Hello friends! Today is a special day, because I am bringing you this beautiful cake to celebrate my dad’s birthday! It’s a Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake! Chocolate Cake layers filled with Salted Caramel Sauce, covered in Salted Caramel Buttercream, topped with a Salted Caramel Drip, and Caramel Fudge Truffles.
Check out the Salted Caramel Filling.
This Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake is an impressive cake, suitable for any grand celebration! And of course, it’s my dad’s birthday so that’s awesome reason to celebrate!
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First, make your cake layers. While the cake layers cool down, you can make the Caramel Sauce.
You can always use store-bought caramel sauce, but this caramel is very easy to make, and it takes no time to put together. Just needs time to cool down.
Make sure the caramel has cooled down completely, and it’s not warm, or cold, in order to use in this recipe.
Tips on how to make the Salted Caramel Sauce:
- Don’t let the sugar cook for too long. As soon as the sugar melts, add the heavy cream and butter.
- After adding the heavy cream and butter, return the sugar to the heat, and cook it just for a few seconds, until the crystallized sugar has re-melted.
- If there are still chunks of crystallized sugar in the caramel, strain them out by pouring the caramel through a strainer.
- Let the caramel cool down completely before using.
- Adjust salt according to your preference. If you like the caramel more on the salted side, feel free to add 1/2 tsp more to the recipe.
- If using store-bought caramel sauce, you will need from 2 to 2 1/2 cups of caramel for the whole cake (filling, buttercream, drip).
How to assemble the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake
Always make sure to spread a thin layer of caramel buttercream on both sides of a cake layer as you assemble the cake. This will help the caramel sauce not be soaked into the cake, by forming a barrier.
So the bottom and top of the middle cake layers should be coated with a thin layer of buttercream.
Once the cake has been assembled, coat it with a thin layer of buttercream, and let it chill for about 30 minutes.
This is called crumb coating, and it helps seal the crumbs in the cake, so they aren’t showing on the final layer of frosting.
Once the cake has been chilled, you can frost it with the final layer of Salted Caramel Buttercream. After that, make sure to chill the cake again before applying the Caramel Drip.
Tips for making a Caramel Drip
- Make sure the cake is super cold.
- The caramel should be at room temperature.
- Test out the caramel by dripping some sauce on the back of the cake and watch how long it takes to drip.
- If the sauce is too runny, place it in the fridge for 5 minutes or so. And if the sauce is too thick, place it in the microwave for 3 to 5 seconds to thin it out.
- You can place the caramel in a piping bag, or simply use a spoon to drip the sauce. Or you can just pour the sauce right on top of the cake, the drips won’t be thin, but more like a veil dropping from the top of the cake.
And place the cake back in the fridge for about 1 hour or so, until the caramel has firmed up, before piping on top or decorating.
I chose to top my cake with these unbelievably delicious Caramel Fudge truffles, aka brigadeiros! Every Brazilian birthday demands brigadeiros! Since my dad is Brazilian, he gets some brigadeiros on his birthday, and on his birthday cake!
Please visit the Caramel Fudge recipe to see how to make these delicious truffles.
The Caramel Fudge truffles complimented this Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake so well! They were the perfect treat!
If you like this cake, here are some more options of cake flavors you might enjoy. Please click on the names of the recipes below to be directed to the blog posts:
- Salted Caramel Stout Cake
- Chocolate Strawberry Cake
- Lemon Blackberry Cake
- Dulce de Leche Chocolate Cake
- Strawberry Nutella Cake
- Raspberry Coconut Cake
- Walnut Chocolate Cake
- Dulce de Leche Vanilla Cake
- Raspberry Chocolate Cake
- Key Lime Pie Cake
- Grape Cake
I hope you enjoyed today’s recipe. If you make this cake, please tag me on instagram. I love to see your creations! Thanks for reading!
Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
-
1 1/2
cups
all-purpose flour
183 grams, 5.4 oz -
1/3
cup
unsweetened cocoa powder
39 grams, 1.38 oz -
1 1/2
teaspoon
baking powder -
1
teaspoon
baking soda -
3/4
teaspoon
fine sea salt -
1/2
cup
unsalted butter room temperature
113 grams, 4 oz -
1
cups
sugar
200 grams, 7 oz -
2
eggs -
2
teaspoons
vanilla extract -
2/3
cup
milk
157 ml -
2/3
cup
hot brewed coffee read notes*
157 ml
Salted Caramel Sauce
-
2
cups
sugar
400 grams, 14 oz -
1
cup
heavy cream
240 ml -
12
tbsp
unsalted butter
170 grams, 6 oz -
1
tsp
kosher salt
Salted Caramel Buttercream
-
1
cup
caramel sauce
from the recipe below, or use store-bought -
6
cups
powdered sugar
750 grams, 26.46 oz -
2
cups
unsalted butter
room temperature (453 grams, 16 oz) -
1
tsp
vanilla extract -
1/2
tsp
salt
or more to taste
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
-
This recipe makes for 4-6” round cakes, or 2-8” round cakes.
-
Pre-heat oven to 350Fº.
-
Butter 4-6″ cake pans and place a parchment paper circle in the bottom of pans. Butter parchment. You can also use spray oil instead. Set aside.
-
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder, if using it instead of the coffee. Set aside.
-
Cream the butter at medium-high speed for 1 minute.
-
Add sugar slowly, cream for another 2 minutes.
-
Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time, scraping the bowl in between and making sure the first egg is incorporated before adding the second one.
-
Add vanilla extract and mix.
-
Slowly add milk, mix to combine.
-
Pour dry ingredients over wet mixture.
-
Fold with a spatula slowly, until ingredients are just combined.
-
If you see big clumps of cocoa powder, you can use the whisk to try to gently smooth the batter out.
-
Once batter is incorporated, pour hot coffee in the bowl. Whisk until combined.
-
Pour batter evenly onto baking pans.
-
Bake in pre-heated oven for 15-20 min. After the 12 minute mark, keep checking regularly, because you don’t want to burn your cakes or over bake them. Remove them from the oven once a toothpick comes our clean once inserted in the cake.
-
Once you remove it from the oven, wait 10 minutes, flip cakes onto a cookie cooling rack and let cakes cool.
-
Once cool, wrap each layer individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. I like to leave my layers in the fridge for quite a bit so they can firm up and make it easier to assemble and decorate the cake.
Salted Caramel Sauce
-
Place the sugar in a medium to large saucepan. Don’t use a small pan for a couple of reasons: so that the sugar has an easier time melting evenly, and so that the caramel doesn’t bubble up out of the pan once you add the cream and butter at the end.
-
Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly to help the sugar melt evenly.
-
As soon as the sugar melts entirely, it will be amber color. At this point, remove it immediately from the heat.
-
Add the cream and salt. Be careful. The mixture is going to bubble up to the top, so be careful not to get burnt. After a second, it will subside, and you can whisk mixture.
-
Whisk until combined.
-
Add the butter. Again, mixture will bubble up, so be careful.
-
Whisk until combined.
-
Bring mixture to a quick boil, while constantly whisking.
-
Let it boil for a few seconds, literally a few seconds, just until the sugar re-melts. Remove from the heat.
-
Wait a couple of minutes until caramel cools slightly. If you notice there are still a couple of pieces of crystallized sugar that haven’t melted again, just use a strainer to pour the caramel into a jar.
-
After pouring the caramel into a glass jar, or heat-proof container, let it cool completely at room temperature.
Salted Caramel Buttercream
-
First make sure the Salted Caramel Sauce is completely cool down, but not cold from the fridge. If the sauce is warm, it will melt the butter from the frosting, and if it’s cold it will lump up.
-
It has to be at room temperature.
-
Sift the powdered sugar and set it aside.
-
Cream the butter at medium high speed for 3 minutes, until very fluffy.
-
Add the sifted powdered sugar to the butter and mix on low to combine.
-
Add the caramel and raise the speed to medium high, and cream for a couple of minutes, until fluffy.
-
Add the salt and the vanilla extract.
-
If the buttercream is too runny, add more sifted powdered sugar to adjust the consistency. And if the buttercream is too stiff, add a teaspoon or so of water or milk to thin it out.
