Gluten Free Brown Butter Cake with Caramel Buttercream Filling

This gluten free cake is as decadent as it sounds, if not more! No cake pans required!

While my family isn’t gluten free, we do have a friend who is gluten free. I love cooking for friends and family, and so I always like to have something special made for her when she comes over!

This brown butter cake is probably the most delicious gluten free cake I’ve come up with yet!

It’s filled with a rich (but not too sweet!) salted caramel buttercream filling, and dusted with just a 1/2 tsp of powdered sugar.

Perhaps you’re like me, and right before making a cake, you realize that your toddler has all of your cake pans hidden in an unknown location in your house and you don’t feel like looking for them.

No worries! Just grab your baking sheet and a little bit of parchment paper, and you’ll be on your way!

Let’s get right into it!

Ingredients for the cake:

• 8 TBSP (1 stick) of melted, browned butter (more on that below)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 TBSP vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt (I used Himalayan)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup gluten free flour (I used King Arthur brand)

Ingredients for caramel buttercream filling:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt (I used Himalayan)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 5 TBSP heavy cream

Brown the butter

We’ll start with making the cake, and then make the filling once the cake is cooling!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and we’ll get right to it!

The first thing you’ll want to do for your cake is brown your stick of butter.

Throw your stick of butter on the stove on medium low heat, and let it melt.

Once it’s completely melted, continue to cook your butter, while stirring, until the milk solids in the butter turn brown.

Don’t throw the dish you heated your butter with into the sink! You’ll want to use it again when it’s time to make the filling!

Add the rest of your cake ingredients in THIS order

Pour your browned butter into your mixing bowl, add your 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of white/cane sugar to the mixing bowl, and cream together your browned butter and sugar until your browned butter has cooled down.

After your butter has cooled down, add in your 3 eggs. (again, make sure that butter is cool! You don’t want scrambled eggs in your cake!)

Mix your eggs again until the mixture is nice and creamy smooth.

Add in your vanilla and milk, then mix again.

Lastly, add in all of your dry ingredients. Mix your batter until there are no lumps.

Pour your cake batter directly onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet pan (mine is a 15.5 x 10.5 inch pan, but as long as yours is close to these measurements you’ll be fine).

Put your cake into the 350 degree oven and bake for 23 minutes, until the top of the cake is a beautiful golden brown.

Take your cake out and let it cool completely before cutting it and frosting it.

How to make the caramelized frosting

Next we will make this delicious caramel buttercream filling!

First, grab that butter pan from the cake, and melt another 8 TBSP (1 stick) of butter on the stove until it’s browned — just like we did with the cake!

Once your butter has been browned, add 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 tsp of salt to the pan, and continue to cook for about 3 minutes on a LOW heat, stirring constantly.

Be VERY careful when heating sugar on the stove! This is not a good time to get distracted, and definitely not a time to let kids help in the kitchen!

Very carefully pour your brown sugar/butter mixture into your mixing bowl, and let it cool COMPLETELY.

Forget about the mixture for a while and go do something else.

If your cake has cooled completely at this point, it’s a good time to cut it up! Scroll down to skip to that step!

After your butter and brown sugar has cooled completely, use your clean fingers to break up all the hard pieces of brown sugar.

Once your butter and brown sugar is smooth, add 2 cups of powdered sugar and 5 TBSP of heavy cream to your mixing bowl, and whisk the mixture on high speed until it’s all nice and fluffy (it will be a “dense fluffy” consistency).

Cutting and assembling your cake

Now, it’s time for the fun part!

Carefully lift your cake out of the pan (leaving it on the parchment paper) and lay it down onto a flat cooking surface.

It’s a super moist cake, so move slowly while maneuvering your cake!

First, trim the edges of the entire sheet cake.

These are great for snacking, or stick them in your freezer to save for a future layered dessert.

Next, you’ll want to divide your sheet cake into 3 equal pieces.

Eyeball (or better yet, measure!) your cake and make notches on the edges of where you’d like to cut it.

Cut your first slice, pick up the cake and place it on top of the sheet cake to use as a guide for where to cut your second slice.

After cutting your second slice, carefully move your cake again onto the third section to evenly cut your last piece.

Cutting your cake this way will get you even layers!

Ice your cake right away once you’ve finished cutting it. If you’re not ready to ice it yet, unstack your cake layers, otherwise they will stick to each other and create quite a mess.

Divide your caramel buttercream filling in half, and make a cake-filling-cake-filling-cake pattern for your cake.

You can use a sieve to dust 1/2 tsp or so of powdered sugar on the top as decoration.

Cover and chill the cake in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.

Slice into 1″ slices when going to serve. It’s a rich cake — you don’t need much to enjoy it!

It’s a really delicious cake! I hope you’ll enjoy it!