Stout Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream
This is a rich, sweet, salty, intense cake. The sponge is chocolate stout cake. Filled and covered with Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream, with dark chocolate ganache drizzled right on top.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cake, caramel, saltedcaramel, stout
Prep Time 3 hourshours
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Total Time 3 hourshours30 minutesminutes
Servings 12people
Calories 450kcal
Ingredients
Stout Cake
1cupstoutI used Guiness
3/4cupunsalted buttersoftened (1 1/2 sticks)
3/4cupunsweetened cocoa powder
2cupsall-purpose flour9 oz.
1 1/2teaspoonsbaking soda
1/2teaspoonfine sea salt
2eggs
1 1/2cupgranulated sugar10.5 oz
1/2cupgreek yogurt
1teaspoonvanilla extract
1/2cuphot coffee
Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream
1/2cupcaramel saucepre-made or recipe follows bellow
4egg whites
1cupgranulated sugar
1teaspoonvanilla extract
1 1/4cupunsalted butter2 1/2 sticks
Salted Caramel Sauce
1cupsugar
5tablespoonsunsalted butter
1/2cupheavy cream
1teaspoonkosher salt
Chocolate Ganache
80gramsheavy cream
80gramsdark or semi-sweet chocolatechopped finely
Simple Syrup
1/4cupgranulated sugar
1/4cupwater
Instructions
Stout Cake
Grease and flour, or grease and put parchment on the bottom of 4 6”cake pans. You may use 2 8” cake pans as well, but the cake will be shorter than mine.
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
Bring stout and butter to a boil over medium-heat, in a medium saucepan. Don’t let it boil. As soon as the butter melts and mixture starts to come to a boil, turn heat off.
Add sifted cocoa powder to mixture and whisk until smooth.
Set aside to cool slightly.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, sea salt. Set aside.
In a bowl, start whisking eggs.
Add sugar to the eggs and whisk until incorporated.
Add yogurt and whisk until smooth.
Add cooled down stout/butter/cocoa mixture to egg mixture.
Whisk until combined.
Add vanilla extract.
Add flour. Fold with a spatula to combine.
Add dry, sifted ingredients to the wet mixture.
Once combined, add hot coffee to the batter, whisk until incorporated, and it has no lumps.
Pour batter onto prepared pans.
Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating in between, and until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the cake.
If it needs to be baked for longer, simply let it bake for 5 more minutes at a time, until done.
Remove cakes from the oven. Let them cool for 10 minutes. Transfer cakes to a wire rack to cool down.
Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Remove butter from the fridge right before you start to make this. We are looking for the perfect butter temperature and consistency. It shouldn’t be hard cold, and it shouldn’t be so soft that is almost melting.
Put whites and sugar in the bowl of your KitchenAid mixer, or in a heatproof bowl.
Place bowl on top of a small pot with simmering water.
Whisk whites and sugar until they temp 140F. Basically you are looking to melt the sugar granules, and also make it so the egg white is in a safe temperature to be consumed.
Once you achieve that temperature, place bowl in the stand mixer.
Whip with the whisk attachment until fluffy and doubled in size. Meringue should have stiff peaks. It can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes to obtain stiff peaks.
Test every so often, so you don’t over whip it.
Start adding the butter that should be slightly softened.
Cut butter into very thin pats. Starts doing one by one with mixer running on medium-high.
Wait for one butter pat to be incorporated before adding the next one.
This whole process could take about 15 minutes. Add vanilla extract.
Once butter is all incorporated add room temperature Salted Caramel Sauce to the Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Salted Caramel Sauce
Place sugar in a medium saucepan.
Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly to help the sugar melt evenly.
Once sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring.
Watch it closely as it is going to darken.
Don’t let it get too dark. Sugar should be an amber color.
If you take your eyes off the caramel, it may burn. You don’t want a very deep and dark color.
So, as soon as you see the caramel has darkened, remove from the heat.
Add cream and salt. Be careful. The mixture is going to come 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 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, remove from heat.
Wait a couple of minutes until caramel cools slightly.
Pour into a glass jar. Let it cool completely.
Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
You can also use some of the sauce to drizzle over cake if you want to.
Chocolate Ganache
Chop chocolate very finely. This will help the chocolate to melt evenly and faster.
Heat cream in a small saucepan, or in the microwave, until it almost comes to a boil.
Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate.
Stir with a spatula until all the chocolate has melted.
The best consistency for the ganache to be poured over the cake is about as soon as it’s come to room temperature.
If your ganache is too warm, it will be super runny and thin.
If your ganache is too cold, it will be too thick to drip.
To make the drip, you have to achieve that perfect consistency and temperature.
Pour a couple drips down the side of your cake in the back to test, if you think your ganache looks ready.
If it’s too thick, or cold, just put the ganache in the microwave for a few seconds until it’s a bit more runny.
To assemble cake
Make Simple Syrup. Bring water and sugar to a boil in small saucepan until sugar dissolves. Let it cool down before using.
I always brush my cakes with Simple Syrup for extra moisture!
You might have to cut the tops of the cakes to make them flat and straight.
Place the bottom layer on the cake board, or cake plate.
Brush some simple syrup on top.
Frost with a thick layer of Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Repeat with other layers.
Cover cake with frosting. I like to do a thin crumb coating first, let my cake sit in the fridge until the frosting has hardened, and then I go over it with a thick coat of frosting.
Crumb coatings seal the crumbs in the cake, making so your final frosting is smooth and crumb-free.
Drizzle Chocolate ganache over cake.
Pipe some Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream on top.
STORAGE: Cake will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge, if well covered. And it might start to get dry towards the end.