Chocolate, Caramel and Coffee, these flavours marry so well into this beautiful cake. Slathered with cream cheese frosting, you will fall in love with this cake.
Jump to RecipeHey you guys! How have you been doing? I hope you all are out there happy and loving yourselves to bits. I have had a lot of struggles since 2018 and each day feels like a fresh battle. But I guess we all try, or at least we need to. Have I told you that I started working out on a regular basis since the last 6 months? I am over the moon you know? I used to be one of “THOSE” people who would roll their eyes when anybody would mention ‘gym’ or ‘workout’ but oh sweet lord am I converted! I can safely say that gym time is perhaps my favourite time after my baking time.
Self-love is such a tough, yet fulfilling journey I tell you; it is really hard to begin and keep up with. But I think there is absolutely nothing that comes close to the satisfaction of knowing that you are taking care of yourself in all ways possible. I’ll definitely talk about this in the coming blog posts, let me know if you guys want to know what I do to keep my mental health in check.
Speaking of this cake, I live in a house where most people “dis-like” chocolate. I KNOW!! The struggles! But this cake, OH THIS CAKE. It makes me so happy when I type this… Everyone who tasted this cake, asked me to feed them more. Is there anything more that a baker would like to hear? I think not. This cake might look like it is complicated but trust me it is very easy; you just have to do a few extra dishes. Also, this cake was made on my sister’s birthday. Every year, I ask my sister what cake she’d like for her birthday and she always tells me, ‘I like everything you bake!’ and then I just sit and come up with random ideas and then pick one from them. So far it has worked 100%.
Chocolate, Caramel and Coffee, these flavours marry so well into this beautiful cake. Slathered with cream cheese frosting, you will fall in love with this cake.
- 250 g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
- 250 g caster sugar
- 250 g all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp strongly brewed coffee (room temperature)
- 2 tbsp caramel sauce (home made or store bought)
- 50 g dark chocolate (55-65% cocoa) (melted and cooled to room temperature)
- 240 ml milk (I used full fat)
- 80 g caster sugar
- 40 g all-purpose flour
- 200 g full fat cream cheese
- 150 g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
- a pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 20 g dark chocolate (55-65% cocoa) (melted and cooled to room temperature)
- 60 ml caramel sauce (to layer between the cake)
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Grease and line three 6-inch round cake pans and set aside. Preheat your oven to 180 C. Melt the chocolate and get your coffee ready.
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In a large bowl, sift your flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and set aside.
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In another large bowl, whip the sugar and butter either by hand or an electric whisk until light and pale and fluffy, add the vanilla and mix. Then add the eggs one by one, mixing after each addition.
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Add half of the dry ingredients and fold it in gently. Then add the remaining half. Be very gentle with the batter and do not over mix it or else the cake will become tough and dense.
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Now take three separate bowls and divide the batter evenly between the bowls either by using weighing scales or just eyeball it.
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Add the melted chocolate into one, the coffee into the second and the salted caramel sauce to the third. Very gently fold the ingredients into the batter, careful not to overmix. (use separate spoons/spatulas for each bowl)
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Transfer the batter into individual cake tins and bake at 180 C. I baked the Caramel cake for 25 minutes, Coffee for 30 minutes and Chocolate for 33 minutes. Keep checking for done-ness after 25 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake.
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Let it cool in the pan on a wire rack.
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Heat the milk, sugar, and salt on a low medium heat in a saucepan. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the flour and whisk constantly for 4 minutes till the mixture becomes nice and thick. The mixture will boil, that will help to cook the flour and remove the raw taste. Make sure that there are no lumps.
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Transfer this mixture into a shallow plate and stick it into the freezer for 25-30 minutes till it cools down.
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Once it has cooled down, take the cream cheese and whip it with a hand-held or stand mixer for about 1 minute. Now add half of the solidified milk mixture and whip on high speed for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl intermittently. repeat with the other half.
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Once the mixture is smooth (it takes a while but it will come together, just keep whipping, scraping down the sides in between is important). Add the soft room temperature butter and whisk well. You can refrigerate the frosting if it seems loose.
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Now, frost the cake, don’t forget to fill the layers with the caramel sauce, I used about 30 ml per layer. You can also colour your frosting by using melted chocolate, just make sure it isn’t hot. (In case you feel your frosting is too soft, refrigerate it for 10 minutes and resume use)
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Chill the cake for 30 minutes before serving.
I re-made the frosting and happy to report no lumps this time! It’s very stable and smooth, and although I think in terms of taste I prefer buttercream this one is ideal for hot outdoor events.
The cake flavours didn’t come through very strongly but that might be because I made them two days before the event, since I didn’t have time to cook, cool and frost all on the same day.
Overall a very pretty cake!
I made the cakes yesterday and aside from one of them collapsing in the middle it went well. Working on the frosting now and no matter how much I mix the fee cheese + solidified milk mix has little beads of transparent mix mixture throughout – not sure what I did wrong there
Hey! The cake collapsing must be because of the oven temperature variation, a lot of ovens have cold spots. And I have faced the grainy texture with the frosting, it is mostly because of the flour not being whisked properly with the milk while cooking. However if the grains are not too big it won’t affect the taste much.
Refrigerating the frosting will help if it is runny due to the summer heat
Hi! The cake ingredients list 1tbsp of vanilla extract but can’t see it in the cake instructions – should we be adding this with the eggs?
Hey Isabel, yes you do have to add the vanilla with the eggs. It’s a typing error.
Brilliant, thank you! Appreciate the fast response, you’ve caught me in time to add it and save the cake 🙂
Always happy to help! Please do share your reviews once you try the cake❤️ And you can reach out any time if you need anything.