In a small saucepan, add butter and melt over medium heat. Once the butter has fully melted, a white foam will begin to appear over the top of the butter.

Watch carefully as the butter’s color changes to brown and the smell of the butter becomes somewhat nutty.

As soon as the butter is an amber brown color, remove from heat and cool in the refrigerator until the butter has become solid again (can take 1-2 hours so I sometimes do this the night before baking the cake).

In your mixer bowl, add butter, oil or shortening, and cream cheese and beat for 2 minutes on high speed. Slowly add in sugar beat on high speed for an additional seven minutes until very pale yellow and fluffy. There is no leavening in this cake because we add ample air to this cake by having a very long creaming period.

Next, add eggs, one at a time, combining well after each addition and scraping down the sides as needed.

Add in vanilla extract, scrape down sides and mix until just combined and turn off mixer.

Add flour into batter in two increments then add salt. Mix by hand just until incorporated. Be careful not to overbeat.

Pour cake batter into prepared pan(s), and bake for 1 hour and 15 -20 minutes for bundt pan, 50-60 minutes for loaf pans, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool in pan(s) on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert cake on serving plate for at least an hour or until the cake is cool to the touch.

Dust with powdered sugar and serve.