Dorie Greenspan included a gorgeous, full-page photo of her "Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake" in her cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours. The recipe is in the "Celebration Cakes" section of the book and every time I flip though the cake chapter, I make a mental note that I need to get to the recipe some day. Some day finally arrived!
Although the visual presentation is fantastic, the cake is quite simple in concept and execution. You don't even need to use an electric mixer. To make the chocolate cake batter, you whisk together eggs, sugar, and light brown sugar; mix in corn syrup, vanilla, melted butter, and melted bittersweet chocolate; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt).
You are supposed to bake the cake in a springform pan, but I used a cheesecake pan with a removable bottom. My cheesecake pan was only two inches tall, and the cake rose right to the rim. The recipe says that the cake should puff during baking and that you shouldn't be concerned if the cake sinks a little or develops a crater in the center after you remove it from the pan. I think I might have overbaked the cake a little because while it did puff during baking, it had already sunk to form a deep hollow by the time I pulled it out of the oven.
To make the caramel topping, you cook sugar, water, and corn syrup until the mixture turns a dark amber color (no temperature is specified), and then add cream and butter. You stir in salted peanuts, and then spoon the hot caramel and nuts onto the cooled cake. The sunken top of my cake formed a big bowl that was able to hold quite a bit of caramel. The recipe says that you will probably have a half cup of caramel left over, but I poured all of of mine on top of the cake.
I baked the cake the night before I was going to serve it, and I secured a collar of parchment paper around the perimeter of the cake to make sure that the caramel stayed put. You are supposed to add the the caramel while the cake is still in the springform pan, releasing it from the pan just before serving. I didn't want to take the chance that the caramel would get stuck to a metal pan, so I decided to improvise with parchment instead.
The following morning, the cake looked great. When I removed the parchment paper, all of the caramel was still neatly in place. I took the photo above about an hour later, and during that time, the caramel had started a slow motion migration over the top edge of the cake. After I took the picture, I replaced the parchment paper, with the intention of removing it just before serving.
The slow moving caramel made things interesting. Although I was planning to serve the cake at an office party in the afternoon, a colleague stopped my office in the morning for a piece of cake. I took off the parchment collar, cut him a single slice, and then replaced the parchment. About four hours later, I went to transfer the cake to a serving platter for the party and realized that caramel had filled in the empty space where the missing slice of cake used to be. I'm not sure if this would have happened if the top of the cake had been level, but given the fact that it was deeply sunken, it's not surprising that the caramel would follow the flow of gravity.
I sliced the cake and put the slices on a platter. As the party wore on, the caramel from adjacent slices of cake started merging together and making it somewhat difficult to separate the pieces from one another. It might sound like I'm complaining about the caramel, but let me make one thing perfectly clear -- the caramel was freakin' delicious. The caramel was rich and smooth, with just the right amount of stretch and chew. And in combination with the peanuts, the topping was heavenly. It tasted like the candy bar filling of my dreams. I would eat it anytime, anywhere, and it would be delicious on just about any cake, brownie, or ice cream.
As for the brownie cake -- it was chocolatey, but I thought it was a touch dry (as I mentioned before, I think I might have overbaked it). But the cake was really beside the point -- this dessert is all about the caramel peanut topping. You could really just bake any brownie recipe and pour this caramel on top to create a wonderfully decadent treat.
Recipe: "Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake," from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.
Although the visual presentation is fantastic, the cake is quite simple in concept and execution. You don't even need to use an electric mixer. To make the chocolate cake batter, you whisk together eggs, sugar, and light brown sugar; mix in corn syrup, vanilla, melted butter, and melted bittersweet chocolate; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt).
You are supposed to bake the cake in a springform pan, but I used a cheesecake pan with a removable bottom. My cheesecake pan was only two inches tall, and the cake rose right to the rim. The recipe says that the cake should puff during baking and that you shouldn't be concerned if the cake sinks a little or develops a crater in the center after you remove it from the pan. I think I might have overbaked the cake a little because while it did puff during baking, it had already sunk to form a deep hollow by the time I pulled it out of the oven.
I baked the cake the night before I was going to serve it, and I secured a collar of parchment paper around the perimeter of the cake to make sure that the caramel stayed put. You are supposed to add the the caramel while the cake is still in the springform pan, releasing it from the pan just before serving. I didn't want to take the chance that the caramel would get stuck to a metal pan, so I decided to improvise with parchment instead.
The following morning, the cake looked great. When I removed the parchment paper, all of the caramel was still neatly in place. I took the photo above about an hour later, and during that time, the caramel had started a slow motion migration over the top edge of the cake. After I took the picture, I replaced the parchment paper, with the intention of removing it just before serving.
The slow moving caramel made things interesting. Although I was planning to serve the cake at an office party in the afternoon, a colleague stopped my office in the morning for a piece of cake. I took off the parchment collar, cut him a single slice, and then replaced the parchment. About four hours later, I went to transfer the cake to a serving platter for the party and realized that caramel had filled in the empty space where the missing slice of cake used to be. I'm not sure if this would have happened if the top of the cake had been level, but given the fact that it was deeply sunken, it's not surprising that the caramel would follow the flow of gravity.
I sliced the cake and put the slices on a platter. As the party wore on, the caramel from adjacent slices of cake started merging together and making it somewhat difficult to separate the pieces from one another. It might sound like I'm complaining about the caramel, but let me make one thing perfectly clear -- the caramel was freakin' delicious. The caramel was rich and smooth, with just the right amount of stretch and chew. And in combination with the peanuts, the topping was heavenly. It tasted like the candy bar filling of my dreams. I would eat it anytime, anywhere, and it would be delicious on just about any cake, brownie, or ice cream.
As for the brownie cake -- it was chocolatey, but I thought it was a touch dry (as I mentioned before, I think I might have overbaked it). But the cake was really beside the point -- this dessert is all about the caramel peanut topping. You could really just bake any brownie recipe and pour this caramel on top to create a wonderfully decadent treat.
Recipe: "Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake," from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan.
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