This salted caramel chocolate cake has moist chocolate cake layers filled with homemade salted caramel sauce and covered in a fudgy chocolate sour cream frosting to balance the sweetness. This is a mashup of my viral Matilda's chocolate cake and my go-to caramel sauce!
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This recipe was originally published in 2021; it has since been updated with a brand-new recipe and photos.
As a certified chocolate lover, it was practically a crime not have a chocolate caramel cake here. I knew I had to use my tried and tested chocolate cake recipe and my all-time favorite chocolate fudge frosting (I just used it in my small batch chocolate cupcake recipe!)
The salted caramel sauce uses a dry method, which basically just means we're melting granulated sugar in a saucepan and not adding any water. I personally have found over the years that it's easier to make! It's the same caramel I use in my fudgy chocolate salted caramel brownies.
I chose my sour cream frosting because I can find that chocolate and salted caramel can be a bit too sweet sometimes. The sour cream in the frosting helps balance it out! You could always swap it out for chocolate cream cheese frosting, though!
Grab Your Ingredients!
- Oil: Make sure you're using a neutral oil, like vegetable or canola oil, which is going to help keep this cake moist.
- Sour Cream: We'll need sour cream for both the cake and the frosting!
- Chocolate: I recommend using dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate for the frosting. I don't recommend using chocolate chips since they're harder to melt.
- Salted Caramel: I whipped up a batch of my salted caramel sauce! You'll just need sugar, butter, heavy cream, salt, and vanilla extract.
- Cocoa Powder: I'm using Dutch-processed cocoa powder in both the cake and the frosting.
Let's Make This Recipe!
- Step 1: Preheat your oven and grease and line two 8-inch pans. In a large bowl, whisk all of the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whisk all the wet ingredients (except the hot water!) together.
- Step 2: Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Then pour in the hot water and mix until smooth.
- Step 3: Pour the chocolate cake batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 35-40 minutes. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Step 4: In a stand mixer, beat the butter and confectioner's sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cocoa powder and mix again. Finally, pour in your sour cream, melted chocolate, and salt! Mix until well combined.
- Step 5: Place one cake layer on your cake stand or plate. Pipe a ring of chocolate frosting along the edge of the cake. Pour in your salted caramel sauce, a bit at a time, and use an offset spatula to spread it on top.
- Step 6: Add the second cake layer on top and frost the cake with the remaining frosting. I like to sprinkle a little extra flaky sea salt on top!
My Baking Tips & Notes
- Start Small: I recommend only pouring out a small amount of salted caramel sauce at a time. If you add too much sauce, it'll spill over when you cut the cake.
- Make Caramel Ahead of Time: You can make the salted caramel sauce ahead of time, even a few days ahead of time! If you've made it a day or two before, depending on the temperature of your kitchen, you may need to warm it up before adding to your cake.
- Let Cake Cool: I know, I know. You just want to start assembling the cake. But make sure it is completely cool before you start frosting it! Otherwise, we're looking at a sliding dessert situation.
- Kitchen Scale: I'm just a blogger, standing in front of the internet, asking you to please use a kitchen scale when you bake. Less dishes, more accurate baking - what more could you want?
Love Chocolate Desserts? Me Too!
Made This Recipe?
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Thank you!
Ella
Recipe
Moist Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake
Moist salted caramel chocolate cake with homemade caramel & fudgy chocolate sour cream frosting. Balances sweet & salty perfectly!
Equipment
- 2 x 8" cake pans
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- ¾ cup (65 grams) cocoa powder dutch-processed
- 1 ¾ cups (350 grams) granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 cups (220 grams) all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk room temperature
- ½ cup (120 ml) neutral oil vegetable, canola, or sunflower
- 1 cup (240 ml) very hot water
Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
- 1 cup (220 grams) unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups (226 grams) confectioners' sugar
- 1 cup (84 grams) cocoa powder dutch-processed
- ½ cup (120 grams) sour cream room temperature
- 6 oz (84 grams) dark chocolate chopped
Salted Caramel
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons (84 grams) unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Ella's Baking Tip!Weigh your ingredients with a kitchen scale for the best results!
