by: Amy on: Sep 1, 2016

Yesterday I got a v photogenic salad for lunch, a wine writer that works close to the office gave the office free prosecco, and I had enough French food for dinner to feed an entire village. Oh and...

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Yesterday I got a v photogenic salad for lunch, a wine writer that works close to the office gave the office free prosecco, and I had enough French food for dinner to feed an entire village. Oh and the owner of the restaurant insisted that he remake my post-dinner coffee because the original one I got was “not pretty enough.” Extra PS. that coffee came with a warm pistachio apricot tart and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. I went home after all that to listen to the Views album in its entirety. I’ve peaked. I think I have peaked, guys. 

Talk about peaking, this blog post is also something of that nature. This whole lets-pretend-we-are-v-kinfolk-and-shoot-on-an-apple-farm idea was something Kelsey, Victor, and I have been dreaming of for while. We finally found a date that worked with everyone and Victor drove us up to her family’s farm! I requested a Drake playlist for the car ride there and Victor was totes *one hundred emoji*. 

I don’t even know where to begin with this post. Do I talk about how the 7pm light was nothing short of amazing? Do I talk about how Victor somehow managed to make me look like angel even though that is not the case in real life? Or do I talked about how we had two pies, two galettes, and a three layer cake in the middle or the orchard? I think the part where we drove to the orchard in these mini tractor-like vehicles called “gators” with all our pies, cakes, styling props, and Kelsey’s dining table is definitely worth a mention.

Before this blogging date, I have never been to Abbotsford before. It is only a one hour drive from Vancouver but I just never got the chance to go. Now I have more of an excuse than ever to go back. Kelsey’s family’s farm is so lovely. They grow all kinds of apples, plums, pears, rhubarb, and pumpkin. They also have all these baby sheep and farm cats that I can snuggle with until the end of time. Well maybe not the sheep because they will probably try to eat my dress and they do smell kind of funny. I’ll snuggle the cats though.

After I stopped fawning over the sheep, the cats, and how quickly pumpkin actually grew, we loaded a gator with Kelsey’s dining table, all the pies and cake, all of our styling props and drove out to set up our spread in between two rows of apple trees. We took photos from 7pm to about 9:30pm and you will see the progression of the sun setting in the photos. We then had pie as a late supper and everything couldn’t be any better.

Before I bombard you with the copious amount of photos, let’s take a moment to talk about brown butter. I love brown butter. I don’t care if you think it’s overrated. I love it. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me earlier to make brown butter swiss meringue buttercream. It is so. dang. lovely. You get the nutty flavours of the brown butter but because it’s a swiss meringue buttercream, it’s still very light! I’m obsessed.

Apple Cake with Brown Butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Makes 1 three-layer 6-inch cake
By Amy

Ingredients

Brown Butter Apple Cake

  • 1 1/4 cup brown, (unsalted) butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 medium apples, peeled and diced

Brown Butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream

  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup brown, (unsalted) butter, cubed, at room temperature

Instructions

Brown Butter Apple Cake

    Browning the butter (*make ahead):

    • Start melting butter over medium heat. Use a pan with a light-coloured bottom so you can keep track of the colour. Swirl the pan occasionally to be sure the butter is cooking evenly. As the butter melts, it will begin to foam (~5 minutes).  You can tell the butter is browning because dark golden flecks (browned milk solids) will appear in the melted butter, which will start to smell nutty and toasty.
    • Once you’re happy with the level of browning, pour the butter (scrape every bit of browned milk solids and all) into a bowl. If you were to leave the butter in the pan, the residual heat would continue to cook/burn it.
    • Preheat oven to 350F and grease three cake pans.
    • In a medium sized bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
    • In a large bowl, cream together the brown butter and sugar. Once fluffy, add vanilla and eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Add in half the milk and half the dry ingredients. Gently mix together before adding the remaining halves of both.
    • Very gently fold in the diced apples.
    • Evenly divide batter into cake pans and bake for 30 – 35 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the tins for 15 minutes, then carefully turn them out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

    Brown Butter Swiss Meringue Buttercream

    • Place egg whites and sugar into a stainless steel or glass bowl, and place the bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water. The bottom of the bowl should not be touching the water. Continuously whisk the egg whites and sugar together until sugar has melted.
    • Remove bowl from heat and beat mixture on high until the egg white and sugar mixture is white and fluffy.
    • Once the mixture has cooled a bit, start adding brown butter gradually. This is the part where you have to trust that the buttercream will turn out. It might look kind of lumpy and not buttercream-esque, but just keep on mixing.

