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typinggently · 2 years

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bestie give us that feral bruce content please, we are starving

Starving? Oh no! in that case, may I interest you in—

Feral Bruce’s Favourite Meals

Champagne and baked potatoes with pink sea salt. That’s Brucie’s favourite meal, as it happens, so every gala, party, club, Vernissage, fashion show he’s invited to will make sure to have some freshly baked potatoes at hand. Now, it’s very rare that you’ll catch Bruce eat more than one, but it surely doesn’t hurt to get these famished, drunk, glamorous masses something to eat.

Miso soup. Best enjoyed while still suited up, leaning against the gleaming door of the batmobile. It warms you right up, it's homely, it's so tasty. It also happens to be the only thing the League ever sees him eat (cowled shadow with his cape melting into the dark corner of the wall, slurping soup. Tip of the mask all wet), so it quickly becomes known as The Bat's favourite food in their circle.

Green tea jasmine and Ink. A meal that might be sophisticated at 2pm, but when it’s 11pm and Bruce still hasn’t consumed anything but 4litres of more or less healthy caffeine and 2.7 biographies on Ivan the Terrible, Alfred might have to step in and offer a plate of apple slices.

A plate of apple slices. Great entree and a fantastic way to realise that you haven’t eaten in — how many hours has it been? At this point, Bruce will most likely be agreeable and consume some solid food. He might consume it with little elegance, but Alfred’s not too picky.

Bananas. Bruce is a fruit bat either way, but bananas are his favourite. Banana shake with almond milk and the ungodly amount of vitamins, pills and powders he consumes. Banana split as a little treat when Clark is visiting (who always worries about how cold Bruce's hands get, which leads to handholding, which leads to butterfly kisses, which leads to no work getting done). Dried banana chips as a splash of colour in his all-black ensembles while out on the town.

Black coffee and porridge. Of course, Alfred is perfectly aware of Bruce's strict meal plans and erratic general behaviour, so he's learned to adapt (see the apple slices). But now and then, a well-meaning butler has to put his foot down and Alfred has his opinions on shake-based breakfasts. Either way, the point is this: his porridge is absolute heaven. Bruce has never had porridge this good, no matter how many times he tries, and honestly, one reason that he's always mindful to keep his trips away from Gotham shorter than a week might be because he goes into serious Alfred-porridge-withrawal. (the secret ingredient is love of course. and a special kind of honey)

A kitchen and Clark. It doesn’t really matter which kitchen and the other ingredients aren’t all that important, either, as long as the Clark part is fulfilled. Soft boiled eggs and whole-wheat toast with butter on honey-slow mornings at the farm. Tomato soup on foggy afternoons in Gotham. Mulled wine and baked apples after the stroll they take on the mechanical wonderland installation(sponsered by LexCorp) in Metropolis (it's for a job, but, you know. They can hold hands a little. it's called multitasking).

Oh YOU know ;)

#feral bruce hours #Battinson #superbat #Bruce Wayne #this got so long but ahhh I missed my boy <3 #thanks bby <3 #ask

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justjessame · 4 years

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A Reluctant Hero Chapter 12

JD left after accepting the job that came in as soon as he turned his phone back on, but not before yanking me to him and kissing me thoroughly. A tiny nip to my bottom lip, the dark hungry look still in his eyes, promising me he’d see me soon, he was gone. I shook my head and swallowed down the rush of lust that he’d created with a single fucking kiss, and tried to decide if food or work would be my first course of action.

Kelsey found me in the kitchen, having seen her dad leaving she decided to come see if I was still capable of speech, or movement, I thought as I caught her smirking. “What?” I asked, pulling out the ingredients for French toast. “Hungry?”

“Looks like Dad had you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” she offered, her smirk growing into a full blown smile. “Seriously, you have a little-” she gestured to her own neck and I felt my eyes widen. He hadn’t.

