brown butter bourbon spice cakelets
Brown butter bourbon spice cakelets make the perfect fall dessert!
With fall still clinging to the air and fiery leaves scattered beneath the trees, now is the time to bake up leaf, acorn, and pumpkin cakelets for a fine addition to any autumn feast!
Fragrant with nutty brown butter and warming spice, these tender cakelets are sweet and perfectly spiced. Dipped in bourbon-cinnamon glaze, there’s simply no better finish to a chilly fall day than a scrumptious mini cake.
Brown Butter Bourbon Spice Cakelets
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 cakelets
Ingredients
Cakelets
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk, at room temperature
- 2 Tbsp bourbon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Glaze
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp bourbon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour a 3-cup cakelet pan. Cook butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until it foams, turns clear, and then turns a deep brown, about 6 minutes. Pour brown butter into a glass measuring cup and let cool slightly.
- Whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Pour cooled brown butter into a medium bowl and whisk in brown sugar, egg, egg yolk, buttermilk, bourbon, and vanilla until smooth. Add to flour mixture and fold in until combined.
- Fill each cavity 2/3 full and tap pan sharply to remove air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes, until cakelets are golden, spring back to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cakelets in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting onto rack to cool completely.
- For the glaze, whisk together melted butter, powdered sugar, cinnamon, salt, bourbon, vanilla, and milk in a small bowl. Set rack with cakelets over a piece of wax paper. Dip cakelet tops into glaze and let set on rack before serving.
Notes
Autumn Treats Cakelet Pan available here. Alternatively, pour batter into 3 mini (5 3/4″ x 3 3/4″) loaf pans and bake on a preheated baking sheet for approximately 30 to 32 minutes.
Nutrition
- Calories: 310
- Carbohydrates: 54
Keywords: Brown Butter, Bourbon, Spice Cake
More fall cake recipes to try:
Brown Butter Pumpkin Spice Cakes
Apple Praline Bundt Cake
Apple Cider Bundt Cake
53 comments
Helping my dad carve the turkey
Your cakelets turned out perfect and tasty flavor combination, Laura. Tasty glaze w/the cinnamon and bourbon. Love that pan…I have a similar one also by Nordic thru WS. 🙂 I need to use it! I’m going to start with your recipe for these adorable brown-butter bourbon spice cakelets!
My famous Carrot Cake
My children’s great grandfather carving the turkey…..
My son was just born in September and it was a wonderful reason to give thanks.
Congratulations, Laurel! This will be such a special Thanksgiving for you! ????
Indeed it will. Thank you so much!
As a Mom of four (now ages 18-34), I’d say my favorite memory was of watching my kids enjoy pumpkin pie with whipped cream–for the first time–at Grandma’s (my Mom) house. Sure wish we could still go to my folks’ home for the holidays.
These are so fabulous! I’ve seen that pan and lusted over it!
When I was young at least 20 people came to our home on Turkey Day and my mom also delivered plates to at least 10 shut-ins. Mama prepared ALL the food including cakes, pies and cookies.
I love that, such a special way to spend Thanksgiving! ❤️
They are so cute to eat! >.<
My family always made Korean rice cake at the day before Thanksgiving and ate them at Thanksgiving day. Eat, talk, eat, talk….all day. 🙂
Oh my goodness Laura, these sound wonderful! That bourbon glaze and the combination of those warm spices!! Such a treat!
My favorite Thanksgiving memory will always be making a turkey sandwich hours after our big dinner and splitting it with my Dad. He would always say he was still full from dinner, but then he’d see me walk into the family room with it, always on rye bread with chips and a pickle, and he’d say, wow that looks good! And I’d say, that’s why one half’s for me and one half’s for you Dad. He’d say the same thing every year and we’d always split it!
Such a sweet memory, Mary Ann! ❤️
These look so delicious Laura and they are so cute. Love beurre noisette, it’s delicious.
The first Thanksgiving I made! Everything turned out great!
My favorite Thanksgiving memory is learning to make pie with my mom. I inherited the baking gene from her!
There’s no better gene than the baking gene! ????
My dear mother never really liked cooking, but she threw a great Thanksgiving meal for nearly 20 people every year. I was allowed to help her in the kitchen, and although I don’t remember a whole lot of things, I well remember stuffing celery with cream cheese (fancy!), and stirring the big bowl of bread cubes and Bell’s seasoning that was the base for her fabulous stuffing. Thinking back on it now is bringing a tear to my eye. I miss her so much.