To assemble
-
Place one cake layer on top of a cake plate.
-
Transfer some of the buttercream to a piping bag, leaving the remaining buttercream covered so it doesn’t dry up.
-
Spread a very thin layer of buttercream on top of the first cake layer. This will help the caramel sauce not soak into the cake.
-
Pipe a ring of frosting around the edges of the first layer.
-
Pour about 1/4 cup of caramel sauce in the middle of the cake.
-
Spread a thin layer of buttercream on the bottom of the next cake layer.
-
Place it on top of the caramel filled cake layer.
-
Spread a thin layer of buttercream on the cake. Then pipe a ring of frosting around, and fill with caramel sauce.
-
Repeat until you reach the final cake layer, remembering to always spread a layer of buttercream on both sides of the cakes, to prevent the caramel sauce from soaking into the cake.
-
Spread a thin layer of frosting around the whole cake and smooth it out.
-
Place the cake in the fridge and let the cake cool for about 30 minutes.
-
This process is called crumb coating, and it helps to seal the crumbs of cake in, so they don’t show on the final layer of frosting.
-
Remove the cake from the fridge and apply a thick coating of frosting around the cake. Use a spatula to smooth it out as best as possible.
-
Place the cake back in the fridge until very cold, for at least 1 hour.
-
Then you can begin to drip the caramel down the sides of the cake.
-
I placed the caramel in a piping bag. You can place the caramel in a piping bag, or use a spoon, or simply pour the sauce on top of the cake.
-
I usually test out a couple of drops of caramel on the back of the cake to see if they are dripping nicely and steadily before pouring the caramel drip on the whole cake.
-
If the caramel is too runny, I’ll place it in the fridge for 5 minutes or so. And if the caramel is too thick, I will microwave it for 3 to 5 seconds to thin it out slightly.
-
Place the cake back in the fridge for about 2 hours to let the caramel drip dry before piping anything on top of the cake.
Storage
-
Keep the cake refrigerated, preferably covered so it doesn’t dry out, for up to 4 days.
Recipe Notes
Coffee in the cake: Always feel free to substitute the hot coffee for hot water. You could also add 1 teaspoon of espresso powder to the dry ingredients if that’s the case, or simply go without and use just the hot water. I have made this cake many times without coffee, using water instead, and it turned out fine. The coffee is simply used to enhance the chocolate flavor and richness, but not completely mandatory.
Caramel: If using store-bought caramel sauce, you will need 2 to 2 1/2 cups of caramel for the filling, for the frosting, and for the caramel drip.
Salt: Leave out the salt from the recipe for regular caramel, or increase the amount of salt if you like it really salted. Cinnamon: a little sprinkle of cinnamon in the frosting (about 1/4 tsp) will go a long way here and really add a lot of depth to the flavors of this cake.
Truffles: I topped the cake with these Caramel Fudge Truffles. They are super easy to make.
Esse bolo é pra mim, muito gostoso, como todos seus pratos, tenho muito orgulho de você e fico muito feliz com essa homenagem, obrigado Ca!!!!!!!!
I made your cake. Simply divine. The chocolate cake was so moist and had a slight fudginess to it which was lovely. The hot coffee really makes a difference especially with glutenfree cakes! The only difference is that I used my own Glutenfree flour mix. I make my own salted caramel sauce so I didn’t use yours but I’m sure it’s great! And the salted caramel buttercream is heavenly. Overall a fantastic recipe! Thank you.
That’s so awesome to hear, thank you Bonnie!!!
Amazing! So moist and yummy. Thank you!
Thank you Rachel 🙂
I made this yesterday for my birthday and was so happy with it! My husband who normally doesn’t like cakes, enjoyed this! I will probably just adjust the amount of powdered sugar to make it a little less sweet, but overall, will definitely make this cake again! Thank you so much for sharing! 💛
Awe thank you Airra! and happy birthday!
Delicious cake! So moist and flavorful. And the caramel sauce is to die for!
thank you so much!!!