I turned my head and tossed my hair back as I studied my neck in the reflection of the microwave glass door, and sure enough, a bite mark. Shit. I groaned and then glared when she laughed. “Not funny, Kelsey.” I pulled my hair back down, but then sighed as I looked at the ingredients in front of me. Hair hanging meant a greater chance of eating said hair by accident, fuck. I sighed and pulled it back and twisted it into a knot as I pulled open the junk drawer and grabbed a hair tie. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice that he-” I was muttering, trying to flip through ALL the times we came together and remember the feeling of him BITING me, but nothing came. Nothing other than the flush caused by how good every time he touched me felt. Or the images of his body, naked and glistening with sweat as it hovered over mine. Fuck.

“You just went red, pale, and then let out a gasp,” she offered from the stool she was studying me from. “You want me to leave you alone to take care of whatever caused all that?”

I shot her another look and picked up the first egg. Cracking it with more force than necessary, I ignored her. Eggs, cinnamon, a hint of cream, vanilla, then thick slices of bread before adding each to the lightly buttered pan. “Grab the powdered sugar, syrup, and I think there’s some whipped cream in the fridge-”

“You didn’t use that with-” I groaned out loud at the very idea that my best friend kept mentioning the sex she was insinuating I’d had with her own father. “Joking, Ani, God get a grip.”

“Let’s never, ever, ever discuss YOUR dad and me-”

“Screwing like rabbits?” She offered, which earned her another sharp look. “Fine, but I’m your closest friend, so if not me, then who?”

JD called a few hours after Kelsey had tortured me to her heart’s content. He was elbows deep in a case, but he wanted to hear my voice. After reminding me of all the ways he liked to hear my voice, he sighed and said he had to go. My answering sigh was met with a low chuckle and he promised me that he was just as eager to see and hear me in person as soon as possible.

I had gone back to my desk, listening to the voicemails from the calls I’d missed while we were ‘occupied’, I rolled my eyes at Roger’s insistence that he wanted to speak to me again. Hearing my dad sound irritated that Pandi was down, and that I’d closed the loopholes for him to backdoor his way into the AI’s system. I knew I’d have to call him back, but work called to me.

Getting lost in the story I’d been working on, I ignored the reminder that Roger had shown up at my house AGAIN while JD and I were locked in our own bubble. I took heart in knowing that he hadn’t been able to breach my security, but it was annoying regardless. Pandi broke through as I fell into a world of my own creation, telling me that once again, Roger was on my doorstep.

Asking for the intercom, I kept typing as I spoke. “If you don’t remove your lying, cheating ass from my property, Roger, I will be forced to electrify the door, the porch, and the fucking pathway. While seeing you flail around as current flows through your sorry ass would amuse me, I hear the paperwork for such shit is enormous and a pain in the ass to fill out, so kindly fuck off.”

“Ani, come on, you know that you can’t throw away what we had.” He was pleading, while trying to make it sound seductive and alluring. I snorted. “Do you really think that JD Richter, hero at large, is gonna be happy with you after screwing a hybrid astronaut?” Nice, first try to remind me of how ‘good’ we had it, then insult me. “I mean, have you SEEN Molly Woods?” Even better, show that you’d fuck her, you more moron.

“Roger, what we had was at best temporary insanity for me, at worst it showed how fucking desperate I was for sex with something not battery powered.” Take that, you tasteless prick. “As for JD and his past? I have seen Molly Woods, and he and I have talked about her.” Again, what did he think, I just randomly hump hot men? “He seemed pretty fucking happy after we spent almost 24 hours locked in MY house, which again, I want you to walk away from. This is your last warning, Roger. Leave now, never darken my fucking door again, or ZAP.” I hadn’t stopped writing, multitasking wasn’t only something JD excelled in.

“Fine, but don’t call me when your little rebound implodes.” I truly snorted so hard I had to stop typing. Shit, honestly? “I mean it, I’m moving on-”

“With the coed?” I offered, through giggles that the snort had turned into. “Great, let me know where you register. I won’t buy you a wedding gift, but fuck if I won’t laugh at the teething toys she picks out for playtime.” With that parting shot, I told Pandi to turn off the intercom, but watched the camera to make sure he flounced off, and hoped that he’d go asshole over head again so I could keep the good times rolling. Sadly he didn’t fall down, he shot the camera a glare and then walked calmly to his car. I sighed and wondered if he would stay fucking gone this time.

