This Cornish sea salted caramel cake is rich and chocolatey. But most importantly the recipe offers the discerning punter three separate hits of salted caramel, all with differing intensities. It’s the best and also the perfect birthday cake for any salted caramel lover.
On Friday, we celebrated Cornwall Clandestine Cake Club’s first birthday. With this momentous event in mind, we were tasked with making something rather special, a “birthday cake”. Not, I hasten to add, that the CCC cakes aren’t always special.
I’ve written a post about the splendiferous fare that appeared at the first birthday celebrations of Cornwall Clandestine Cake Club. And the location was absolutely stunning. Do take a look.
Dive Right In
- Best Salted Caramel Cake?
- How To Make Salted Caramel
- Why Does Caramel Seize Up?
- Top Tips For Making Caramel
- Other Salted Caramel Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- The Recipe
Best Salted Caramel Cake
Since first writing this post, I’ve tried many a salted caramel cake and I have to say this Cornish sea salted version is the absolute best.
Modesty be hanged, this cake proved to be very popular with the other cake club members and I only got to try a tiny slice. It’s rich and chocolatey and offers the discerning punter three separate hits of salted caramel with differing intensities in the various layers. This just proves to me that salted caramel has not yet had its day.
So, how did my Cornish sea salted caramel birthday cake come about? You may well ask.
Prior to making it, I’d seen a few caramel cakes on the internet and I’d also just tried Green & Black’s new sea salted milk chocolate which I rather fell for. These two events combined to give me salted caramel on the brain. I thus decided to indulge my new found obsession and make a salted caramel chocolate cake.
I couldn’t find anything in my recipe books or on the net that appealed, so I adapted the chocolate caramel cupcakes I made a couple of years ago to fit my vision.
My vision didn’t quite work out as I’d imagined with the caramel dripping enticingly down the sides of the cake. By the time I got to apply it, the caramel had set. I did, however, manage the drip effect with this almost as good salted caramel chocolate cake.
The sponges are fairly simple ones and made with cocoa powder rather than chocolate. But as they include salted caramel, the flavour is anything but simple.
In fact the key to this salted caramel cake is the homemade sea salted caramel. It’s in the cake, in the buttercream and stars at the end all by itself.
What’s The Best Flour To Use?
For this cake, I used spelt flour, half wholemeal and half white. However, it’s fine to use ordinary plain flour or a hundred percent wholemeal. If you have a reliable brand of gluten-free flour, that should work too.
If you only have self-raising flour, then omit the baking powder.
How Long Does Salted Caramel Cake Last?
The cheeky answer to this is probably not very long. But if you do find you have some leftover, salted caramel cake will keep in an air tight container in a cool place for three days.
Can You Freeze Salted Caramel Cake?
You can freeze the salted caramel chocolate sponges prior to assembly. Just wrap them individually and make sure you lay them flat in the freezer. They will keep well for at least a month.
To use, take them out of the freezer but keep them in their wrappings until they’re thoroughly defrosted. Then proceed as per the recipe.
How To Make Sea Salted Caramel
Homemade salted caramel is wonderful stuff. Whilst warm, you can pour it over cakes, pancakes, fruit or whatever else grabs your fancy. It cools, however, to a lush spreadable consistency. In fact I like to eat it straight out of a jar with a spoon – shhhh, don’t tell.
When you get the hang of making caramel, it’s really quite easy. It doesn’t take long to make either. And it’s so worth it as it’s much nicer and cheaper than buying commercial varieties. All you need is sugar, water and cream. Oh and for salted caramel, you’ll need some sea salt too.
Use a large heavy bottomed pan and a long handled wooden spoon. When you add cream to caramel it can bubble up and as it’s hot stuff, you don’t want any splatters or spills. Best to wear long sleeves just in case.
First off, dissolve the sugar in water over a low heat. Then crank up the heat to medium high and let that caramel bubble for a few minutes until it turns a dark golden colour. The darker the colour, the more caramel flavour you will get. But don’t take your eyes off it as it can burn very easily.
As soon as the sugar caramelises pour in hot cream and stir hard. Finally, stir in some sea salt and vanilla extract. Job done.
Homemade salted caramel will keep in the fridge for at least a couple of weeks.
Why Does Caramel Seize Up?
Caramel seizes when the sugar crystallises. Seizing means the caramel clumps up, often into a really hard lump. This can happen for a number of reasons.
