While I'm employed at a federal agency with more than 1,000 employees, the particular office where I currently work is small and only has seven people. That's small enough that we celebrate everyone's birthday. Our office birthdays happen to fall in clusters; we have a pair that are only two days apart and another pair that are only four days apart. But I don't see anything wrong with having birthday cake more than once in a given week. So two days after I made the Snow White Layer Cake with Strawberry Mascarpone Frosting, I was on the hunt for another birthday cake recipe. I decided to go with the "Double Dip Caramel Cake" from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.
Richardson is the owner of Baker & Spice bakery in Portland, Oregon. She moved into the bakery space after another local bakery had been there for fifty years and it turns out that the previous occupants left behind a filing cabinet full of baking formulas, journals, and magazines dating back to the 1920s. The Double Dip Caramel Cake recipe was part of this vintage stash. It's comprised of six layers of cake, soaked with salted caramel and filled and covered with caramel frosting.
To make the salted caramel sauce, you boil water and sugar until dark amber; add heavy cream and cook until dissolved; and mix in vanilla and salt. At this point I have so much experience with caramel that I can make it without fear of burning it, but that was definitely not always the case. The cake is a vanilla high-ratio cake that includes sour cream. You make the batter using the high-ratio mixing method: you put all of the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) into a mixing bowl; add softened butter and sour cream; and then gradually add the remaining wet ingredients (eggs, egg yolks, more sour cream, and vanilla). You divide the batter between three 8-inch parchment-lined pans and bake.
The frosting is a standard American buttercream. It's a mixture of
softened butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, and a cup of cooled salted
caramel sauce; the caramel made it a light shade of ecru. Before assembling the cake, I split each of the three cooled cake layers in half. I had wrapped each cake pan with a bake even strip before baking and the cakes had perfectly flat tops that didn't require leveling.
I spread some salted caramel sauce on the cut side of one cake layer before spreading on caramel frosting, stacking on the next cake layer, and repeating the process. I had plenty of frosting to cover the top and sides in a nice thick layer, and to pipe a small border around the bottom edge. I kept the decoration simple with some fondant letters and a single fondant flower. The rolled fondant was leftover from McKenna's communion cake and it was white; I didn't knead dye into it but colored the fondant by applying edible petal dust onto the letters and flower before placing them on the cake. I wasn't as careful as I should have been about making sure I brushed off all of the excess petal dust and there were some stray specks and smears of petal dust on top of the cake.
This cake cut beautifully and even thin slices stayed intact with all of their layers. While I love salted caramel and I thought this cake looked great, it was a little disappointing. I thought the cake was way too sweet. Each cake layer had a good soaking of caramel sauce, and the frosting was so sweet it reminded me of Oreo filling -- even more so than the caramel frosting for the Ovenly black stout chocolate cake, which is made from a very similar recipe but with less caramel. The cake just seemed like too much. That said, it was a hit with my tasters and everyone cleaned their plates.
I don't think I would make this cake again. The Antique Caramel Cake from Baked Elements probably remains my favorite cake in this genre. But if you, or someone you know, can't get enough caramel, this cake with its double dose of caramel might have your name written all over it.
Recipe: "Double Dip Caramel Cake" from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.
Previous Posts:
Richardson is the owner of Baker & Spice bakery in Portland, Oregon. She moved into the bakery space after another local bakery had been there for fifty years and it turns out that the previous occupants left behind a filing cabinet full of baking formulas, journals, and magazines dating back to the 1920s. The Double Dip Caramel Cake recipe was part of this vintage stash. It's comprised of six layers of cake, soaked with salted caramel and filled and covered with caramel frosting.
To make the salted caramel sauce, you boil water and sugar until dark amber; add heavy cream and cook until dissolved; and mix in vanilla and salt. At this point I have so much experience with caramel that I can make it without fear of burning it, but that was definitely not always the case. The cake is a vanilla high-ratio cake that includes sour cream. You make the batter using the high-ratio mixing method: you put all of the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) into a mixing bowl; add softened butter and sour cream; and then gradually add the remaining wet ingredients (eggs, egg yolks, more sour cream, and vanilla). You divide the batter between three 8-inch parchment-lined pans and bake.
I spread some salted caramel sauce on the cut side of one cake layer before spreading on caramel frosting, stacking on the next cake layer, and repeating the process. I had plenty of frosting to cover the top and sides in a nice thick layer, and to pipe a small border around the bottom edge. I kept the decoration simple with some fondant letters and a single fondant flower. The rolled fondant was leftover from McKenna's communion cake and it was white; I didn't knead dye into it but colored the fondant by applying edible petal dust onto the letters and flower before placing them on the cake. I wasn't as careful as I should have been about making sure I brushed off all of the excess petal dust and there were some stray specks and smears of petal dust on top of the cake.
I don't think I would make this cake again. The Antique Caramel Cake from Baked Elements probably remains my favorite cake in this genre. But if you, or someone you know, can't get enough caramel, this cake with its double dose of caramel might have your name written all over it.
Recipe: "Double Dip Caramel Cake" from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.
Previous Posts:
- "Nabisco Should Take Note: Black Chocolate Stout Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream," February 27, 2016.
- "Full of Surprises, Indeed: Revelatory Caramel Cake," June 18, 2015.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Buttery Pound Cake with Salty Caramel Glaze," April 26, 2015.
- "The Cake So Nice I Made It Twice: Antique Caramel Cake," January 25, 2013.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Caramel Apple Cake," September 11, 2011.
- "A Party Leftover Project: Caramel Cake," December 19, 2009.
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