I answered my dad’s call as I was making breakfast the next morning. I could hear his frustration in just the ringing of the phone, but the heaviness of it in his tone caused another eye roll.

“Dad,” I cut him off before he could gain steam at how irresponsible it was to ignore the world, meaning him clearly, for whatever idiotic reason I could have had. “I wanted, no I needed, time alone.” With JD, and his naked body, and fuck, where was I? “I don’t know what the big deal is, we used to ‘unplug’ every weekend when we went camping.”

“Yes, but then I had you in my sight and I could keep you-” I heard him huff an exaggerated sigh. “Anilea, you have to understand that you’re my little girl. No matter how old you get, no matter how independent you are, you’re still my daughter.”

“I understand that,” I sat down with my full breakfast and put him on speakerphone. “But you have to get that I AM an adult, Dad. Putting surveillance software on my AI, or GPS trackers on my car, or any of the other ‘protective’ measures you want to take is stifling. Trust that you raised me to be careful, please?”

“Roger-” he started, and I groaned. “You have to admit, Ani, he’s not the first in a long line of assholes that took advantage of you. He lived in your house, ate food you bought and prepared, paid no bills, and I’d bet money that you even bought him things he mentioned he liked.” So? I like to give people gifts, and what better gifts than things I knew they wanted? “I’m not saying you shouldn’t be generous. Kelsey is a case in point, she’s good people.” He’d met Kelsey during one of his visits to the house and took to her immediately. “But men? You have a bad track record. Think of Jason-”

“I’d rather never think of Jason, Dad.” The fling, if you could call it that, that had made me blush when JD asked for more information about my past indiscretions. “Besides, that didn’t go that-”

“He had my name forged on the marriage license, Ani.” I shut my eyes at the memory of Jason Sallinger. A lab tech that worked under my dad, but was nearer his age than mine. Attractive, and predatory, I hadn’t known at sixteen men like him existed. At least not in my world. “If I hadn’t realized what was happening, I can’t even think of what would have happened.” We’d learned, as the police investigated Jason, that I wasn’t his first attempt at the con. And at least one of his past paramours was missing and had never been heard of after they eloped.

“You know that I’m more careful, Dad.” Now, I thought, I didn’t let anyone really know how deep my pockets were. How fast the wealth was that I’d earned through my own creativity, and through my inheritance from Mom. “Roger has no idea how much I’m worth.”

Dad sighed again. “Your house alone paints a picture, Ani. Your two vehicles, the trips you take that aren’t promotion related. And the books? For fuck’s sake, sweetie, you’re on every talk show every time another one is released. He knew enough. It’s why he can’t let go, or at least-”

“He showed up while the system was locked down.” Dad’s end went completely silent. “And he showed up a few hours after it went back up. I told him I planned on shocking him, literally, if he shows up again.”

“Ani, let me send the man I use to-” He took a deep breath and I could almost see him preparing to admit something he knew I’d find irritating. “Help keep you safe. He can check to be sure that Roger doesn’t have his own shit in place to watch you.”

I didn’t consider that Roger would do anything like that, but in a flash I realized that he might. Maybe not before I caught him, but now? Now he seemed desperate to keep me. I reluctantly agreed to his offer. Adding that I’d want this man to remove anything he found, which Dad said was the entire point, of course.

He promised to come with the man, hopefully later in the day, and I told him I’d make us an early dinner.

“Get the Scrabble board out,” he demanded, and I smiled. “It’s been too long since I trounced you at wordplay.”

“Good luck, old man,” I challenged, and hung up grinning from the return to normalcy.

Dad was true to his word, and with Kelsey beside me, we watched the two men, the stranger holding a device of some sort in his hand go inch by inch around the exterior of my house. Then, even though I protested that there wasn’t any way that Roger had planted anything in my house, they did a repeat performance to the interior. I was shocked when they found a few tiny gadgets inside to add to the small group they’d uncovered outside.

