How good does a cake need to be to be worth multi-day preparation and making caramel twice?
Pretty good, right? I think this cake might just be that good. It’s the Sweet’n Salty Cake from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
The first day I made the cake. I learned from America’s Test Kitchen that you can use cocoa powder instead of flour so the chocolate cake doesn’t have a dusty white powder on it.
instead of flour cocoa powder
That wasn’t too tricky except it called for 3 cake layers and I have 2 pans.
cake batter
After the first 2 layers baked, I flipped one out to re-use the pan and it broke in half. The cakes were very soft and delicate. I evetually wrapped the 2 remaining layers in tinfoil and saran wrap and put them in the freezer.
The next night I made the salted caramel. I combined sugar, water, and light corn syrup and heated it to boiling for about 7 minutes.
hot sugar!
At the same time, I heated heavy cream with salt for a few minutes until the salt dissolved.
cream and salt
When the sugar carmalized, I took it off the heat and waited a minute before adding the cream.
sour cream-kind of boring compared to boiling sugar
The sour cream went in next and everything got mixed together.
caramel
Later that night I made the frosting. I started by chopping a lb(!) of chocolate and placing it in a mixing bowl.
chopped chocolate
I made caramel again, this time there was more cream and no salt or sour cream. I cooled the caramel for a minute and then poured it over the chocolate. The chocolate started to melt and I started the mixer. A smooth chocolate sauce started to form.
chocolate and caramel
I kept the mixer going and when the bowl was cool to the touch I started adding the butter (1 lb! in chunks).
I assmebled the cake by pouring the caramel over the first layer.
cake assembly
I added the chocolate frosting and then the second layer.
assembled cake
More caramel, more frosting, and a little sea salt on top.
salted caramel chocolate cake....worth 2 days of work
- I love this; it's like having another set of hands.
- Perfect for making ice cream and sorbet.
- One of my favorite Christmas gifts. Great for going from stovetop to oven.
- Another Christmas gift that is useful in the kitchen.
Salt and caramel pair so well together, so I love this idea! Thanks for passing along the cocoa powder “dusting” tip, I have to use that one!
I have to get that book! The cake looks fantastic, and I have to think it was definitely worth it.
Wow! that sounds so delicious, but so much work! But you can’t beat chocolate and caramel…yum!
Barbara
Wow, this sounds so rich. And that is a great tip from ATK about the cocoa powder. I will definitely remember that.
That looks so decadent and good!
This certainly does sound like it was worth the work. It looks AMAZING!
Oh, I have had my eye on this cake – thanks for reminding me! I LOVE that cookbook. It’s so good. Your cake looks awesome!
I love this cake and this cookbook! I made the cake for xmas and everyone loved it! Their cakes are definitely time consuming, though. I’ve made two so far and both took many hours to complete. They both received rave reviews, so it was worth it.