This White Chocolate Loaf Cake delivers amazing flavour! The brown butter sponge is loaded with white chocolate and toasted pecans. The perfect slice with a cup of tea!
If you’re looking for a super moist chocolate loaf cake to make, largely with pantry staples, you’ve come to the right place. This loaf recipe is adapted from Yossy Arefi’s recipe for Browned Butter, Pecan, and White Chocolate Cake which can be found in her book Snacking Cakes: Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings. You can find my review of the book here.
Just as the book name implies, this recipe is simple and perfect as a daytime snack or dressed up for an after-dinner treat. You can easily play around with the add-ins you use as well.
While you can bake this cake in any baking tin shape you prefer, I always make it in a loaf tin. The top and sides of the cake will become crispy, which is a wonderful contrast with the moist crumb inside.
What You’ll Need to Make this Recipe
One 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf tin
Unsalted butter
Light brown sugar
Plain Greek yogurt
Pure vanilla extract
Nutmeg
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Baking soda
Toasted pecans, sliced almonds, and walnuts
Toasted sweetened coconut
White chocolate bar
How to Make this Recipe
- Preheat your oven and prepare your pan.
- Brown the butter over medium heat until it is golden brown and you see brown bits on the bottom of your pan.
- Whisk the sugar and eggs together with the butter until smooth.
- Add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan, sprinkle over some more nuts and white chocolate and pop into the oven to bake for 45 minutes.
Tips for Making this White Chocolate Loaf Bread
- Toasting the nuts and coconut will bring out their flavour. Place the nuts and coconut into a dry pan and heat over medium heat. Your nuts will be ready once you can smell them (about 5 – 10 minutes). Be careful to keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.
- Make sure you brown your butter in a light-coloured pot. You want to be able to see how dark your butter is getting.
- Use full fat or whole milk yogurt for your loaf. If you use non-fat or low-fat yogurt, your crumb may turn out dry.
- Storage: this cake will keep for up to 5 days at room temperature, stored in an airtight container.
Julianne’s Notes
When you brown butter, you are essentially cooking the milk solids. The butter will melt and then you’ll notice that it will start to sputter and spit. This is a good sign! Continue to keep an eye on your butter at this stage, as you don’t want the milk solids to burn. Occasionally scrape up the browned bits forming on the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. The butter will start to give off a warm, nutty smell and turn a golden brown colour. It is at this stage that you will remove the pot from the heat and pour your butter into a large mixing bowl to cool slightly.
What is a substitute for white chocolate?
If you don’t have any white chocolate at home, or you’re just not a fan, you can swap it out with milk chocolate in this recipe. It also wouldn’t be amiss to use semi-sweet or dark chocolate as well. You could also omit the chocolate all together.
Toasting nuts brings out a rich earthy flavour and gives them an even crispier crunch. While it isn’t necessary to toast the nuts here, I suggest you give it a go.
You can toast nuts in one of two ways: either in a dry pan over medium heat or in a moderate oven on a cookie sheet. With both ways, you are toasting the nuts only until they start release a rich aroma – usually after 5 – 10 minutes. You’ll want to keep an eye on the nuts as you’re toasting them as they can very easily tip over from perfectly brown to disastrously burnt within a minute or tow.
Check out these other simple cake recipes:
Share your baking!
If you make this cake loaf recipe, be sure to leave a comment. I love hearing from you! Also, if you make this recipe, I’d love for you to share your photos on Instagram. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #bakersbookshelf.
This browned butter and white chocolate loaf cake will satisfy your sweet cravings anytime!
White Chocolate Loaf Cake
Equipment
- 9 x 5 x 3 inch cake loaf tin
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter (113g)
- ¾ cup light brown sugar (150g)
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup plain Greek Yogurt (or whole-milk) (165g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- pinch nutmeg
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (160g)
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup toasted nuts (pecans, walnuts, sliced almonds) (75g)
- ¼ cup toasted sweetened coconut (24g)
- ½ cup white chocolate bar, chopped (85g)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F (190 C)and prepare your cake loaf tin by spraying with cooking spray (or greasing with butter) and lining it with parchment paper. Make sure to leave an overhang of paper on two sides, so you can easily remove the loaf later.
- Toast the nuts in a dry pan over medium heat for 5 – 10 minutes until browned and giving off a warm nutty aroma. Set aside.
- Brown the butter in a small, light coloured pot over medium heat. Constantly stir the butter and keep a close eye on it. You are looking for a golden colour and nutty smell. This should take about 5 minutes (see Julianne’s Notes in post). Pour the butter into a large mixing bowl and let cool for a few minutes.
- Pour in the light brown sugar and eggs and whisk until everything is smooth and emulsified. Add in the yogurt, vanilla, salt, and nutmeg and whisk everything until smooth.
- Add in the flour, baking powder and baking soda and whisk until smooth.
- Sprinkle in but ¼ cup of toasted nuts and chocolate, and all of the coconut, and stir with a wooden spoon until everything is combined.
- Pour the batter into the loaf tin and top with the remaining toasted nuts and white chocolate.
- Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let your cake loaf rest for 15 minutes on a cooling rack and then remove it from the tin to continue cooling.
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