“This,” Dad told me as he held up one of them, “is MY GPS tracker from your car.” Nodding to show my understanding, he went on. “It’s going back on, Ani, because there were two others in the same car.” Wait, TWO? “One is no doubt Rogers, but the other one? Either he’s idiotic enough to double up, or someone else put it there.”

“I’d think it was him,” the other man offered. “There were two of everything we found. Close enough to make me think that he was using two simply to make sure he had a backup in case one failed.” He shook his head at the stupidity. “He’s not a rocket scientist, is he?”

“He teaches poetry,” Kelsey offered, bringing Dad and his friend lemonade. “So, no, not a rocket scientist, and he also has the most pedantic ideas about Longfellow.” I shook my own head at her irritation with Roger’s opinions on poetry.

The other devices were for sound, which means that he had probably heard JD and I from the first visit he made to my house and most definitely the sounds of our lovemaking. Good, I thought, suck on that. I invited the security man, whose name he reminded me was Kelvin to dinner, but he declined.

“My wife made reservations for tonight.” I smiled and walked him to the door. “I put your dad’s tracker back on your car. Both of them are being tracked, and I’d advise you to keep them on. This ex of yours, he doesn’t sound all that stable, but even if he is it’s safer.” I agreed and thanked him for his time. “Don’t mention it. Just stay safe.”

“I’ll try,” I started to shut the door, but he stopped me.

“JD is a good guy,” my eyes widened and he grinned at me. “Your dad filled me in. I know him, and he’s a good one. If you’re with him, you’re safe.” Then he said goodbye and I finally closed the door.

Dad had invited Kelsey to dinner, like she needed an invite, and the three of us ate and then gathered around the Scrabble board I’d set up on the opposite end of the dining room table. I was laughing as the two of them argued about the validity of a word when Pandi informed us that we had a guest. Dad looked at me with shrewdness as I told it to let him in, and then as I sat at a table with my dad and Kelsey, JD walked in to meet my father for the first time.

#JD Richter x OFC #mention of smut #Extant #After the Series

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parentstalks · 5 years

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Tips for Losing weight after pregnancy

You should plan to return to your pre-pregnancy weight by 6 to 12 months after delivery. Most women lose half of their baby weight by 6 weeks after childbirth (postpartum). The rest most often comes off over the next several months.

A healthy diet with daily exercise will help you shed the pounds. Breastfeeding can also help with postpartum weight loss.

Take Your Time

Your body needs time to recover from childbirth. If you lose weight too soon after childbirth, it can take longer for you to recover. Give yourself until your 6-week checkup before trying to slim down. If you are breastfeeding, wait until your baby is at least 2 months old and your milk supply has normalized before drastically cutting calories.

Aim for a weight loss of about a pound and a half a week. You can do this by eating healthy foods and adding in exercise once you are cleared by your health care provider for regular physical activity.

Women who are exclusively breastfeeding need about 500 more calories per day than they did before pregnancy. Get these calories from healthy choices such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and lean protein.

DO NOT drop below the minimum number of calories you need.

Breastfeeding

If you are breastfeeding, you will want to lose weight slowly. Weight loss that happens too fast can make you produce less milk. Losing about a pound and a half (670 grams) a week should not affect your milk supply or your health.

Breastfeeding makes your body burn calories which helps you lose weight. If you are patient, you may be surprised at how much weight you lose naturally while breastfeeding.

Eat to Lose Weight

These healthy eating tips will help you lose weight safely.

DO NOT skip meals. With a new baby, many new moms forget to eat. If you do not eat, you will have less energy, and it will not help you lose weight.

Eat 5 to 6 small meals a day with healthy snacks in between (rather than 3 larger meals).

Eat breakfast. Even if you do not normally eat in the mornings, get into the habit of having breakfast. It will give you energy to start your day and stop you from feeling tired later.

Slow down. When you take your time eating, you will notice that it is easier to tell that you are full. It is tempting to multitask, but if you focus on your meal you will be less likely to overeat.

Choose nonfat or low-fat dairy products.

When you reach for a snack try to include foods with fiber and protein to help keep you full (such as raw bell pepper or carrot with bean dip, apple slices with peanut butter, or a slice of whole-wheat toast with hard-boiled egg). Drink at least 12 cups of fluid a day.

