Caramel That Holds Its Own: Milk Chocolate Caramel Sheet Cake

Edd Kimber says that his recipe for "Milk Chocolate Caramel Sheet Cake" -- a chocolate cake topped with whipped caramel-milk chocolate ganache -- is the reason that his cookbook One Tin Bakes exists. It is the very first recipe in the book and in the headnote Edd explains that it is his "OG one tin cake," and that "If there is one cake I want you to try, it's this one."
 
You need to make the ganache first because it requires some chilling time before it can be whipped to use as frosting. You make a caramel by melting sugar and cooking it until it's dark golden brown (or, as the recipe quaintly describes, "the color of an old copper coin"); adding butter, salt, and warm cream; cooking until smooth; and adding vanilla and more warmed cream. You pour the hot caramel over milk chocolate (I used Cacao Barry Lactée Supérieure), stir until smooth, and chill the ganache until it's soft and scoopable.
 
The cake is a one-bowl recipe that you mix by hand. You combine the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and light brown sugar) in a bowl; form a well in the middle and pour in all of the remaining ingredients (eggs, oil, sour cream, and hot brewed coffee); and whisk until smooth. I poured the batter into a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan to bake.
After the cake was completely cooled, I whipped the chilled ganache to a spreading consistency and used it to frost the top of the cake. I scattered salted peanuts and shaved chocolate on top (the recipe calls for peanut and cacao nibs, but I didn't have any nibs). 
 
This cake is oustanding. The cake itself is light, springy, moist, and deeply chocolate-y. And the ganache is insanely good. It's luscious but light, and the caramel flavor and milk chocolate flavors are equally prominent. This ganache is quite similar to the frosting for the Sweet and Salty Cake from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. The Baked version is made with dark chocolate and also contains a much higher proportion of butter. As it happens, I made the Sweet and Salty Cake for a friend's birthday just a few days after making this cake, so I was able to compare the two frostings. Using milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate makes a huge difference. In Edd's recipe the caramel and milk chocolate are evenly paired, while in the Baked version the dark chocolate dominates the ganache and the caramel is relegated to a small supporting role. While both versions are delicious, I have a particular appreciation for Edd's, because if you're going to go to the trouble of making ganache with caramel, it's nice to be able to clearly taste the caramel in the end product. And the caramel flavor of the ganache definitely makes this stand out from your run-of-the-mill chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
 
I do have one minor criticism of this cake. I just don't get the peanut garnish. I mean, there are no peanuts anywhere else in the cake, so the addition of peanuts seemed truly random and slightly out of place. If anything, I think that candied nuts would make more sense. But it doesn't really matter, because this cake doesn't need any garnish at all.

Recipe: "Milk Chocolate Caramel Sheet Cake" from One Tin Bakes by Edd Kimber, recipe available here from Edd's blog The Boy Who Bakes.

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