Ultimate Caramel Cake

Soft Caramel Cake with Caramel Buttercream, Caramel Filling, and Caramel Drip and Toppings!

Course Dessert

Keyword Cake

3 eggs room temperature
1 egg white room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream room temperature
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla
2 Tablespoons caramel extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour sifted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 "Butter Golden" cake mix Sifted. Any brand will do, but I prefer Duncan Hines.

1 cup Wilton Salted Caramel Candy Melts *can be subbed with homemade or store-bought caramel, too. I just prefer the look and ease of the melts for this recipe.
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 325 convection bake, or 350 traditional bake. Prep three 6" or two 8" cake pans with a swipe of shortening and dust of flour. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, hand whisk together all wet ingredients (eggs, buttermilk, sour cream, vegetable oil, extracts) until thoroughly combined. Add in the sifted dry ingredients (flour, cake mix) and brown sugar, and whisk until just combined. Don't over-mix!
Split batter evenly between prepared cake pans, and bake for 25-27 minutes until center is baked. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pans for 2 minutes, then flip cakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap carefully, then store in the freezer for 2 hours to overnight before decorating.

*In an hour or two in advance, make the brown butter: With TWO of the four butter sticks (so 1 cup of butter), melt them in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Keep the heat on medium, or else it will cook to quickly and burn. Whisk until butter starts to foam, then watch carefully as it changes to a dark amber color. It should smell nutty and begin to change pretty quickly. Immediately remove from the heat when this happens (it can go from brown to burned very fast), and pour into a glass bowl. Make sure to scrape up any little brown bits - that's where most of the flavor comes from! Set aside in the fridge for an hour or two until the browned butter turns back into a solid.
In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip up the browned butter, remaining 1 cup of butter, on high speed until the butter is light and fluffy in texture and color.
Add in salt, extracts, and heavy cream. Scrape down the sides, and then add in the powdered sugar slowly. It will get thick - add in a touch more of heavy cream (1 tablespoon at a time) if needed. Whip buttercream on high speed for 2 minutes to thicken and lighten. Adjust consistency if needed.

In a microwave-safe bowl, stir together the caramel candy melts and heavy cream. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir.

On a cake turntable and cardboard cake round, add on a touch of buttercream on the bottom, then stack on the first cake round. Spread on some buttercream, then pipe a dam around the outside rim of the cake round. Add on 1/4 cup of the caramel filling, then stack on the next cake round. Repeat. Crumb coat, then freeze 5 minutes, then add on the final layer of buttercream. I used the end of my straight icing spatula and my cake turntable to make the textured line around the cake. Freeze 2 minutes to firm. Add on caramel ganache drip, freeze for 2 minutes to set, then hand place on the caramel treat garnishes.