Eggnog Cake – a browned butter spice cake with eggnog buttercream, perfect for holiday entertaining and Christmas dessert. A new layer cake recipe by our contributor, Tessa Huff.
With the holidays creeping up on us sooner and sooner each year, it can be difficult to know just when to start making and snacking on our favorite treats. Sometimes I feel like I wait all year just to indulge in daily sugar cookies a little more guilt free. But when the weather gets chilly and the days are shorter, it definitely calls for a hot mug of something creamy and a treat to warm the soul. It is just about that time, at least in my neck of the woods. So grab a snuggle buddy, your coziest sweater, and meet up by the fire for some sips and sweet eats.
The holidays bring out some of the best flavors and most festive foods, it’s hard to choose which ones to treat yourself to. I love to make holiday cookies and candies to gift to friends, but one of my favorite things to spoil myself with is eggnog. It can be so incredibly rich and creamy that indulging in a cup or two only once a year definitely gets me in the holiday spirit. For this recipe, I’ve taken the flavors and characteristics of eggnog and turned them into a luscious cake.
In this cake, layers of spice cake have been smothered in creamy eggnog filling and enrobed in silky buttercream. The browned butter adds a nutty, warm element to the classic cake and the slight tang of the cream cheese in the filling balances everything out. Since fillings and frostings can become super-sugary very quickly, this Swiss meringue buttercream is the perfect way to add rich creaminess without being too sweet. Garnish with bits of toffee candy and serve with a warm mug of eggnog.
Eggnog Cake
A browned butter spice cake with eggnog buttercream, perfect for holiday entertaining and Christmas dessert!
- Yield: One 8" Round Cake (3 layers)
- Category: ✽ ✽ ✽ ✽
Ingredients
For the Browned Butter Spice Cake:
- 3 cups cakes flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- 1 cup butter, browned and chilled
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup whole milk
For the Eggnog Buttercream Filling:
- 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 3 tablespoons eggnog
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
- 4 ounces egg whites
- 1 ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or extract
For the Assembly:
- Toffee Bits, optional
Instructions
Make the Cake:
- Melt 1 cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Swirling occasionally, continue to cook until fragrant and browned. The butter will foam up a bit and little bits of browned butter will sit at the bottom of the pan when done. Remove from heat and transfer to a heat-safe container. Chill until the consistency of softened butter.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8-inch cake pans and set aside.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.
- Place browned butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix until smooth. Add in the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Increase speed to medium-high. Continue to mix for about 3-5 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- With the mixer on medium-low, add in the eggs, one at a time. Add in vanilla. Once incorporated, stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.
- With the mixer on low, add in the flour mixture and milk in three alternating additions – starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix on medium-low for now more than 30 seconds or until combined.
- Evenly distribute the batter between the three pans. Bake for about 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean or with few crumbs. Cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes before removing the cakes from their pans.
Make the Eggnog Buttercream Filling:
- Place the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix until smooth. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the remaining ingredients until incorporated. Turn up the mixer to medium-high and mix until light and fluffy.
Make the Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
- Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Whisk to combine. Fill a medium saucepan with a few inches of water and place over medium heat. Place the mixing bowl on top of the saucepan to create a double-boiler. Whisking intermittently, heat the egg white mixture until 160 degrees on a candy thermometer.
- Once hot, transfer the mixing bowl back to the electric mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whip the egg white mixture on high for 8 to 10 minutes until the outside of the mixing bowl returns to room temperature and the egg whites are fluffy, glossy and hold a stiff peak. Stop the mixer and swap out the whisk for the paddle attachment.
- With the mixer on low, add in the remaining ingredients. Once incorporated, whip on medium until silky and smooth, about 3 to 5 minutes. The buttercream may look like it’s curdled or soupy. Keep mixing until it is completely smooth.
Assemble the Cake:
- Once the cakes are cooled, trim the tops as needed to level using a large serrated knife. Place the bottom layer of cake on a cake board or serving dish. Spread on about 1 cup of eggnog buttercream with an offset spatula. Top with the next layer of cake and repeat. Crumb coat and frost the cake with the vanilla buttercream. Create swirls using the rounded tip of an offset spatula while spinning the cake. Garnish with toffee bits, if desired.
Notes
- Best served at room temperature so that the buttercream is silky smooth.
- If serving the day that it is made, cake may be kept at room temperature. Refrigerate leftovers, loosely covered in plastic.
YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:
Eggnog Cake with Winter Buttercream Greenery
Hot Chocolate Cake
Gingerbread Cupcakes
Peppermint Red Velvet Cake
Walnut Cake
Wow, that is absolutely gorgeous! I love eggnog, this cake looks like a great use for it 🙂
Looks great!! Though I in the filling recipe, you list the butter amount as being “1/2 cup” but write “2 sticks” next to it — I think that would be 1 cup. Do you mind clarifying if it’s really 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter in the filling?
Thank you!!! I would love to make this with my homemade nog 😉 (great use for leftover eggnog too!)
Sorry for the confusion! It is 1/2 cup butter for the filling. We’ve updated the post accordingly.
Happy Baking!
Hi, love your blog. Just wondering if there is a way to print just the recipe? Thank you!
Hi Lyn – thanks for reading. Right now, we do not have a print recipe feature in place. However, it is something that will be coming in the future.
The best way to print just the recipe is to use your print preview option and select just the pages with the recipe, excluding the writeup and ads.
How is the swirl on the Eggnog cakes frosting achieved??
Apply the rounded tip of an offset spatula while spinning the cake. You’ll get those beautiful swirls!
The recipe calls for two kinds of buttercream. Do you first frost with the eggnog then put the meringue buttercream on top?
The Eggnog Buttercream Filling goes between the layers of cake, so use it when you’re stacking and assembling the cake. The Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream is used as the outside frosting.
Hope that helps!
Looks good! How come your page won’t let me copy to a document or print? I can’t carry the computer to bake in the kitchen! If you would allow a copy and paste function I could save to a document. I don’t have a printer connected. Help, please!
Hi Neal – thanks for reading. Right now, we do not have a print recipe feature in place. However, it is something that will be coming in the future.
The best way to print just the recipe is to use your print preview option and select just the pages with the recipe, excluding the writeup and ads.
I would like to try to make that egg nog cake.
Gorgeous! Wow, these photos are really stunning. I love the idea of an eggnog-flavored cake! Can’t wait to give it a try.
Hi. I was wondering does infusing the milk with the spices for the cake also work or is it better to mix them with the flour
I’m sure infusing the milk would be lovely as well.
Would the cake work with just the Eggnog Buttercream filling as icing instead of the Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream? I’m baking the cake in the shape of a Christmas tree so there won’t be layers.
Sure, that would work just fine Ria. Enjoy!
I just made this, and the meringue buttercream is a delight. I have never made it before, and it will be my new go to. Not too sweet at all. The filling would not whip up fluffy and light no matter how long I whipped it, but it tasted fine and I used just a bit between layers. The cake also came out perfect. Thank you for posting this. I put Christmas tree sprinkles around the edge – it will be perfect for Christmas Day tomorrow.
Love the idea of Christmas tree sprinkles around the edge! Thanks for the feedback Jacquie!
I am making this now and realized my pans are not 8″ but 9″!! Any suggestions on how that will change the baking time/temp?
When jumping up to a 9″ round pan, you’ll need more batter than this recipe creates. Doubling the recipe will give you a little too much for two 9″ round pans. If you go this route, just be careful not to overfill the pans as overflowing batter results in a messy oven and unevenly baked cake.
Here is a chart to help guide you with batter volumes and cake pan sizes:
https://www.wilton.com/cms-wedding-cake-data.html
Whatever size you go with, be sure to adjust your baking time accordingly. Good luck and enjoy!
This looks amazing!! Can the milk in the cake be subbed with eggnog? For extra eggnog flavor?
That does sound delicious Catherine! Since eggnog actually has some egg in it, I wouldn’t consider it a one-for-one substitution with milk.
The presentation on this cake is beautiful! Such clean and perfect lines, I love it! Also, eggnog is one of my favorites, so I’ll definitely be trying this out during the holidays!
In your recipe you ask for 1cup browned butter not 1 cup of butter browned. I had to cook down 3 sticks of butter to make just over 1 cup. Which did you mean?
The cake recipe uses one cup of butter that you brown in step #1. So you would use a total of 2 sticks of butter. Hope that clarifies for you. Enjoy!
Wow, this cake sounds absolutely delicious! And the perfectly masked sides are super satisfying to look at.
Will definitely be making this soon 🙂
Can I replace the milk with eggnog
Yes, I think eggnog would substitute just fine. Let us know how it goes! Enjoy! 🙂
When you are transferring the browned butter to a container, I am guessing you don’t want the browned bits at the bottom of the pan correct?
How many egg whites equal 4 oz of egg whites
Made this for Christmas and found it disappointing. The cake was somewhat dry and nowhere near the warm, spice colour in the pic (and yes, I browned the butter l) I almost wonder if an ingredient is missing-a little molasses maybe? The eggnog filling and Swiss meringue frosting were fine but didn’t compensate for a poor cake. A lot of effort for a blah result.
★★