    Notes

    Brown Butter Apple Cake
    Adapted from Linda Lomelino

    Photography & Editing || Victor Yuen

    Kelsey’s Blog || The Farmer’s Daughter

    PS. I have a second blog post drafted up for all the other photos from the orchard shoot that I cannot wait to share!

    more like this:

    Flamingo Pink Velvet Cake with Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

    Mermaid Oreo Funfetti Birthday Cake

    Coconut Cake with Pineapple Coconut Curd and Pineapple Jam (Lactose-Free)

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    Recipe Rating




    Sweet Comments:

    1. kelsey_the farmer's daughter says

      Sep 2, 2016 at 5:56 am

      YES YES YES! Can we pretend to be Kinfolk cool all the time? <3

      Reply
    2. Unknown says

      Sep 3, 2016 at 10:02 pm

      This is so freaking cute!!!! You guys are so adorable and beautiful and lovely.

      Reply
    3. JeCksOn says

      Sep 9, 2017 at 8:10 am

      hmmmmm

      Reply

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    featured

    day two: sparkly matcha neapolitan shortbread cook day two: sparkly matcha neapolitan shortbread cookies ✨

the instructions might seem confusing, but if you watch the video to see how the different flavour layers are stacked, it will make much more sense! these slice and bake cookies freeze extremely well so you can make the dough now and bake them off when you want to gift them. (makes 40-44)

vanilla dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

matcha dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tsp culinary matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt

strawberry dough 
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g 6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder 
1/4 tsp salt

1 egg white
coarse sanding sugar

for the vanilla dough, combine butter and powdered sugar in a bowl. mix until smooth. add vanilla. add flour and salt and mix until no dry streaks remain. do the same for the matcha and strawberry doughs in separate bowls

place one portion of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 5 x 9-inch rectangle that is about 1/4-inch thick. slide rolled out dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for 10 min until firm. repeat this step with the other portions of dough

remove the top piece of parchment from each slab and stack the strawberry, vanilla, and matcha dough layers. cut the slab down the middle the long way to form two 2.5 x 9-inch rectangles. with one half, carefully swap the order of the layers (example: if the first half of the dough is stacked svm, swap the second half so it’s msv. this will ensure that same flavour squares don’t stack on each other). stack the halves. press the layers gently to adhere them. return the stacked dough to the freezer for another 10min

[recipe cont’d in comments]

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piped butter cookies are some of my fav cookies to make — they’re buttery! sandy! rich! they get a little holiday makeover and become the cutest rudolph rings when you add a little red m&m nose and antler details. topping the antlers with gold is optional, but adds extra sparkle and festive cheer to each cookie

(makes 12 cookies)
135 g salted butter, very soft
45 g icing sugar
100 g flour
40 g cornstarch
15 g cocoa powder 
1/4 tsp espresso powder 

in a medium bowl, combine softened salted butter with icing sugar with a rubber spatula until smooth

in a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt

using a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture until no more dry spots remain

transfer the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip (i used wilton 6b)

apply pressure to pipe the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. if you are having trouble piping out the dough, you can warm up the dough in the piping bag between the palms of your hands, or add an extra 1 tbsp of melted butter to the dough and refill the piping bag. leave 1 inch between each cookie

transfer the sheet of piped cookies to the freezer while you preheat the oven to 325f. chilling the dough will prevent the cookies from spreading in the oven

bake the cookies until the bottoms are set, about 25 – 30 minutes

allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely and decorate

royal icing
1 egg white
150 g icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

in the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, beat egg whites on medium-low speed until frothy, about 1 min. with the mixer on low speed, slowly add icing sugar and vanilla. once incorporated, increase speed to medium-high and beat until stiff peaks form. transfer icing to a pip bag with a small round tip to pipe out face details

