Mini Brown Butter Carrot Cakes with Torched Marshmallow Frosting

Makes: 4 mini loaf cakes (3 x 6 inch cakes)

Cake:

115g unsalted butter, cubed

225g carrots, finely grated 

1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

120ml buttermilk, room temperature

180g all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp allspice

¼ tsp cloves

¼ tsp black pepper

⅛ tsp cardamom

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp kosher salt

2 large eggs, room temp 

100g granulated sugar

90g brown sugar

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Edible dried flowers, for decorating 

Frosting: 

3 large egg whites

150g granulated sugar

¼ tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp kosher salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and flour a mini loaf cake pan.

2. Add cubed butter to a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until butter melts and becomes foamy. Once the foam dies down slightly and the butter starts to smell nutty, remove the pan from the heat and pour into a bowl to cool. Set aside.

3. Combine carrots, ginger and buttermilk in a medium bowl.

4. Whisk flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer), beat eggs together with both sugars and vanilla extract until pale and thick, about 4 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and then slowly stream in the brown butter.

6. With a rubber spatula, fold in roughly a third of the dry ingredients followed by half of the carrot-buttermilk mixture. Repeat this again, finishing with the last third of the dry ingredients. Mix just until no streaks of flour remain.

7. Pour batter evenly into the prepared pan (it took me about 3 scoops per cake with a large cookie scoop) and spread it out evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

8. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the cakes cool for 10 minutes. Then flip the cake pan onto a wire rack (so that the cakes are upside down) and let cakes continue to cool.

9. To prepare frosting, whisk together egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a pot of simmering (not boiling) water. Gently heat the egg whites, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches 160°F.

10. Remove from the heat and beat the egg whites on high until you reach stiff, glossy peaks. Add vanilla and salt.

11. Pipe frosting on top of cakes, torch it and finish with edible dried flowers.