Keep a water bottle near the spot where you usually feed the baby, that way you'll remember to drink when they do.

Limit drinks like sodas, juices, and other fluids with added sugar and calories. They can add up and keep you from losing weight.

Choose broiled or baked rather than fried foods.

Limit sweets, sugar, saturated fat and trans fats.

Do Not Crash and Burn

DO NOT go on a crash diet (not eating enough) or a fad diet (popular diets that limit certain types of foods and nutrients). They will probably make you drop pounds at first, but those first few pounds you lose are fluid and will come back.

Other pounds you lose on a crash diet may be muscle instead of fat. You will gain back any fat you lose on a crash diet once you return to normal eating.

Be Realistic

You may not be able to return to your exact pre-pregnancy shape. For many women, pregnancy causes lasting changes in the body. You may have a softer belly, wider hips, and a larger waistline. Make your goals about your new body realistic.

Exercise

A healthy diet combined with regular exercise is the best way to shed the pounds. Exercise will help you lose fat instead of muscle.

Once you are ready to start losing weight, eat a little less and move a little more each day. It may be tempting to push yourself into a hard routine for fast weight loss. But rapid weight loss is not healthy and is hard on your body.

DO NOT overdo it. Just a quick walk around the block with your baby in the stroller is a great way to start adding exercise to your daily routine.

#pregnancy #parenting #ParentsTalks Babies Toddlers

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waldenweave · 5 years

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This past weekend was full of unexpected things. I did not know there were going to be house guests, but breakfast out was really nice! We went to a local café on a farm down the road from us. The building is a strawbale construction, a simple design, with rustic decor. The food is tasty and plentiful. And the owners know my friends (of course). During the course of chatting with the owners, I happened to look out one of the side windows and noticed a walnut tree laden with nuts, so at an appropriate moment in the conversation, I changed topics and asked about their tree. Would it be possible to collect some of the walnuts I had seen on the ground? I wanted to make a dye. Of course! was the answer. The one tree I had seen turned out to be part of four trees. I was given a small paper bag and after we’d finished, I went outside and around the corner to the walnuts. And lo! there I saw so many walnuts. In fact, I’d never seen so many walnuts, and I wanted all of them. However, not knowing how many I’d actually need to making dye, I happily filled my paper bag and asked if I could come back if I needed more. The owners were more than happy to oblige. I can come get as many as I like. Woohoo!

(Sadly, I did not get a picture of the trees.)

I counted them – about 60. But I had to toss a few that ended up being full of worms.

I must say, black walnuts smell delightful. The hulls have a sort of earthy citrusy fragrance that makes me so happy. I can’t quite adequately explain it.

The hulls will also stain your hands brown like crazy. We got home, and I put the rest of my day’s plans aside for a few hours so I could peel the hulls from the nuts – the hulls are used for making dye. The shells are too, but if I’m going to use the shells, I want to save the nutmeats, so I spent time separating everything into two buckets.

Nuts in the left bucket. Hulls in the right.

Most of the instructions I found online made it seem like getting the nut out of the hull was really hard and that I needed to drive over them, whack them with the claw of a hammer, or find a mallet and whack them until they yielded the nut. None of that was necessary. I got a steak knife and just ran the blade around each walnut, neatly dividing the hull into two hemispheres. Then a twist released one hemisphere, and if it didn’t, then one more cut to divide a hemisphere in two did the trick. It was a bit reminiscent of pitting all those peaches I canned a while ago.

So, the staining. Because black walnut hulls have so much tannin in them, they stain things pretty permanently – the tannin is the mordant. Cloth, skin, any natural fiber…brown. All the sources I found online told me to wear heavy rubber gloves. I didn’t have any, but I did have some disposable food service gloves at hand.

Yeah. So, all this brown? Still got through, and my forefinger and thumb are a bit brown.

I got them all hulled! But what to do with them then? Most instructions say to simmer them for an hour or so, but I do not want to have an accident in the house and stain the kitchen. It is not my kitchen after all. So, I’m trying what I think is a far more likely historical recipe (even though I have no proof at all): I’m soaking the hulls in that bucket in water for a couple of weeks. Then I’ll strain everything and maybe might see if I can find an outdoor cooking arrangement so I can simmer it and kill any mold that might have formed. Or not. Maybe I’ll put some in quart sized mason jars for later.

