Anne’s New Favorite Caramel Cake

By carvalhohm

Ingredients

• Cake:
• Vegetable oil spray for misting the pans
• Flour for dusting the pans
• 1 package (18.5 ounces) Duncan Hines butter recipe golden cake mix
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 container (8 ounces) whipped cream cheese
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup warm water, or until smooth
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Caramel Frosting:
• 1 stick salted butter (if use unsalted add a pinch of salt)
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup milk, plus a splash of cream if you have it
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Details

Adapted from cakemixdoctor.com

Preparation

Step 1

Place rack in center of oven and set oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist two 9-inch round or square cake pans with vegetable oil spray and dust with flour. Shake out excess flour. Set pans aside.

For cake, place cake mix, sugar, cream cheese, oil, water, eggs, and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are incorporated, 30 seconds. Stop machine and scrape down sides of bowl. Increase mixer speed to medium and blend until batter is smooth, 1½ to 2 minutes. Divide batter between two prepared pans. Place pans in oven side by side. Bake until layers are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with finger, 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove layers to rack to cool for 10 minutes, then run knife around edges, and invert cake layers once, and then again, so that they rest right-side up. Let the layers cool 20 to 30 minutes. Prepare frosting.

Caramel-cake-cooling.jpg 4) Immediately, while the frosting is warm, place one layer on a cake plate or cake saver and ladle a generous spoonful of the warm frosting over. With a long metal icing spatula, spread it out. Add more frosting as needed, and smooth it out. Place the second layer on top, and ladle generous spoonfuls of frosting on the top, spreading it out while warm. As the frosting cools, it will thicken up. Dip the icing spatula into the frosting and pull out just enough frosting to apply to the sides of the cake. Repeat until the sides are coated with frosting. Repeat the process adding more frosting to the cake sides, going around the cake once again. Use clean and smooth strokes. If the frosting hardens during the process, place it back over low heat and stir until it softens. Add a little more milk if needed. Slice and serve.

While the layers are cooling, prepare the frosting. Place the butter and brown sugars in a medium-size heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir and cook until the mixture comes to a boil, about 2 minutes. Add the milk, stir, and bring the mixture back to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat. Add about 2 cups of the confectioners’ sugar and the vanilla. Beat with a wooden spoon or whisk until the frosting is smooth. Add up to ½ cup more sugar if the frosting is too thin, but not so much so that it thickens and hardens.

As I share this cake and my caramel frosting recipe, I know many of you struggle to get caramel frosting on the cake perfectly. As it goes on warm, it is not as easy to worth with as a buttercream, and without a doubt, practice makes perfect. But here are some tips to prevent the frosting from hardening before you can spread it all on the cake:

- Measure out the confectioners’ sugar before you begin. Sift out any lumps.
- Don’t add all the sugar at one time, holding back ½ cup and only adding it if the frosting seems too thin.
- Or, add a splash of heavy cream to the frosting ingredients after you added the milk. This makes the frosting creamier and a little easier to spread.
- If the frosting begins to harden, add a splash of milk to the pan, and place the pan back over low heat and stir until it is smooth enough to spread.