Instructions
Salted Caramel
- I recommend making the salted caramel sauce first since it needs time to cool down! Note, this recipe makes more caramel than required. I recommend keeping it in your fridge (for emergencies like topping vanilla ice cream or pouring over brownies)
- Take a small saucepan and place it on your stove over medium-low heat. Add the sugar ¼ cup at a time, letting the sugar dissolve completely until you add the next ¼ cup.1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- Stir occasionally until the sugar has completely dissolved and turns a dark amber colour. Turn the heat off.
- Add the butter in a piece at a time, be careful as it may sputter! Stir with a heatproof spatula as you add the butter.6 tablespoons (84 grams) unsalted butter
- Stir in the cream, salt, and vanilla. Let cool until it is very thick. If you're not using it straight away, pour into a container and let cool completely before placing in the fridge. When you're ready to use, heat up for 15-20 seconds in the microwave until it is pourable.½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Make Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C. Butter or grease two 8-inch cake pans and line it with parchment paper.
- Combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl with a whisk.¾ cup (65 grams) cocoa powder, 1 ¾ cups (350 grams) granulated sugar, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, 2 cups (220 grams) all purpose flour, 2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder
- In a large jug or medium bowl , whisk together the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.¾ teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 large eggs, 1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk, ½ cup (120 ml) neutral oil
- Slowly pour in the ingredients from the large jug and mix until just combined.
- Slowly add the hot water and mix. Your batter will be very thin and it makes a lot of cake batter!1 cup (240 ml) very hot water
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted
- Allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pans. Let them cool completely on a cooling rack.
Make Frosting
- Melt your chocolate in a microwave, stirring every 10 seconds so it doesn't burn.6 oz (84 grams) dark chocolate
- In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a bowl with a handheld mixer, beat the butter and confectioners' sugar on low speed until well combined1 cup (220 grams) unsalted butter, 2 cups (226 grams) confectioners' sugar
- Turn the speed to high for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in your cocoa powder and beat on low, then increase the speed to medium for 1-2 minutes.1 cup (84 grams) cocoa powder
- Add your sour cream, melted chocolate and salt and mix once more.½ teaspoon kosher salt, ½ cup (120 grams) sour cream
Assembly
- Place one cake layer down on your cake stand or cake plate.
- Place some of the chocolate frosting in a piping bag with a round tip. Pipe a border along the edge of the cake, making a circle. This will help the caramel sauce not leak out!
- Slowly pour some of the caramel sauce into the middle of the cake. I recommend starting off with just a little, if you add too much caramel, it'll leak out when you slice the cake! Use a small offset spatula to spread the caramel up to the frosting border. For reference, I used just under ½ cup of caramel but that was slightly too much!
- Add the second cake layer on top. Use the remaining chocolate frosting to frost the sides and top of the cake. Enjoy!
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Notes
My recipes have been developed and tested in metric grams. I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. I have provided a conversion to US cups but please note that I haven't tested the recipe with this method.
Ingredients: I make sure that all of my ingredients are at room temperature before I start the recipe, so pull out all of the ingredients before you start baking.
Salt: If you don't have kosher salt, halve the amount of salt called for in the recipe. 1 teaspoon kosher salt = ½ teaspoon fine salt. Please note, I'm using Diamond Crystal kosher salt and not Morton salt which is too salty!
Salted Caramel: Feel free to use store bought salted caramel sauce!
Cocoa Powder: I'm using dutch processed cocoa powder (not sure what you have? Check the ingredients. If it says 'acidity regulator' or mentions 'alkali', then it's dutch processed).
Storage: Store the cake in the fridge for 3-4 days. I recommend letting it come to room temperature before enjoying!
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below! You can also tag me on Instagram @alpineella so I can see what you made!
Jan says
Recipe doesn’t stipulate what KIND of melted chocolate!! I’m assuming unsweetened/ bittersweet baking chocolate. Is that correct?
Ella says
Hi there, I live in the UK where we don't label our chocolate bittersweet, semisweet, etc. I used dark chocolate for this which was 51% cocoa.
Agnes says
Delicious!! Made it for my moms birthday, it is VERY rich, the ganache is so sweet. The sponge is the moist-est I´ve ever made, beautiful texture. The salted caramel is perfect, I´m saving the left-overs for my coffee. Took about three hours, start to finish. Well worth a try if you´re considering it!
Ella says
Thanks so much for your review! 🙂