This dye is also apparently an excellent wood stain! I loves me a multitasking thing I can make! So, after a little experimentation with some wood scraps and some research, I may do any final prep and put some in jars for my woodworking friends. (And I am filing this knowledge away for later when I want to build bookcases for whatever house I end up with!)

I’ve got a couple of white skeins of two ply yarn I’ve spun – one skein I really have to run through the wheel again to give it some extra twist. And I have so much more white (Down breeds blend) that could be dyed with local black walnut dye handmade by me. The dyeing process itself is apparently super easy. You simply put the yarn or cloth in the dye and leave it there until it’s brown. If simmering it, I think you simmer for something like 30 mins to 1 hour. I will likely try just soaking it for a day and see what happens. (I do have to look into some sort of outdoor cooking equipment, though…)

I was also thinking of dyeing some bamboo rayon yarn and/or cotton yarn for weaving cloth or towels or something. Because why not?

But, don’t you need more walnuts for dyeing all that stuff? I hear you ask. It turns out, everyone seems to agree that you only need 12-15 walnuts per gallon of water. For just the hulls. So I have 4 gallons of the stuff. That’s a LOT of dye. Even 2 gallons is a lot if some of the water is supposed to be lost in cooking it. I am planning on also getting the shells, which apparently yield a darker brown. (Of course, that may not work, but I will try.)

I filled up the bucket with the hulls with water. I’ve set it in the garage with a piece of wood on top to soak for a while. The bucket with the nuts got filled with water, and I started scrubbing the remaining hull gunk off. I had read that the gunk could rot and mold and make a mess, but most importantly, it would dye your hands dark brown. I don’t feel like walking around with dark brown hands and having to explain that I have been playing with dye everywhere I go, so I elected to scrub. The two floaters were thrown away – I suspect if they float, there’s probably a problem with them.

I got about half scrubbed before I ran out of time and energy. So I drained out the water, put a tiny bit in so the ones that were left were only barely covered, and set those in the garage too to wait until I have some time to resume scrubbing. I’m hoping the soak will help to soften up the remaining gunk.

The real work to this project is going to be actually cracking the nuts. A quick read about black walnuts online seems to show that I’ll need to use a vice as a regular nut cracker will not do it at all. Woo.

Excuse the messy counter – my first attempt at waffle production!

I also found an as-yet-unused, brand-new-in-the-box, three-year-old electric waffle iron in the house! Of course I tried making waffles. This is the first time I’ve tried making waffles. It was an adventure.

I thought I’d double the recipe, because ultimately, I wanted waffles in the freezer that could be toasted in the toaster for near-instant waffle goodness. But then I accidentally put in twice the amount of butter for a doubled recipe, which meant I either had to throw everything away and start over, or end up with a quadrupled recipe. I went for the quadrupaling.

We have a LOT of waffles in the freezer. The house guests tried the waffles the next morning in the toaster, and declared them delicious. Successful experiment! I think the recipe needs tweaking – it needs a little sugar, and the optional cornmeal actually sounds good, so I might try that. And they were a little dense, probably because I didn’t whisk the egg whites nearly has much as the recipe said I ought, so maybe I’ll try that next, but with some cream of tartar to help things along a bit. So many tweaks. Or I could try another recipe.

In weaving news, I have a crazy idea involving 60/2 silk and some very fine baby alpaca and an overshot pattern. First, I want to make myself something beautiful, but it occurred to me that I could sell one, and the pricetag would be fairly high – this would be a very time-consuming project with excellent and expensive materials. The bulk of the cost would reflect the labor involved. I wonder if I could sell one or two (or three?), because then I could buy a cello. It looks like that experiment has been successful enough that I’m close to outgrowing the cello I rent. Do you guys have any thoughts on this? Advice? Suggestions? Is this an idea worth pursuing?

