Moist Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake
Moist salted caramel chocolate cake with homemade caramel & fudgy chocolate sour cream frosting. Balances sweet & salty perfectly!
Servings: 12 Slices
Calories: 788kcal
Equipment
- 2 x 8" cake pans
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- ¾ cup cocoa powder dutch-processed
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- ½ cup neutral oil vegetable, canola, or sunflower
- 1 cup very hot water
Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 cup cocoa powder dutch-processed
- ½ cup sour cream room temperature
- 6 oz dark chocolate chopped
Salted Caramel
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
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 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 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 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 cocoa powder, 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, 2 cups 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 buttermilk, ½ cup 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 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 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 unsalted butter, 2 cups 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 cocoa powder
- Add your sour cream, melted chocolate and salt and mix once more.½ teaspoon kosher salt, ½ cup 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!
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!
Nutrition
Calories: 788kcal | Carbohydrates: 97g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 45g | Saturated Fat: 23g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 106mg | Sodium: 605mg | Potassium: 382mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 71g | Vitamin A: 937IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 100mg | Iron: 5mg
