Chocolate Spice Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

First and foremost - many thanks and most humble adoration to Kelly of Evil Shenanigans who dreamed this recipe up in the first place. 

I made this cake recipe for a Halloween shindig that the husband and I attended and wow ... want to be popular at a party?  Bring a recipe that features either booze or chocolate and you will become the belle of the ball.  There were two themes that I heard from the comments I received - the cloves used in this recipe are delightful.  People had a hard time putting their finger on the taste, but as soon as you said "cloves," it was an "a-HA!" moment.  (A moment - not the Norweigan pop band ...)  The second - and maybe I'm imagining this because it was my favorite part of the cake - was the brown butter frosting.  This frosting is almost a typical buttercream, but browning the butter before assembling the frosting just takes it all the way down to the goalpost.  I usually hate frosting, but I could cheerfully eat this frosting every day of my life and never fit into my pants again.

Well - maybe I won't go that far, but make this cake!  You will see that for once I am not exaggerating!

Chocolate Spice Cake with Brown Butter Frosting   
from Kelly at Evil Shenanigans

Serves 9

For the cake:

6 T. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 ounce dark (at least 64%) chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cake flour
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon all-spice
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

For the frosting:
3 tablespoons butter
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-3 tablespoons cream (**I omitted)

Heat the oven to 350 F and spray an 8″x8″ cake pan with non-stick spray.  In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until well mixed.  Add the vanilla and the egg and whisk until lighter in color and well mixed.  Stir in the melted chocolate.

In another bowl sift the flour, cocoa powder, spices, baking soda, and baking powder. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk into the butter, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sides of the cake begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Cool in the pan for ten minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cake cools prepare the frosting.

In a small pan over medium heat brown the butter until it is nut brown.  Be sure to stir the butter constantly.  Allow the butter to cool to room temperature.  Beat the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until combined.