The two most common ones are caused by stirring the caramel as it cooks and adding cold liquids, such as cream.
If the melting sugar splashes up the side of the pan, it can quickly dry out. This causes it to crystallise which often sets up a chain reaction with the rest of the sugar. To avoid this issue, let the caramel cook undisturbed. If it needs any attention, gently swirl the pan of sugar as it cooks and refrain from stirring it – however tempted you are.
If it does seize, take off the heat and add a little more water to dissolve the crystals. Then continue from where you left off.
Top Tips For Making Caramel
A tip I picked up a long time ago, but don’t always remember, is to heat cream before you add it to hot caramel. If you add cold cream, the mixture will seize. This isn’t a disaster, but you do have to do a lot of stirring to smooth it all out.
Use a heavy bottomed pan which is more likely to heat up evenly. A thin pan can cause some of the sugar to burn before the rest has melted.
Cook the caramel over a moderately high heat, not a really high one. It’s very easy to burn sugar and if that happens your caramel is ruined.
Add a little honey or glucose syrup to the sugar as it melts. Both of these help to prevent the crystallisation process.
Use a wet pastry brush to keep the sides of the pan clean as the caramel cooks.
Cornish Sea Salted Buttercream
The buttercream is a wonder all by itself. It’s the part that sandwiches the two sea salted caramel chocolate sponges together.
If I was a little less restrained I’d have dived in and eaten the whole lot all by myself. It’s basically a mix of buttercream and my homemade salted caramel. Both appear in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
I don’t use as much sugar in my buttercream as most recipes because a) I don’t like it too sweet and b) too much sugar is a very bad thing. However, because this buttercream is also mixed with salted caramel, there’s still plenty of sugar to be had.
Make sure your butter is nice and soft before you start creaming it with the sugar. I often take my butter out of the fridge way too late and end up giving myself arm ache trying to mix it with the sugar.
As you’ve probably gathered I tend to make my cakes and frostings by hand, but you can use an electric mixer if you prefer.
Other Salted Caramel Recipes You Might Like
- Chilli chocolate madeleines with salted caramel sauce
- Cornish sea salted caramel brownies
- Healthy salted caramel sauce (vegan)
- Homemade Easter eggs with salted caramel popcorn
- Marmite caramel brownies
- Salted caramelised almond chocolates
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this Cornish sea salted caramel cake, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for making salted caramel?
I’d very much appreciate it if you could rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, please use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.
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If you’d like more birthday cake recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Best Salted Caramel Cake. PIN IT.
Best Salted Caramel Cake
Ingredients
Salted Caramel
- 225 g golden caster sugar
- 100 ml water
- 200 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- ½ tsp sea salt (I used Cornish sea salt)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cakes
- 250 g unsalted butter – softened
- 200 g dark brown sugar
- 3 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
- 200 g flour (I used half wholemeal spelt and half white)
- 40 g cocoa powder
- 1½ tsp baking powder
Buttercream
- 80 g salted butter – softened
- 120 g icing sugar
Instructions
Salted Caramel
- Dissolve the sugar in a large pan over a gentle heat with the water. Don’t stir, but give an occasional swirl.225 g golden caster sugar, 100 ml water
- Once dissolved, bring to the boil and leave for a few minutes to bubble away. “Watch like a hawk” for it to turn to a nice reddish brown caramel colour and to ensure it doesn’t burn.
- Meanwhile, heat the cream in another pan to near, but not quite boiling. Basically it needs to be hot to stop the caramel from seizing when you stir it in.200 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- As soon as the sugar has caramelised, pour in the hot cream and stir until smooth. Be careful not to burn yourself as the mixture may bubble up.
- Stir in the salt and vanilla extract and leave to cool.½ tsp sea salt, 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cakes
- Set the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.250 g unsalted butter – softened, 200 g dark brown sugar
- Beat in about one ⅓ of the cooled caramel.
- Break in the eggs, one by one and beat well. If the mixture starts to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour.3 large eggs
- Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder and stir until everything is just mixed.200 g flour, 40 g cocoa powder, 1½ tsp baking powder
- Divide the batter between two 20 cm (8 inch) round silicone cake moulds or lined tins. Level with the back of a spoon, then bake in the centre of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out more or less clean.
- Leave to cool for ten minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Buttercream
- Cream the butter and icing sugar together until the mixture is very light and fluffy.80 g salted butter – softened, 120 g icing sugar
- Beat in another ⅓ of the caramel (in other words, half the remaining caramel).
