Another scrumptious cake for political volunteers or a family gathering...
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| Nothing healthy about this: just rich moist chocolate cake, laced with caramel flavours, covered with creamy caramel icing & bits of caramel chocolate bars 'True and luscious hit! People have helped themselves to repeated slices.' Taster |
Everyone loves chocolate cake, especially dark rich yummy chocolate cakes like Grandma used to make.
Every baker has a favourite chocolate cake recipe (or two) that can - with a few simple twists - be turned into a completely different taste sensation.
This Chocolate Caramel Cake is one of those recipes.
Based on the mother-of-the-florist-friend of tv chef Ina Garten, it is -- in its original iteration -- a beautiful tender-crumbed chocolate cake that serves many.
But with 67's addition of natural caramel flavour, a rich decadent not-too-sweet caramel icing, and some chopped up currently-on-offer chocolate caramel bars*, it's a taste sensation.
OK, the cake does seem to have a shocking amount of sugar but the rest of the ingredients more than outweighs them. Sugar also seems to help the cake retain its moist, tender texture for at least a week (if you're lucky!) and to taste better as time goes by.
The original recipe is posted under Beatty's Chocolate Cake and was posted not long after the Blog started. It was classed as a Cake for Busy Grannies because it's so easy to put together. Some 7 years on, the simplicity of preparation is still a vote-winner.
Chocolate Caramel Cake does require light vegetable oil but only 120ml. (Some Vegan bakers recommend melted vegan margarine but 67 has not tested this substitution.)
150gm/5.3oz plain flour
60gm/2.1oz wholemeal flour
250gm/8.8oz white sugar
90gm/3.5oz cocoa powder(not drinking chocolate)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
240 ml buttermilk, shaken
120 ml light vegetable oil
2 eggs at room temperature
1 tsp good vanilla essence
240 ml freshly brewed hot coffee (enhances chocolate flavour)
75g/2.6oz very soft butter
3/4 cup icing sugar3/4 tsp caramel flavouring (near the vanilla in the bakery section)1 tbsp milk
1/2 x 120g/4.2oz chocolate caramel bar, chopped in small pieces
