Hello everyone! How are we all? Salted Caramel Cake recipe for your today! My first proper layer cake recipe and you all wanted this salted caramel goodness. Its the ultimate caramel cake! A delicous brown sugar sponge layered in between a silky caramel buttercream and oozy caramel.
The recipe its self is super straight forward and easy. The only tricky part is getting a super smooth finish on the cake like mine. To be honest, you can only get better with practice. I love playing around for ages to get a really neat finish. I am no pro on it at all and it takes me awhile but I find it very therapeutic, the trick is to get a very thick layer of icing after your crumb coat then smooth it out from there. It is handy if you have a turn table for this but its not necessary, I will leave a link to one in the notes below.
If you’re not a fan of a smooth finish you could just apply the buttercream on very rustic using a palette knife. I love this effect too!! It’s a lot faster to decorate it this way too. You could even do this as a naked cake. Just have buttercream in the centre and some piped on top. The quantities are down in the notes below to what you should reduce the buttercream recipe too.
I used shop bought caramel in this Salted Caramel Cake recipe to speed things up as there was a few elements. I am obsessed with the carnation caramel, I use it for all my bakes. Feel free to make your own caramel for this recipe if you like either. The carnation stuff is the perfect consistency for a drip, it works so well!
If you have any questions Dm me on Instagram. Happy Baking! <3 Keep an eye out on my Instagram for a Reel of me making this Salted Caramel Cake ! Also, check out my facebook group ”Gills Bakes and Cakes <3”
Salted Caramel Cake
Equipment
- Bowls
- Spatula
- Electric whisk
- Piping bags
- Cake scrapper/Palatte knife
- 2x 6 Inch Cake tins
- Knife
Ingredients
Cake
- 225 grams Butter
- 100 grams Caster sugar
- 125 g Light brown sugar
- 225 grams Self raising flour
- 4 Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
- 1 Tbsp Treacle
Buttercream
- 400 grams Unsalted butter
- 800 grams Icing sugar
- 2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
- 1 tin of Carnation caramel For buttercream, filling and drip.
- 1-3 tbsp Milk
- Flakey salt
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan. Grease and line the base of 2 x 6 inch cake tins.
- In a mixing bowl, Cream butter and sugars together till pale and fluffy.
- Whisk in your Vanilla and treacle
- Mix in eggs one at a time until combined.
- Sieve flour into the mix and gently fold.
- Separate the mix into your two baking tins evenly.
- Bake for 32-40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean or the centre of the sponge springs back when your press the centre.
- Leave to cool completely.
- Once completely cooled, trim the top of each cake flat if you need to then slice each cake in half to create four layers.
Buttercream
- Place soft butter into a mixing bowl. Using an electric hand whisk, whip up until very pale and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Add icing sugar in 3 separate batches until incorporated well.
- Add in the Vanilla and about 4 tablespoons of caramel to your prefered taste.
- Add the milk teaspoon at a time until you have a nice spreadable consistency. (Only if you need to loosen the buttercream)
Assembly
- Place a small bit of buttercream on your selected serving board. Place one layer of your cake on this. Pipe a boarder of buttercream along the boarder of your cake. Follow this boarder with a ring of caramel, then another ring of buttercream and so on until you reach the middle. Sprinkle on some flakey salt.
- Repeat these steps until you get to the last layer. Tip- Save the flat base of one of your cakes for the top of your cake to get a smooth top.
- Place your cake into the fridge for about 20 minutes for the icing to firm up.
- Now it’s time to do a crumb coat. Apply a very thin and smooth layer of buttercream all around your cake using a palette knife. Place back into the fridge for about 20 minutes until firm to touch.
- Now your final buttercream layer, Apply a thick coating of your buttercream all around your cake. Using a cake scrapper or a palette knife smooth until you get a nice finish. You can finish this how you prefer. You could to it rustic or very smooth like mine. To get your cake super smooth, place the scrapper or palette knife in warm water for a few minutes then smooth the icing.
- Leave to set in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Remove your cake from the fridge, mix up the remaining caramel in a bowl so it gets a bit looser. Using a spoon or a piping bag drip the caramel all along the edges of your cake.
- Decorate the top of the cake how you like. I piped some buttercream around the edges and sprinkled with some fudge pieces and flakey salt. You could keep this simple and just pour a load of caramel over your cake. Its up to you!
- Set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so you can get a good cut.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- This cake will last 3+ days stored in an airtight container at room temp.
- You can play around with the decoration and even simplify it more if you like and keep the outside naked.
- If you want to keep the outside of the cake naked, reduce your buttercream to 200g butter/400g icing sugar.
- I used carnation caramel for this cake, its the best consistency and it tastes amazing. Its available in most Irish supermarkets.
- There will be a reel in instagram of me making this cake so keep an eye out!
- Stainless steel prep bowls*-Premium Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls
- I use these food scales *- Salter Digital Scales
- I use these piping bags*- 100 Pcs Piping Bags
- I use these heat proof spatulas*- High-Heat Silicone Spatula
- These are the tins I used*-Round Cake Pan 6
- I have left a good cheap option for a hand whisk below*-Kenwood Hand Mixer
- Cheap Turntable option*- Rotating Cake Stand
Nutrition
TikTok Video
If you make this caramel cake recipe I would love for you to tag me on Instagram!#gills_bakesandcakes @gills_bakesandcakes