- Spread on top of one of the cooled cakes and place the other on top to form a sandwich.
- Lick the bowl clean – cook’s perk!
- Spread the remaining caramel over the top of the cake.
- Decorate as you please. I sprinkled various milk, dark and white chocolate bits over the top and dusted very lightly with two types of edible gold glitter.
Cassimac says
I am not the best of bakers but tried this out for my hubby”s birthday as salted caramel is his thing and it sure hit the mark … totally delish and the instructions were so easy to follow ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Choclette says
Woohoo, so pleased you tried it and it hit the mark so well. It looked lush in the photo you posted. Thank you for the feedback.
Beingmefrom82 says
I can’t wait to try out this recipe!!! It’s just what my taste buds have been waiting for!!! Salted caramel AND chocolate!!! What a great combo!!! x x x
Choclette says
This is one I shall be returning to again for sure, chocolate and sea salted caramel is my favourite thing at the moment. Do let me know how you get on.
Homemade by Fleur says
I’ve just tried that new Green and Blacks chocolate too. It’s lovely, I know sea salted stuff has been around for a while, but I only just discovered it really. Your cake looks amazing, and just the sort of thing I would try. Thanks for posting.
Choclette says
Thanks Fleur. It’s ridiculous, I’ve always tried to keep salt to a minimum and now I want it in all my chocolate!
Vickii says
This looks absolutely amazing and I’m sure tasted even better! I LOVE salted caramel! I think it just might be my favourite thing in the whole wide world!
Choclette says
Thanks Vicki – I sort of feel the same way 😉
Javelin Warrior says
This cake is epic, Choclette! And I love that you didn’t ice the entire cake, but instead left the sides bare – the contrast between the layers and center filling is gorgeous. And I’m sure this tasted just as wonderful as it looks… I’m featuring this post in today’s Food Fetish Friday (with a link-back and attribution as always). Thanks for continuing to inspire me with your creations…
Choclette says
Hey, good to see you recovered JW and very pleased this has made it into your Food Fetish Friday. Thanks also for your lovely complement 🙂
Green Dragonette says
Oh my oh my-that sounds a fantastic cake!!
Choclette says
Thank you GD 🙂
Recipe Junkie says
Just reading this recipe is making me slaver. How delicious. I love salted caramel/toffee
Choclette says
Ooh, now I’ve not had a salted caramel toffee before – I’m missing out!
franglaiskitchen.com says
quite simply a stunning cake, with some delicious ingredients. I do love chocolate and caramel and this cake with its fudgy salted caramel filling and topping works for me ! Nazima (Franglais Kitchen) x
Choclette says
Thank you Nazima, I was quietly pleased with this one 🙂
celia says
That looks amazing, Choc! It would be a huge hit here – my boys are big caramel fans!
Choclette says
You’re boys have very good taste Celia 🙂
Julia | JuliasAlbum.com says
Wow, this looks delicious! I use cooked condensed milk a lot instead of caramel, I wonder if it would work here.
Choclette says
I should think that would work really well. You could try it and let me know 🙂
Janine says
This sounds delicious – I can see why there was barely any left for you! I’ll bookmark this for baking asap as I’ve wanted to try making salted caramel for a while.
Choclette says
Would love it if you tested it out for me Janine 😉
hungryhinny says
I commented on this yesterday but it seems not to have appeared – I think blogger hates me!
Anyway, what I said yesterday was something along the lines of AMAZING cake, but disappointed that I could only manage a tiny slice at Cake Club and the slice I brought home mysteriously disappeared…
And what I was coming back to say today is have you tried the Kernow Chocolate salted milk chocolate? Would be interesting to know how it compares to G&B’s…
Choclette says
Oh sorry Nat. I suspect it’s to do with the wretched capcha, which bugs me no end. I wonder how many other comments I’m losing.
Thanks for your endorsement, there were a lot of very tasty cakes, including yours. I think I might have tried the Kernow choc at the Cornwall Food Fest, but would need to do a compare and contrast directly. I like G&B because of the higher cocoa content AND it’s organic and fair trade, but I do like to support local too – a dilemma!
All That I'm Eating says
What a cake. It sounds immense! Wish I could have been at the party for a slice!
