Chocolate Caramel Cake

4 layers of rich, moist chocolate cake slathered in a mocha frosting and drizzled in homemade caramel sauce. This cake is the perfect combination of chocolate and caramel! 

Just look at those drips! How could you resist? 

This cake was so amazing. The chocolate cake recipe is THE BEST. It's moist, rich, and just dense enough to make a sturdy layer cake. Something that has become a necessary step in making chocolate cakes for me is adding coffee. Adding coffee is one of those secret weapons you learn to use everywhere you possibly can. Coffee enhances and brings out the richness of the chocolate flavor. It doesn't make it coffee-flavored, just ultra chocolate-y. Once you try it you won't go back!

I decided to add coffee to the frosting, however. This does make it coffee flavored, since it isn't being baked out. Coffee + chocolate = mocha! Add some caramel and you have yourself a "caramel mocha cake"!! 

The caramel sauce was leftover from making it homemade, here. What better way to use such nectar of the gods than to dump it on a cake? Exactly.

The cake recipe makes 2 thick 6-inch layers that I divided in half to get 4 layers. The frosting makes enough to fill and frost the cake. The caramel sauce...never enough.

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Chocolate Caramel Cake

by Julia Hampton-Sprinkled With Jules September-21-2015

Rich chocolate layer cake filled with a mocha buttercream frosting and drizzled in caramel sauce.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tea. vanilla
• 1/2 tea. salt
• 1 tea. baking powder
• 1 tea. baking soda
• 1 3/4 cup. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup hot black coffee

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare 2 6" pans with non-stick spray. In a small bowl, whisk cocoa powder and hot coffee together, and set aside to cool. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together on high until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.2. After butter is creamed, beat in eggs and vanilla, one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix some more. 3. Once the coffee mixture is no longer warm to the touch, mix it into the butter mixture slowly with the mixer on low.4. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and gently mix to incorporate. Divide batter evenly between the two pans, and bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs. Let cool in the pans 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Details

Prep time: Cook time: Total time: 1 hour Yield: 1-6" layer cake

Find the recipe for caramel sauce here!

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Mocha Buttercream Frosting

by Julia Hampton- Sprinkled With Jules September-21-2015

Delicious fluffy mocha buttercream.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup coffee, room temperature
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 6-8 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tea. salt

Instructions

1. Cream the butter until smooth, and then slowly pour in half of the coffee.2. Mix in cocoa powder, and then powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, keeping the mixer on low speed. 3. Add more powdered sugar for a stiffer consistency, and add more coffee to thin and smooth it out. Continue until you reach the desired consistency.

Details

Prep time: Cook time: Total time: 15 mins Yield: 3-4 cups