#holidaybaking #christmascookies #christmascookie #holidaycookies #christmasbaking
    sorry i cant come to the phone right now, i’m to sorry i cant come to the phone right now, i’m too busy baking all the @nytcooking holiday cookies the day they’re released

@csaffitz bûche de noël cookies
@samanthaseneviratne ginger cheesecake cookies
@heysueli matcha-black sesame shortbreads
@ericjoonho lemon-turmeric crinkle cookies
@clarkbar iced peppermint cookies
@sohlae holiday rocky road
@vaughn rum-buttered almond cookies

#nytcooking #nytcookieweek #nytcookies #holidaybaking #christmascookies
    presenting: this year’s 12 days of christmas coo presenting: this year’s 12 days of christmas cookies 🎄

matcha christmas tree cookies 
chocolate reindeer cookies
matcha strawberry neapolitan checkerboard
hojicha walnut deer cookies (with a bow!)
hedgehog hazelnut praline shortbread
pretzel shortbread mittens
earl grey decorated wreath cookies 
snowman cookie butter truffles
grinchy pistachio jammy liners
eggnog brûlée cookies
biscoff snowman cookies
chestnut hazelnut praline sandwich cookies

…dropping tomorrow! stay tuned!

#christmasbaking #christmascookies #holidaybaking #holidaycookies #cookiedecorating
    preparing for the big weekend… ✨ a tradition preparing for the big weekend… ✨

a tradition that i started in 2019, this will be the sixth year i bake all of the @nytcooking holiday cookies the moment they are released on dec 1. i’m excited/nervous for sunday (i might throw up). here are the cookies from previous years, and a few behind the scenes where you can witness me slowly lose my sanity.

2019: twelve cookies by @susanspungen
peppermint stripe cookies
color-field cookies
peanut shortbread with honeycomb
gingery brownie crinkle cookies
marbled tahini cookies
homemade pocky
abstract art cookies
stamped citrus shortbread
brown sugar-anise cookies
thumbprints with dulce de leche
blood orange poppyseed window cookies
dirty chai earthquake cookies

2020:
cornmeal lime shortbread fans
sparkly gingerbread
vanilla bean spritz cookies
toasted almond snowballs
honey-roasted peanut thumbprints
black and white brownies 
fudgy bourbon balls
cherry rugelach with cardamom sugar

2021: the year that @nytcooking released 24 holiday cookie recipes and i almost passed out/away
m&m cookies
almond spritz cookies
peppermint brownie cookies
brown-butter toffee sandwich cookies
hibiscus-spiraled ginger cookies
guava and cream cheese twists
minty lime bars
chewy gingerbread
savory mixed-nut shortbread
tahini thumbprints with dulce de leche
chocolate babka rugelach
fruity meltaways
iced oatmeal cookies
spiced orange crumble cookies
peanut butter cookies
gingerbread biscotti
cheddar cheese coins
fig and cherry cookie pies
italian rainbow cookies
chocolate-cherry ginger cookies
hindbaersnitter
no-bake chocolate clusters
torticas de morón
piparkakut

2022:
white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
gochujang caramel cookies
chocolate hazelnut cookies
gingerbread latte cookies
orange, pistachio and chocolate shortbread
crunchy coconut twists
savory shortbread with olives and rosemary

2023: last year’s seven cookies which was done after ten hours of baking
gingerbread blondies
mexican hot chocolate cookies
rainbow rave cookies
lemon butter curls
matcha latte cookies
technicolor cookies
neapolitan checkerboard

#nytcooking #nytcookies #nytcookieweek #christmascookies #holidaycookies

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