Olivia is one of our super talented teenage bakers!
Her blog Sifted Flour shows the beautiful cupcakes that Olivia is renowned for with her friends and family. We think she has done an extraordinary job with this salted caramel cake. Olivia says “It is a brown sugar cake with alternating layers of salted caramel and chocolate ganache, covered in vanilla bean buttercream, salted caramel and topped with spun caramelised sugar”.
Yum!
Brown Sugar Cake:
- 225g unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 1 ½ cup self raising flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Preheat oven to 175° and line two 9-inch cake pans with butter and flour to prevent sticking. In an electric mixer, on medium speed, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time until incorporated, continue to beat for another minute until fluffy again. In a separate bowl, sift flours together to make sure there are no lumps. Add flour mixture in thirds alternating with milk and vanilla paste (make sure you start and end with the flour mix). Split the batter into the two prepared pans and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Let sit in pans for about 5 minutes and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Chocolate Ganache:
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- ½ cup heavy cream
In a microwave safe bowl, add the cream and heat for one minute, or until hot to the touch. Add in chocolate chips and stir until smooth and combined. Cool in the fridge (preferably overnight).
Salted Caramel:
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tsp fleur de sel
Add the water and sugar to a medium sized pot with high sides. Let sugar and water melt and boil until the mixture has turned a light brown colour, approximately 7 minutes. Remove the mix from the heat and add the cream and vanilla, stir until combined. Put back on the heat until the caramel has thickened and bubbled up, about 3 minutes. Add the salt and stir. Place in a heatproof bowl and put in the fridge to cool completely (preferably overnight).
Vanilla bean buttercream:
- 250g unsalted butter, softened
- 6 cups icing sugar
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, 5 cups of icing sugar, milk and vanilla bean paste until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. If the buttercream is too thin, add icing sugar ¼ cup at a time until desired thickness. If it is too thin, add 1 tsp of additional milk at a time until desired thickness.
i am one of the people who entered and am the youngest who entered… i love your cake, it looks amazing!! i wish i could do that! if you havent voted already voted for yours or someone elses cake could you pleeeaaassse vote for mine. i know im not going to win but i want to at least see how many votes i can get!!!! if you do, thank you so much!!
I agree with Katie, that that is one of the best cakes I’ve ever seen.
It looks stunning good job
Looks fantastic. I could eat it off the page. Wonderful effort with the spun caramalised sugar. Not easy to do.