(I can rent a viola da gamba, it turns out, and it is affordable. I kind of hope that I don’t love it as much as I think I will, because there are almost not enough hours in the day for adequate practice…)

This past weekend was full of unexpected things. I did not know there were going to be house guests, but breakfast out was really nice!

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skinflesh97-blog · 5 years

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Brown Butter and Toasted Sugar Make Vanilla Cake Anything But Plain

[Photographs: Vicky Wasik]

I love cake. If you spend much time here on Serious Eats (or flipping through my cookbook), that fact reveals itself in the sheer number of cake recipes I leave in my wake. What can I say? Few things signal celebration quite like layers upon layers of tender, fluffy cake stacked with an ultra-creamy frosting (and preferably decked out in sprinkles or candles or both).

When it comes to recipes, I don't have a single go-to. Each of the options in my arsenal is designed to fill a specific niche, whether that's a no-frills vanilla butter cake made with ultra-basic ingredients or a fancy strawberry layer cake that pulls out all the stops.

Different occasions warrant different recipes, and this is cake that falls on the decidedly fancy end of the spectrum, with key ingredients like brown butter, toasted sugar, loads of vanilla extract (more than an ounce), and specialty cake flour.*

*For more info, check out our explainer on the differences between bleached and unbleached cake flour.

Rather than dominating the cake's flavor profile, the brown butter and toasted sugar amplify the vanilla, for the most outrageously light, fluffy, tender, rich, complex, and aromatic "plain" vanilla cake around. The results are airier than my all-butter layer cake, butterier than my white mountain layer cake, and more vanilla-y than both. While it's made from whole eggs rather than whites, it aerates so well that it bakes up light enough to pass for a white cake.

That kind of magic takes a bit of planning or else a well-stocked, BraveTart-style pantry and equipment shelf, but it's an effort-to-reward ratio that pays off big for those of us who love to celebrate special occasions with a dramatic layer cake.

It all starts with brown butter.

For some, browning butter is a routine kitchen chore that can be knocked out without much thought, but less experienced bakers needn't be intimidated. The process is super easy, although it requires a bit of care when it comes to the timing and heat, but both can be adjusted on the fly.

If you happen to have a leftover vanilla bean kickin' around the pantry after another project, toss it in while you're melting the butter to infuse it with a deeper flavor. (Don't abuse a fresh vanilla bean here; this is just a good way to get more mileage out of an oldie!)

With or without the vanilla bean, the idea is to melt and heat the butter, so that its water content cooks off as its dairy solids brown, all at a rate and temperature that will move the process along at a reasonable pace and avoid scorching.

For a batch of this size, I like to work with a 3-quart stainless steel saucier. It provides plenty of surface area for browning and evaporation, with a metal that's heavy enough to minimize scorching and light enough to be responsive as I adjust the heat, and it minimizes carryover cooking when I'm done.

With pots that are lighter or thinner or larger, the process will require less heat to prevent the butter from scorching before the water has been driven off. With pots that are heavier or thicker or smaller, the process may require a bit more heat or else the whole project will take forever, and the dairy solids may eventually brown even while much of the water remains.

If the heat is too low, the process will take eons. If the heat is too high, the dairy solids may scorch or else fully brown before the water is driven away.

Most brown butter mishaps are related to scorching, which is generally a sign the butter is cooking too fast over heat that's too strong, and/or is in a pot that's too large. If that describes your experience, try reducing the heat and using a heavier pot. Conversely, if your gripe with brown butter is that it always takes much longer than the time listed in a recipe, make sure you've got the right pot for the job and feel free to bump up the heat.

With the right equipment and heat settings, the whole process needn't take longer than 15 minutes from start to finish for a batch this size. In the end, browning gives the butter a rich, golden color and nutty, toasted flavor, while reducing its mass by about 20 percent (assuming you are using American butter, the basis of all my recipes).

Once browned, the butter can be poured straight into the bowl of a stand mixer to cool over a cold water bath until it is thick, creamy, and opaque, around 75°F (24°C). For that reason, I don't like to use ice, which can make the butter too cold and hard for the creaming method.

