Check out my birthday cake! It may not appear very festive, but it definitely brightened the day because it's a scratch caramel cake with caramel icing.
Quick vs. Not-So-Quick
Caramel cake a Southern classic, but I'd never heard of it until I was in my thirties and saw it in a Cake Mix Doctor book. The Cake Mix Doctor's caramel icing recipe calls for confectioners' sugar and brown sugar and sets up like a praline after you pour it over the cake. I liked it a lot, but soon learned that traditional Southern caramel icing was made with granulated and/or brown sugar and cooked over the stove using a candy thermometer. The version I'd been making was the quick and easy version, so I vowed to seek down something more authentic.
Caramel Icing with Egg
Yesterday I had some extra time for baking and decided to try a new yellow cake with caramel icing recipe. Since I didn't have a grandma around for guidance, I just used a Southern Living recipe. The yellow cake was fantastic. As for the caramel icing, it was unusual in that it contained granulated sugar and an egg, whereas most of the other versions I saw called for brown sugar and evaporated milk. Maybe the egg is what made it easier to work with. It didn't harden as fast as the confectioners' sugar based icing and didn't crack quite so much, either. We loved it, but now that I've studied up on caramel cake, I want to try some more recipes.
Recipe
Caramel Cake
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups 12.4 ounces aerated and stirred all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks 8 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 cup room temperature sour cream
Frosting
- 3 cups sugar divided
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- ¾ cup whole milk room temp
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 9x2 -inch metal cake pans with flour-added baking spray or grease with shortening and dust with flour. Line pans with parchment circles if desired.
- Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- In a stand mixer bowl, beat the butter on medium high speed until light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually add the sugar, scraping the sides of the bowl once or twice and beating for about 5 minutes or until light and creamy.
- Add eggs one at a time and continue beating for another minute or two, scraping sides of bowl.
- Reduce speed to low and add the milk, then add flour and sour cream alternately. When flour is fully incorporated, divide evenly among the pans.
- Bake on center rack for about 35 minutes or until cakes spring back when touched and a pick inserted comes out clean.
- To make the frosting, put 2 ½ cups of the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and mash it around until mixture is grainy and moist, then add the egg, milk and salt and stir until smooth. Set aside.
- Sprinkle remaining ½ cup sugar in 3 quart heavy duty saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar melts and syrup is a light golden brown.
- Remove from heat and stir the butter mixture into hot caramelized sugar, then return to heat and cook over medium, stirring constantly, until mixture reaches 235 F on a candy thermometer. Note: When you first put the butter mixture into the caramelized sugar, it will start to harden and clump. Just keep cooking and stirring and it will all melt together, but do keep the heat even. This process should take about 10 to 15 minutes.
- When mixture reaches 235F, remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and beat frosting with a wooden spoon to almost spreading consistency or you can cheat a bit. Pour it into a mixing bowl and beat it with a handheld mixer until it starts to thicken. As soon as it's thick enough to pour, but not too runny, spoon some over the first layer of cake. It should fan out a bit, but eventually set. Stack on the second layer of cake and pour some more caramel carefully over the top. Spread it around the sides the best you can.
stephanie says
Have you ever substituted soy milk in a caramel frosting recipe? I have to make a dairy free version and this looks delicious!
Betsy says
WOW! I can't believe how easy this recipe was. It is my first successful caramel icing ever! Icing taste marvelous! Next time I will try a lighter batter and thinner layers to get more caramel.
Berdell says
The cake looks wonderfull.As a girl growing up in central Virginia I remember so well vesting my aunts for Homecoming at our family church or a big Sunday Dinner and a carmel on the back porch on a special shelf made for keeping cakes and pies cool or having a beautiful Carmel cake on the buffet in the Dinning Room.
I have made at least two in the last 4 years for special events and they have been a hit with all who had them.
There is nothing like a caramel cake and I prefer the icing that you cook with sugar and evaporated milk it is divine.
I save the leftover in ajar warm it and serve as a dipping sauce for crisp thin apple slices, my grand children love it. you choose the right B'day cake.
Michelle P. says
This cake looks so good! I've been wanting to try making a caramel cake. Have you looked at the cookbook "Cake Ladies". If you haven't yet, I recommend it. I think you'd love it. It is full of really neat stories about different ladies and then they share a favorite/signature cake. They have a caramel cake in there that I've been wanting to try as well.
Jennifer says
Happy belated birthday! I am behind on my blog reading so missed that.
I've never made nor had a caramel cake. It looks delicious but I am a failure at making homemade yellow cake, so that part scares me a little.
Dee says
Looks delicious. Happy Birthday, Anna!
Janice says
I say to you...Happy, happy birthday!
...but wait...Anna, is your birthday the 29th? The same day as my baby girl Katie?
Wow, small world then as I was going to ask you for some help as my baby just moved to Austin...downtown Austin!
Rebecca says
Wow, that looks fantastic! I wish my house wasn't already filled with treats so I could make one. Happy Birthday!
gloria says
Happy birthday and thanks for your present to us!!! This looks devine!!!
Carol says
Happy Birthday! I have been wanting to make this for years and this looks like the perfect recipe to try!
Martha in KS says
Happy Birthday! My mom made caramel icing - guess it's time I try it.
Darlene says
Happy Birthday. Anna! Hope your day was as special as you are!
Prior to reading 'The Help', I had never heard of a Caramel Cake but the frequent reference to Minny's Caramel Cake made me excited to try it. So happy you found a delicious recipe for us, and that it doesn't use self-rising flour (which I never have).
Anna says
My mom saw the cake and said that one of my great grandmothers (the one I never met) used to make it all the time, but that hers was taller and had a darker caramel.
Allison W says
Happy Birthday!!! That looks divine! Today is my birthday and I'm now contemplating making a cake for myself even though my SO has made me one already!
Im At Home Baking says
Yum!!! Looks very delicious!
Amy @ What Jew Wanna Eat says
Happy birthday, Anna!
Kathy says
Happy Birthday! 🙂
beth says
Happy Birthday and thanks for introducing me to Southern Carmel Cake! Sounds devine.
beth
Sue says
Oh my! That looks wonderful.
Linda says
Happy Birthday, Anna!
Katrina says
Looks great! I have that same red-bottom (white top, Walmart special?) cake keeper. 😉 A couple years ago Parker had a caramel cake for his birthday, but it was a caramel buttercream. He'd probably like this though. He doesn't like chocolate.
Sue/the view from great island says
This looks so good, I've been dying to try a recipe for caramel cake since I had some in North Carolina last year, thanks for the inspiration!
Ela says
Happy Birthday, Anna!!! You baked my very favorite cake. Cheers!!!
Martha says
Happy Birthday, Anna! Your southern caramel cake looks delicious. As a cook with a large lazy streak, I love how the cake mix doctor make baking easy and accessible, but usually prefer the taste/texture of from-scratch cakes.
karen says
Wow - that looks like the real deal - your courage paid off! Happy Birthday!
Amy says
whoa! Yum! I grew up on this, but several skinny layers. Will anxiously await your frosting experiments.