IT’S BEEN ages since we featured food-related things here, but recently happened upon this pretty sweet Salted Caramel Buttercream & Chocolate Cake by hint of vanilla on tumblr and thought it might be perfect for Valentine’s Day…
Recipe & images from hint of vanilla
Ingredients
DEVILS FOOD CAKE
Recipe from Bouchon Bakery Cookbook
202 g all-purpose flour
62 g unsweetened alkalised cocoa powder
5 g baking soda
1 g baking powder
2 g kosher salt
112 g eggs
252 g granulated sugar
4 g vanilla paste
172 g mayonnaise
210 g water, at room temperature
SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE
250 g granulated sugar
125 g water
235 g heavy cream
1 vanilla pod
3 g salt
SALTED CARAMEL BUTTERCREAM
120 g egg whites
200 g granulated sugar
454 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
120-175 g caramel sauce
Instructions
For the cake, preheat the oven to 325 F. Spray two 6 inch cake rings with non-stick spray and place on a lined baking sheet.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder into a medium bowl. Add the salt and stir to combine.
Place the eggs, sugar, and vanilla paste in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and mix on medium-low speed for about 1 minute to combine. Increase the speed to medium and whip for 5 minutes, until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then whip on medium-high speed for another 5 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened. When the whisk is lifted, the mixture should form a slowly dissolving ribbon.
Add the mayonnaise and whip to combine. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and fold in the dry ingredients and water in 2 additions each.
Portion the batter evenly between the two cake rings. Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool completely. Remove from the cake rings and place in the fridge to make splitting the cakes easier.
For the caramel sauce, place the sugar and water in a large saucepan and heat over low to dissolve the sugar.
Meanwhile, place the heavy cream in a small pot and scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean, adding them and the pod into the cream. Heat over medium heat until warm, then switch off the heat.
Once the sugar has dissolved, increase to medium-high heat and cook until the sugar syrup turns a deep amber. Add the cream mixture (it will bubble up quite a bit) but do not stir it until all the cream has been added and the bubbles have subsided. Add the salt and let cool to room temperature.
For the buttercream, put the egg whites and granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set up a double boiler and place the bowl over it. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and is no longer gritty when rubbed between two fingers. Remove from heat and whip on medium-high heat until cool.
Slowly add the butter piece by piece while the mixer is running. Once everything has come together, slowly add the room-temperature caramel sauce bit by bit. Add a smaller amount if you want a lightly flavoured buttercream or the maximum if you want an intensely flavoured buttercream. (You can use the leftover caramel sauce for coffee, over ice cream, in yogurt, or in hot chocolate.)
Set aside the buttercream.
Split the cake layers into two layers each. Place one layer on a cake turntable and add some buttercream. Smooth out to an even layer. Add the next cake layer. Repeat with all layers. Finally, coat the cake with a light layer of buttercream to “lock in” all the crumbs. Refrigerate until the buttercream is firm.
Once firm, finish coating the cake with buttercream. If you want, put some of the buttercream in a piping bag and pipe any message you like.