Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

Yay! I finally got to bake!

So originally I was supposed to make this cake for my host family's nabe party but they moved the party so instead I made it for my family's past host student who returned to Japan for a couple of weeks to visit. Until the very end I was indecisive about which chocolate cake to make, this one I've never tried before, a different new recipe, or another tried and true one I've made before for a friend's birthday which I know is delicious. Thankfully, I'm always up for a challenge and so I went with this recipe that I found through foodgawker. I am soooo happy with the results and I know I will keep making this recipe because it is so delicious and it's relatively easy to make.

I've adapted the 6 Bittersweets recipe to how I make cake and used the original Sweet Paul frosting because it's a tasty ganache recipe and because I still haven't found a frosting recipe I really like.

chocolate frosting INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate, chopped (228 g)

1 cup heavy cream (580 g)

DIRECTIONS:

Place chocolate in a large bowl. Bring cream to just boiling in a small saucepan and pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Stir gently until it's a smooth cream; cool.

salted caramel filling INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup sugar (115 g)

3-4 TBS water

1 TBS honey or light corn syrup or maple pancake syrup

1/3 cup heavy cream or whole milk (193 g)

2 TBS unsalted butter

1 tsp fleur de sel OR other fine-grained sea salt

1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans and walnuts will work well, I used the latter)

DIRECTIONS:

Place the sugar, water, and honey in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Turn the heat up to medium and allow the mixture to cook without stirring until the sugar turns a dark amber/caramel color (about 7 minutes). If the mixture is browning unevenly then lift pot from burner and swirl it a couple times, then place back on burner. When it's the appropriate color, remove the pot from heat, and pour in the cream (the mixture will bubble up). Stir well to prevent clumps, then stir in the butter and salt. Let the filling cool to room temperature. Then cover the pot and chill in the refrigerator until needed. The nuts will not be needed until the cake assembly phase.

chocolate cake INGREDIENTS:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (224 g)

1 cup sugar (200 g)

1/2 - 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (64-96 g)

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup vanilla yogurt (245 g)

1 cup strong black coffee OR 2 tsp instant coffee powder plus 1 cup boiling water

1 cup buttermilk OR 1 TBS lemon juice plus milk to equal 1 cup

2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350*F (175*C). Grease with butter and dust with cocoa powder (or powdered sugar or flour) two 9 inch round pans, line pans with wax paper.

In a large bowl, sift and then stir together all the dry ingredients (the first 6 ingredients). Add the wet ingredients. Beat by hand or with an electric mixer on medium speed until well combined.

Pour the batter, which will be thin, into the prepared pans. Tap the pans firmly against the counter one time to remove any air bubbles. Bake just until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean (about 35-40 minutes). Let cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then remove to wire racks and let them cool completely there.

If need be, cut off the rise on the cake layers to make two even leveled layers. Place a small dollop of frosting in the center of a cake pan or stand and top with one cool cake layer. Warm the caramel filling still in the saucepan over low heat for 5 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until of thick spreadable consistency. Spread evenly over the cake, then add chopped nuts. Place the second cake layer over the filling and frost the top (and sides, optional) with the ganache frosting. Finish the cake off with a sprinkle if sea salt and/or decorate with remaining whole nuts, if desired.

NOTES:

- I've included some metric measurements in the parenthesis after the ingredients because Japan uses metric therefore I made this recipe using metric measurements.

-The salted caramel filling and chocolate ganache frosting should be made first so they have time to set and come to a cool temperature before frosting.

- If you semisweet chocolate instead of the bittersweet chocolate for the ganache frosting then make sure to put an extra 1/2 - 1 tsp of salt in the caramel to balance out the cake.
- Two mistakes I made while making the caramel filling: 1) I didn't fully allow the sugar to fully dissolve before turning up the heat. Make sure you do so the mixture doesn't burn and clump up on you when you add the milk. 2) I didn't watch the caramel while it was cooking (original recipe said 10 minutes and that's a long time to wait over the stove!) so at around 8 minutes my host family's kitchen started to smell of burnt sugar and started to haze a little. So... WATCH THE CARAMEL! Luckily, I didn't burn down the house and it's easy enough to make a second batch of the caramel. It also allowed me to realize that the swirling technique makes for good, evenly cooked caramel.

- I reduced the amount of sugar in the actual cake portion because it seemed ridiculous to have more sugar than flour in the cake, and I knew that the ganache would make the cake sweet enough because I used semisweet chocolate instead of bittersweet. If using bittersweet chocolate then you can increase the amount of sugar up to 1 cup ( think 1/2 cup is good enough).
- I like making cakes with yogurt instead of eggs and oil (a Paula Deen tip) because it makes the cake slightly more healthful and more moist. If you don't have vanilla yogurt on hand then you can just use plain (unflavored) yogurt and add an additional tsp of vanilla.

- Below is a finished picture of the whole cake. I decided to frost the entire cake (instead of just the top) because I made the cake the day before consumption so I wanted to seal the cake to make sure it wouldn't dry out.

The cake and directions seem a little daunting but trust me it's really easy (maybe not for beginners though) and you will love the results!

Since my host family's nabe party was rescheduled I'm thinking I should suggest that I make the dessert. I'm thinking cream puffs, guava cake, or the classic Japanese strawberry shortcake. I'll let my host parents decide but it's something to look forward to (maybe they'll let me bake more often if the next one is also a success).

Enjoy!