Such a sweet memory, Anne! Those times in the kitchen are so special. ❤️
My favorite memory of Thanksgiving is the time spent cooking with my sister for the family. How accomplished we were!
When I was a little girl we had Thanksgiving with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins, a total of 4 adults and 13 kids between our 2 families. There was always so much food, but my favorite was the mini pies my aunt made which were baked in muffin tins, and filled with blueberry or cherry pie filling, topped with whipped cream. It was a rare and special treat.
My favorite Thanksgiving memory was when I made cranberry sauce from scratch. It was that side dish that forever changed my love of scratch cooking. I couldn’t believe the difference between it and the canned stuff!
When I was young the whole family would go to my grandma’s for all the holidays. These early holidays are still the best ones.
YUUUUUMMMM!!! These just couldn’t sound better!
Love these! Love the pan! Love Thanksgiving family football ????
These cakelets are adorable!!! Perfect for our Thanksgiving Day dessert buffet!! One of my favorite memories is when my parents were visiting and Bill was regaling us with stories from med school—I’ve never laughed so hard!
These cakelets are so lovely! Festive and fun and perfect for fall. I love that spiced glaze too, perfect addition!
pretty sure it’s going to be this year…we’re announcing my pregnancy! :):):)
Congratulations Grace! Such an exciting time and this is sure to be a memorable Thanksgiving ????
how sweet are these cakes? and that glaze! my favorite memories are always in the kitchen the day before. listening to music, prepping, setting the table and preparing for my family’s arrival. sometimes the anticipation of the holiday is my favorite part!
I agree, getting ready for the holidays is my favorite part too. ❤️
My family is small and Thanksgiving hasn’t usually been a big deal for us. My favorite memory is the year my mom and I did Thanksgiving, just the two of us, and shared a Cornish hen instead of a turkey, complete with stuffing, cranberry sauce, and the like!
omg these are too cute!!!! My favorite Thanksgiving memories are cooking my grandmother’s recipes with my mother. So meaningful to feel their connection and forge one with a wonderful woman I never got to meet through the power of cooking! Thanks!
That’s so sweet, family recipes are the best! 🙂
This looks so yummy!!! My favorite thanksgiving memory is when my family and I stayed in a cabin with some close family friends and we had thanksgiving dinner together, even though we had to make some of the food by microwave because our stove wasn’t working.
These are so darn cute!! I just love everything about holidays but love the cooking part and feeding family!
turkey trot
Baking with my mom is one of my favorite parts of the holidays.
Bringing my first born home from the hospital. My mom cooked and I snuggled with my baby.
Absolutely perfect little cakes and you’ve reminded me that I own one of these pans that I must bake some of these up asap 🙂
Getting together with all of my family on my Dad’s side he has a big Italian family and playing games with all of my cousins, Aunts, Uncles and the most wonderful Grandma.
These sounds wonderful and I know the aroma of them baking must be amazing!
These are soo gorgeous, Laura. Adore the shapes of these cakelets! <3
My favorite Thanksgiving memory is when my fiance came for the first time to be with me and my family:) Happy times! I can’t wait to do it again this year!
Crowding around grandma’s table in her tiny house, wondering how she was able to prepare all of that food!
Breaking the wishbone!
My favorite Thanksgiving memory is last year when I had my parents over to my house and made homemade pizza!
My favorite is when my great grand mother use to come out of town and make her biscuits
The kids always played bumper pool after Thanksgiving meal. I have many memories playing with my cousins with oldies music playing and stuffing ourselves till it hurt! For some reason, I always had the lemon meringue pie…there where so many desserts and I always wanted that no matter what season. Whenever I think of bumper pool, it reminds me of lemons!
My most cherished Thanksgiving memories are from when my grandmother was living and hosting the dayat her house. We are a large family but she was always adamant that we all sit around one table to share the meal, so we would put big sheets of plywood and a table cloth over the pool table in the basement. As a kid, it was fun and quirky to sit around such a huge table with aunts, uncles, and cousins all together.
We always used to go to a family members house for Thanksgiving and my favorite was when we went to San Antonio.
I love anything mini and these cakelets are super duper cute! 🙂 I love the flavoring ofcourse, and that there is bourbon in there 😉 Yummy!