salted caramel cake

This is not for the faint hearted and I mean that in every possible way.

This is without a shadow of a doubt the most unhealthy dish on my blog.
This is super labour intensive and the flavours are bold!

If you are still reading then you are like me. Unhealthy, a challenge and an intense flavour … sounds quite perfect really.

The cake has special occasion all over it. Be prepared for the copious amounts of wows! Alright, get to it!

Salted Caramel Cake
Makes a four tiered layer cake

Ingredients
Cake
250g salted butter
250g dark cooking chocolate
150ml espresso
225g self-raising flour
250g golden caster sugar
250g soft light brown sugar
2 tbs cocoa powder
100ml buttermilk
4 eggs

Salted caramel
200g sugar
75ml double cream
50g butter, cubed
2tbs sea salt 

Swiss meringue buttercream
200g caster sugar
4 egg whites
250g butter
6 tbs salted caramel

Method
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 150 and grease and line two cake tins. Place the chocolate, butter and coffee in a heat proof bowl and place over a simmering pot of water. Make sure the bowl isn’t touching the water. Stir until all melted.

Mix the flour, sugars and cocoa powder. Using a stand mixer on a medium speed beat the buttermilk and chocolate mixture together. Once combined, add in the eggs, one at a time. Now combine into the dry mix. Spoon the mixture into your prepared cake tins and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave the cake the cool while you move onto the next steps.

 

For the salted caramel:
Place the sugar in a medium sized pot with 50ml water. Over the low heat swirl the pot regularly until the sugar dissolves. Keep going until the sugar turns from white to amber. This will take around 15 minutes. Be patient, it’ll get there. Don’t increase the heat and don’t take your eyes off it.

 

As soon as the colour changes take it off the heat immediately and quickly whisk in the butter, salt and cream. Taste here as you may want more salt. Await your first wow.

For the swiss meringue buttercream:
Put the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl and place over a pot of simmering water. Whisk  until the sugar has dissolved completely.

Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until you have a thick glossy meringue mixture on a high speed. If you don’t have a stand mixer use an electric beater or (heaven forbid) a whisk.

Now on a low speed add the butter one knob at a time making sure that each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next. Once your buttercream is thick and the butter is completely  incorporated stir in the salted caramel. Taste here. Your second wow.

To assemble:
The cake should now be at room temperature so gently slide a long knife through the cakes making four layers. Evenly spread the buttercream on each layer until you have your four tiered cake!

 

Spread the remaining buttercream around the sides of the cake followed by the left over caramel on top and await the many wows to follow.