To make sure I get all of the toasty brown bits from the pan, I also "deglaze" it with the milk that will be used in the cake batter itself. For those making a cake right away, this will also help warm the milk up so it emulsifies into the batter more readily. As a make-ahead step, the brown butter–washed milk can be refrigerated in an airtight container until needed. It's not a strictly necessary step, however, so don't sweat it if the logistics don't work out.

If you're not in a hurry, the brown butter and brown butter–washed milk can be transferred to individual airtight containers, where they can be refrigerated for about a week and then warmed to about 70°F (21°C) before use.

Because browning and cooling the butter takes a solid chunk of time, I like to make the most of it by multitasking on a batch of quick-toasted sugar.

Compared with plain white sugar, this lightly caramelized sugar will reduce the sweetness of the cake, add a hint of toasty complexity, and deepen the vanilla flavor overall.

Or, if you happen to have any on hand, fully toasted sugar works equally well, as does the lightly toasted sugar left over from blind-baking a pie. It's a sliding scale of flavor, so use what you have or make what you need.

With those key ingredients prepped in advance (whether it's hours or days), the cake itself is a pretty routine affair. Those new to layer cakes may want to brush up on technique with our complete guide to making cake, which includes an in-depth breakdown of the importance of temperatures, technique, and equipment at each stage.

When the brown butter and toasted sugar have both fully cooled (a key requirement), I combine them in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and cream until soft, light, and pale.

It's worth repeating that the creaming method isn't a process that can be judged by the clock; ballpark figures are included for context, but timing will vary according to the size and power of a given mixer, the specific temperature of ingredients, and bowl-to-beater clearance as well as seasonal considerations like a chilly winter kitchen.

The physical transformations that happen along the way are all that matter, as shown in the photo above.

After the butter and sugar are soft and pale, the cool (not cold!) eggs can be added one at a time, followed by alternating additions of bleached cake flour and milk. The slow and steady addition of these dry and liquid ingredients will help to preserve the batter's emulsion and prevent overmixing.

Give the bowl and beater a thorough scraping with a flexible spatula, folding from the bottom up to be sure there are no unmixed streaks running through the batter. When well-homogenized, evenly divide the batter between three lightly greased, parchment-lined eight-inch anodized aluminum cake pans.

Bake until the cakes are puffed, well-risen, and golden brown, just firm enough to spring back from a gentle poke but soft enough that your fingertip leaves an indentation in the crust, with an internal temperature at or just above 200°F (93°C). This will take about 35 minutes, but it's better to judge by the visual and textural cues rather than a strict timetable.

Cool the cakes directly in their pans, until no trace of warmth remains; meanwhile, whip up a batch of your favorite buttercream. Here, I went with a maple frosting, but it pairs well with everything from chocolate icing to vanilla buttercream, so let your heart be your guide.

To finish, loosen the cakes from their pans with a dull knife, invert onto a flat plate or wire rack, and then peel up the parchment and re-invert the cake onto a work surface. Before frosting, level each cake with a serrated knife (full directions here).

Flat layers are easier to stack, and look prettier, too, but trimming away the crust (the driest part of the cake) helps the interior absorb moisture, richness, and flavor from the frosting. Plus, cake scraps are the best snacks around, and they provide an opportunity to test-drive the frosting to see if it needs any adjustment before it's married to the cake. Like any "sauce" or other accompaniment, buttercream should always be seasoned to taste before use.

I assemble, crumb-coat, and finish the cake on a cast iron turntable, as its heavy base and frictionless spin make it easy to spread even layers of buttercream across the surface and sides of the cake. Especially for beginners, having a turntable makes it faster and easier to beautifully frost a cake, but with patience and care it can certainly be done without one.

For a detailed walkthrough, see our guide to assembling and crumb-coating a layer cake. Whatever the frosting and filling, the finished cake will be something special—with a bold vanilla flavor upfront, backed by the richness of brown butter and toasty depth of caramelized sugar. It's light and moist and big enough to feed a crowd, making it a reliable choice for holidays, family gatherings, or any sort of special occasion.

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Source: https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/03/how-to-make-vanilla-cake-with-brown-butter-toasted-sugar.html

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