Choclette says
Would have loved you to have been there too 🙂
laura@howtocookgoodfood says
What a stunner! I haven’t tried this G&B flavour yet. I do like Lindt’s dark choc with a hint of sea salt but think this could even be better. This is certainly a cake I will be making for a special occasion, probably my hub’s birthday which is in December. Flavours both he & I adore 🙂 xx
Choclette says
Thank you Laura, It’s certainly a birthday cake I would appreciate. I didn’t know about the Lindt, so will have to look out for that. But as I generally prefer a good milk chocolate, I suspect I might prefer the G&B,
underthebluegumtree.com says
Yum!!!!! #thatisall
Choclette says
Indeed AND that was all 😉
Phil in the Kitchen says
Sounds and looks absolutely lovely. Salted caramel is a lovely thing, no doubt about it.
Choclette says
Thanks Phil, I’m very happy for this particular flavour to stick around a while longer.
mylittleitaliankitchen says
What a lovely looking cake and very original with salted caramel. Delicious.
Choclette says
Thank you Alida 🙂
Chiara says
But is wonderful….slurp! Ciao from Roma! 🙂
Choclette says
Thank you Chiara 🙂
Rachel Cotterill says
I’m obsessed by salted caramel ( not craftsmen, as my phone suggests…) at the moment. This sounds wonderful 🙂
Choclette says
Well there are worse things than craftsmen 😉 Salted caramel is a particularly fine taste 🙂
Chris says
That cakes looks totally gorgeous. I have to bookmark this definitely.I don’t know what everyone is doing to me at the moment, or maybe I’m just in the mood or attracted by all these cakes and sweet recips.
Choclette says
It’s the cold, wet and dark weather, it makes us all crave comfort food Chris 🙂
The Caked Crusader says
Love how you’ve decorated this – looks so classy
Choclette says
Thanks CC – cake decorating is a bit hit and miss I find, but I got it right this time 😀
Chele says
I wouldn’t have thought it possible but you have totally outdone yourself with this bombshell of a cake. What a gem. Salted caramel with chocolate and in a cake form is surely unbeatable.
Choclette says
Thanks Chele, I’ve been dreaming this one up for quite some time 😉
Katharine says
What a beautiful looking cake! It sounds delicious too – I love the combination of salted caramel and chocolate!
Choclette says
Thank you Katherine, it’s one of my favourite combinations and it proved to be popular with everyone else too.
manu says
On Friday we celebated a bithday too, my daughter’s (12 yrs)…
This cake looks delicius, we made chocolate cupcakes!!
Choclette says
Manu, many happy returns to your daughter. I expect your cupcakes were lovely. I’ll come and take a look.
Foodycat says
It looks gorgeous! I would be honoured to have that as my birthday cake. I also rather like the way the caramel has stayed on top, it gives nice extra height.
Choclette says
Ah, thank you. The height was a bit of an issue, the cakes didn’t rise as well as I’d hoped, but actually the taste and texture were fine.
Joanna @ Zeb Bakes says
What a beauty! That is one classy cake 🙂
Choclette says
Oh thank you Jo 😀
belleau kitchen says
Oh C it is a thing of beauty!… I am still in love with the whole salted caramel thing and this, with it’s quite fudgy looking icing really must hit the spot!… I didn’t know about the Green and Blacks new flavour so I MUST pop out and get this soon… beautiful cake, wish I’d been there to try a slice.
Choclette says
Thanks Dom – me too, not living in the oh most fashionable London, I’ve still in love with it too. Would have loved you to have been there and to have tried a slice. It would be fun to have a cake club with a crowd of us bloggers.
Kath says
Oh Good Lord Choc that cake looks amazing! It sounds absolutely heavenly, oh to live in Cornwall….
Choclette says
Thank goodness I live in Cornwall Kath, it’s the cake & beautiful empty spaces that keep me going.
Baked with kindness... says
That sounds absolutely fantastic! I’ve been getting my fill of the salted caramel mocha that they have in Starbucks at the moment, I haven’t had a chance to get hold of the new G&B salted caramel chocolate though.
Will have to try this, thank you :O)
Choclette says
Thanks Ryan. Don’t want to get your hopes up, G&B don’t have salted caramel yet, not as far as I know anyway. There new bar is sea salted milk chocolate.
Caroline says
Wow, that looks utterly fabulous. I’m not surprised it was popular at CCC – at least you got to try a small slice. I must try the whole salted chocolate/caramel thing, it seems to have passed me by.
Choclette says
Thanks C. I guess it’s not so very different from peanut butter used in baking – sweet and salt in that combination seems to be very popular.