Happy Birthday Baking Gym!!! Let’s celebrate with this tasty chocolate caramel cake!
This blog went live exactly one year ago. I can’t even believe how many things happened since then! Actually I started working on the blog last May and prepared a few recipes ahead, but then I published it on 23. September 2016. So I think that counts as it's birthday.
I have posted 56 recipes and reached more than 100 folowers on instagram. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but for me it’s just unbelievable that more than 100 people thought that my content is good enough to follow it. I have a tons of new recipe ideas and can’t wait to share it with you!
But now I would like to introduce today's guest, this beautiful chocolate caramel cake. It is quite a small one, but it's super chocolat-y, caramel-y so even I could only eat one slice. And that really is something!
I think for a good chocolate cake the most important part is the sponge. You need a really moist, chocolat-y, but not too bitter sponge that doesn’t fall apart (in my opinion). I have shared a basic chocolate cake recipe before and I used almost completely the same recipe this time. It turned out amazing!
For the filling I made some caramel brown sugar butter cream. I just love the flavor that the delicious homemade caramel sauce gives, but you can use store-bought too. As decoration I made a chocolate ganache, and some caramelized sugar that I broke up into bigger and smaller pieces and stuck onto the top of the cake. I also melted some chocolate and cut them into triangles but it was so hot outside the chocolate started melting immediately. So use just the caramel if the weather is hot.
I think this cake looks and tastes stunning but it is really simple so everybody can make it.
Chocolate Caramel Cake
Prep Time: 30 min. Baking Time: 30 min. Total Time: 3 hours Portions: 8 slices
Ingredients:
Chocolate sponge: ( 3 x 6 inch or 15 cm round sponges)
1 and ½ cups all purpose flour
1 and ½ cups granulated sugar
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 and ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup vegetable oil (or any flavorless oil)
¾ cup buttermilk
¾ cup hot water
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Caramel Buttercream:
3 egg whites
1 cup brown sugar
1 and ½ cups butter (room temperature)
¼ - 1/3 cup caramel sauce (you can find the recipe here)
Chocolate ganache and sugar decoration: (optional)
2 oz. or 56g milk or dark chocolate
2 oz. or 56g heavy cream
¼ cup granulated sugar
Directions:
Sponge:
Preheat your oven to 350 F or 176 C. Line three 6 inch or 15 cm round cake pan with parchment paper.
In a large bowl of a standing mixer stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a seperate jug or bowl whisk together the oil, milk, hot water, eggs and vanilla.
Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry. On a medium speed, mix until everything is combined for 2-3 minutes. It will be very thin.
Spread the batter into the three pans. You can weight them or use a measuring cup to spread it evenly.
Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a fork comes out clean. Make sure you rotate the pans while baking. Let them cool in the pans for 5 minutes then turn them out to a cooling rack.
Caramel Buttercream:
Put the egg whites and the brown sugar in a metal bowl of a standing mixer.
Make a bain marine. Put some water in a sauce pan and put the metal bowl on the top. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl isn’t in the water. Start heating the water slowly.
Stir with a whisk until all the sugar is dissolved. You can check it with rubbing some between your fingers.
If it’s smooth take it off the pan. Use a whisk attachment and whisk it for about ten minutes, until it’s cold, pale and fluffy.
Switch to a paddle attachment and add the butter squares one at a time.
Mix in the caramel sauce.
Ganache and sugar decoration: (optional)
Chop up your chocolate.
Warm up your heavy cream and pour over the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for 1-2 minutes then stir together until you get a shiny and smooth ganache. Set it aside until it cools down a bit before pouring it on top of the cake.
For the sugar decoration melt the sugar in a pot over low heat until it starts to caramelize and turn into an amber colour.
Take it of from the heat and pour it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let it cool down completely and break into pieces.
Assembling the cake:
Set your first layer of spong on a serving plate and cover it with around 2/3 cup butter cream.
Repeat it with the other two layers then cover the cake with a thin layer of frostin (crumb coat). Put it in the fridge or freezer for 30 min.
Frost it with the rest of the buttercream. Put it back to the freezer for 10 min.
Add dollops of ganache on top of the cake and spread it allowing some to drip at the edges.
Stick your caramelized sugar pieces to the top of the cake.