Hi Camila! I have recently gotten really into baking! I have used many of your recipes, and have loved them! (especially your maccarons!) I don’t have any coffee, what can I substitute for it?
just hot water! thank you 🙂
This cake was delicious and the recipe was easy to follow. I added a bit more salt to balance the sweetness of the caramel. Beautiful too. Thank you!
so happy to hear that! thank you!
Simplesmente maravilhoso!! Eu quero um bolo igualzinho no meu aniversário!!😍👏👏👏👏👏👏
vc merece!
This is a fabulous cake and not to tricky to make everyone loved it!
Thank you so much!
Can you freeze the cake layers for a day before assembling the cake to keep them fresh, or would it be better to refrigerate them.
You can freeze them, lots of people freeze their cake layers!
Can I make the Caramel the night before I have to use it?
What if I don’t have the microwave and I have to warm the caramel a bit?
You can warm it over a water bath. Place a pot of water over the stove with a bit of simmering water then place a heat proof bowl containing the caramel over the pot. Make sure the bottom of the caramel bowl isn’t touching the water directly.
hello from Greece! I’ve just mande the caramel sauce and the fudge! I have a question. Can I refrigerate my caramel sauce and use it in two days? Thanks a lot!
Yes you can!!
Hi there – looking forward to trying your recipe, just wondering how many cups of caramel sauce the above recipe makes, and if I need to make more for the buttercream, or does the above recipe make enough caramel sauce for the entire cake, icing and drizzling?
it definitely makes enough, I am not sure precisely how many cups it makes but youll have plenty
Hi, I’m making the cake right now, but I had a question about it. I’ve mixed the wet ingredients (except milk) and already have the coffee in there. It’s kinda brown with white foam at the top of the mixer. Is that normal??
yes its fine
Hi! Just asking, this definitely makes 4 8-inch layers, right? It just looks like the levels of flour, eggs, and stuff seem a bit low. Sorry…
no, it makes 4-6″ or 2-8″ as stated in the recipe 🙂
What are the balls that you put on top of the cake?
they are caramel brigadeiros https://www.piesandtacos.com/caramel-fudge/
I never leave reviews, but I have to for this cake. I’ve followed a lot of online cake recipes and this is the best! Absolutely divine and I appreciated the thorough directions. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you so much Heather!!!
I was wondering if the carmel drips get hard in the fridge or do they stay soft?
I mean they do become somewhat solid, but theyre still soft to be eaten, it doesnt become hard like a caramel candy.
Hi would you suggest making more buttercream/salted caramel if you were to double the cake mixture and make 4 8″ layers? Or do you think it would be enough to spread? Also do any adjustments need making to the cake mixture if it is doubled? Thanks! Xx
I’d definitely double it. And no adjustments needed, just doubling will work, I’ve done it before.
Hey! I have a couple of questions!
Can a use diz caramel to drizzle on top of my pecan filling?
If I store this cake in the fridge before eating it, doesn’t the caramel harden? If so, how much time before should I take it out of the fridge for it soften?
Thank you!
Yes you can use it to drizzle on top of the filling. And the caramel won’t be super hard no, it will be fine. Tho, like any cake, it should be served after sitting at room temperature for like 10 min or so
Thanks you! I’m going to try it 🙂
Does it look as nice if you do 2 8” vs 4 6”?
looks shorter. I prefer the look of the 6″ one
Wowowowow this cake is amazing!! Followed the recipe to the letter. Used coffee vs just hot water. I had an issue with the caramel sauce leaking though the layers in a few spots, maybe it was too warm? Either way it made the perfect birthday cake for my mom who adored it!
hi Jen so happy to hear that. So when the filling leaks out for me it’s because I have put too much in the filling.
Ohh ok, thanks. I was trying to figure out why that happened. I’ll try to hold back next time!
Tried out this recipe Friday and man was I swept off my feet just the homemade caramel sauce was dynamite literally could eat spoonfuls.. as for the cake it was outshined by the overwhelming caramel flavor so the only tweak for future would be another cup of cocoa powder so the chocolate can have an opportunity to shine! Also the servings came out to 16 for us since the portions were humongous which was a plus of course thank you for sharing this cake creation of yours! 🙂