Bite-sized burnt butter and pecan cakes – recipe

Melbourne pastry chef Charlie Duffy microplanes nuts into thin, leaf-like shavings for his crisp mini cakes. Brown the butter well for an extra-sweet nutty aroma

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hese moreish little cakes were inspired by a friend’s pecan farm in northern New South Wales. They’re salty, sweet, rich and nutty, with a crisp exterior that gives way to a soft centre. Their toasty aroma comes from browning the butter until it turns a deep brown.

I used panela sugar, which lends a lovely caramel flavour to the mix, but if it’s not available you can replace it with more brown sugar.

If you don’t have oval cake moulds or a cupcake tin with oval holes, any muffin or mini-cupcake tin – or even one with more traditional rectangular holes – will work. If your moulds are a bit bigger than the ones I used, just bake them for a couple of extra minutes or until the centre feels just set. If they’re smaller, take a little time off the bake as they’ll cook a bit quicker.