It's Time to Introduce Your Sweet Tooth to This Irresistible Churro Cake

By The Kitchy Kitchen

Sorry for the all caps, but I mean . . . CHURRO CAKE. This is serious business. Leslie and Courtney, the ladies behind the epic pop-up restaurant Large Marge are Momofuku Milk alums, so they do NOT play when it comes to cake. Also, after I harassed them for months, they've generously agreed to share their cake recipe with all of us. Leslie came on my YouTube channel, so if you want to see the whole process, check out the video there.

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Here's the thing: this is a pastry-chef-style cake, meaning there are components and details that a home baker wouldn't usually bother with. So if you want to do this fast and dirty, skip the churro crunchies and maybe even the decorative churros on top . . . but it just adds another dimension to the whole thing, so if you can, do it for real. MAKE A CHURRO CAKE.

Another tip Leslie told me was that this cake is perfect to prep ahead of time. So if you want to serve this cake on Saturday, you could easily start your prep on Wednesday, so all you have to do is assemble it the day of. The pralinella and frosting last for a few days in the fridge, the cinnamon sugar lasts forever, and even the churros and cake can be frozen (though the churros benefit from a quick resuscitation in the oven).

This cake is truly magical. It makes people happy, it captures the imagination, and it tastes amazing. Thank you so much, Large Marge ladies, for bringing it into our world. Enjoy!

What you'll need to put it all together:

3 6-inch cinnamon brown butter cake layers
1/2 pint pralinella
Mexican chocolate frosting
Churro snaps
Leslie rehardens the melted brown butter in the fridge then whips it for the recipe
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Ingredients

For the cinnamon brown butter cakes:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk

For the pralinella:

• 2 cups pecans
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
• Scant 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 1/2 cups valrhona white chocolate, coarsely chopped and divided
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/4 teapsoon white (shiro) miso
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
• 1 1/3 cups heavy cream

For the Mexican chocolate frosting:

• 6 ounces European-style butter, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted then cooled
• 2 1/2 ounces white chocolate, melted then cooled

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For the churro snaps:

• 2 cups plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 ounces (1/2 stick) European-style butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups canola oil

Directions

Cinnamon Brown Butter Cakes

Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and grease and line 3 6-inch cake pans.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl and whisk them all together.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the brown butter with both sugars until it is light and fluffy. Slowly stream in the eggs, yolks, oil, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until the wet ingredients have fully emulsified, stopping to scrape down sides from time to time.

Add the milk and dry ingredients alternately, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, scraping down sides between each addition. Mix on low until the final dry ingredient addition is fully incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and bake them for 20-25 minutes or until they just start to get golden brown around the edges.

Remove the cakes from their pans and let them cool completely before them using to assemble the CHURRO CAAAAAAAAKE. Alternately — store the cakes in the freezer, well wrapped for up to a month until ready to use.

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Pralinella

Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment. 

Add the pecans, maple syrup, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and cayenne to a medium-sized bowl, and toss thoroughly.

Transfer to the prepped baking sheet and roast for about 15 minutes. Halfway through the baking process, pull out the sheet and stir everything around. You’re looking for the nuts to turn dark without being burnt. The darker the nut, the better the flavor: mahogany is the color you want.

Remove the nuts from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes, then grind them in a food processor until they break down into butter — this takes several minutes. You should have about 1 cup of praline butter. Put this amount in a medium mixing bowl and set aside. 

Combine 1 cup of white chocolate with the remaining ingredients (including 1 teaspoon salt) — except the heavy cream — in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula. Once the chocolate melts, turn the heat up to medium and continue to cook, stirring constantly, to caramelize the white chocolate. Once the mixture becomes a shade darker than shiro miso, remove it from the heat and slowly whisk in the heavy cream and unmelted white chocolate. If it seizes or doesn’t fully homogenize, then put it back on the stove top and heat it on low, whisking constantly.

While the chocolate mixture is still warm, marry it with the pecan butter and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator overnight.

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Mexican Chocolate Frosting

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on high speed until it’s light, fluffy, and totally smooth with no lumps. Scrape down the sides of the bowl several times during this process and quadruple check there aren’t any lumps of butter before you move on to the next step. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and mix on low until combined and all the powdered sugar is incorporated into the frosting. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, and salt and mix until combined. Scrape down sides and give the frosting another go-round in the mixer on medium speed. Stream in both of the melted chocolates with the mixer on low and continue mixing until they are both fully combined and no streaks remain.

Use the frosting immediately to assemble the churro cake, or store in the refrigerator for up to a week (or one month in the freezer). If storing, return the frosting to room temperature and loosen it in the stand mixer before using.

Churro Snaps

Preheat the oven to 250ºF

Mix 2 cups sugar, cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon salt together in a medium bowl.

Add the milk, butter, 2 teaspoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt to a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the flour and stir it vigorously without stopping with a sturdy wooden spoon for 1 minute to cook the flour. (The batter will be really thick and you’ll use some muscles stirring it.) 

Transfer the mixture to stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and let it cool for 5 minutes. Turn the mixer on medium speed and add the eggs one at a time. Let each egg fully incorporate before adding the next one.

Meanwhile, pour 4 cups of oil into a 1 1/2 quart saucepan and heat it to 350ºF

Transfer the batter to a piping bag with a star tip (we like using a medium closed tip) and pipe the batter into the oil, cutting it with scissors every 2 inches so perfect churros drop into the oil. Fry the batter in batches of six churros until they are deep golden brown.

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Use a slotted spoon to remove the churros from the oil and put them onto a paper-towel-lined pan. Let them cool for a minute, then toss them into the bowl with the cinnamon sugar and coat them.

You are going to use some of these churros to decorate the finished cake and the rest to make the churro crunchies that go inside the cake. To do this, take some of the churros and break them up in to pieces about the size of grapes. You will need 2 cups worth of broken up churro bits. Set the remaining churros aside to decorate the cake.

In a medium bowl, toss the broken up churros with 1/3 cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture, reserving the leftover mixture to coat the sides of the assembled cake.

Spread the churro bits onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes, until they are crunchy, deep golden brown, and caramelized. Let the snaps cool completely before using them to assemble the churro cake.

Cake Assembly

Lightly coat every layer of brown butter cake with the cinnamon sugar. Place the bottom layer on a plate, and spread a generous layer of pralinella (about 1/2-inch thick) over it. Sprinkle with half of the churro crunchies, and lightly press the crunchies down into the pralinella.

Next, spread a thick layer of the Mexican chocolate frosting over the crunchies, and add another layer of cake. Repeat until you're left with the top layer. Top with Mexican chocolate frosting and freshly fried churro toppers. Enjoy!

Information

Category Desserts, Cake

Yield 1 cake

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