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Brown-Sugar Pound Cupcakes with Brown-Butter Glaze

Martha Stewart Living, February 2009
  • Yield Makes 29
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Ingredients

  • 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
  • 4 large eggs, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • Brown-Butter Glaze

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Make cupcakes as directed in Basic Cupcake How-To, using buttermilk for wet ingredient. Fill each cup 3/4 full, and bake for 25 minutes.

  2. Set rack with cupcakes over a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spoon glaze over tops, and let stand until set. Serve glazed cupcakes immediately.

Recipe Reviews

  • yeschu67
    25 Jun, 2012

    I tried this recipe the other day and LOVE it. I tweaked it a bit but was very pleased with the texture as well as the taste. My son, who is my taste tester, gave it his seal of approval. Light and fluffy, moist and quite yummy. Will definitely bake again. :)

  • cheftb
    19 Jan, 2012

    I made these cupcakes a few yrs ago for my child's school bake sale. They were good but not the type of cupcake that kids crave (they frosting). Nice for adults.

  • MrsBasilBill
    11 Jan, 2012

    These cupcakes are delicious! I read some of the reviews and I made a few modifications to the recipe, hope it helps others. I normally use unsalted butter, but only had salted butter on hand, so I omitted salt. The cake was still sweet and tasted delicious without icing. I also baked them for 18 min, I set my timer for 15 min and tested them with a tooth pick, and they were almost done. They came out moist and kept kept very well in a cool lunch box.

  • StarGaiz
    18 Apr, 2010

    I made them the other night and as mentioned, they did get a bit dry, especially the next day. I also forgot the detail that when storing them, they can't just be sealed up, they also have to be refrigerated. So after a while on the counter, all sealed up, the glaze kinda melted into a gooey mess, so I threw them out.

    Over all, pretty tasty when fresh, but also SUPER sweet, (but I like that).

  • StarGaiz
    13 Apr, 2010

    Oh an you all mention they're a bit dry, so what's the tweak for that? Do you just add more buttermilk, or less flour, or...?

    Thank you!

  • StarGaiz
    13 Apr, 2010

    Cascadia, how did you thicken your glaze? I'm a relatively new baker, so I don't know the tricks to tweak without messing things up quite yet. Thanks in advance!
    Oh, and do you all think I could use buttermilk in the glaze recipe instead of buying whole milk just for this glaze?

    Thanks!
    -Krystal
    StarGaiz@gmail.com

  • walkokd2
    29 Mar, 2009

    These were good, I used my own frosting and not the glaze. However I would say that I was expecting a more dense, moist and heavy cupcake in attempt to be unlike normal 'cakey' cupcakes. I would add more butter milk or something but they didn't represent true pound cake.

  • jessicablich
    27 Mar, 2009

    I loved this recipe - the glaze is awesome. It tasted really good, but the batter overflowed all over my oven which was not cool. I would recommend only filling 1/2 full (not 2/3) and I used cake flower like one of the other contributors suggested which did keep things light and fluffly :-) not dry at all.

  • mrschopp
    25 Feb, 2009

    I really wish I could say these were great, but brown butter tastes rather snobby. And I've never really thought cupcakes should be snobby. So these cupcakes were not a hit at my house..

  • thespalife
    25 Feb, 2009

    I enjoyed these cupcakes with a cup tea. I really loved the Brown Butter Glaze topping! My friends and family gave these a B but I would give them an A- . (I agree they did turn out a little dry - I will tweak the recipe with the tips below next time.)

  • ltunick
    24 Feb, 2009

    OMG! Even my chocolate-crazed family went wild over these. I thought the cupcakes wer a little dry - will use some of the comments below next time.

  • gday_mich
    17 Feb, 2009

    Perfect and oh so yummy! I used all of the comments below to tweek the recipe slightly and these cupcakes are divine. Highly recommend these heavenly little cupcakes.

  • Joshua_Hume
    12 Feb, 2009

    I made them last night, and they taste fine today. Just keep them in an airtight container, and you'll be fine. The glaze is lovely, and very stable. HudsonValleyBaker, I wish I'd thought of adding vanilla beans to the glaze! And the roasted pecan sounds incredible!

  • funtobake
    10 Feb, 2009

    Is it possible to serve these the next day?

  • hudsonvalleybaker
    25 Jan, 2009

    I am SO excited by the popularity of this cupcake w/ my friends. I make them with dark instead of light brown sugar because I like the richer flavor. And I added vanilla beans to the glaze. Top off each cupcake with a perfectly roasted pecan and the flavor combination will send you over the edge!

  • cascadia
    20 Jan, 2009

    These are outstanding. I just finished making a batch, but substituted cake flour for the all-purpose and the texture is light and airy, not dense like most pound cakes, with a fine crumb. Just heavenly and not overly sweet if you don't use too much of the glaze - I made mine thicker like frosting so it would set enough for my husband to be able to take some to work. I had to bake my cupcakes about 5 mins longer than the recipe calls for, but they turned out perfectly.