One of my co-workers is getting married in August. I mentioned making some Triple Salted Caramel cupcakes for a friend a few weeks ago, and she informed me that she would like me to make a Salted Caramel Cake for her wedding. The cupcakes are amazing! But I was nervous about trying to turn it into a cake. These are decadent and rich, but the frosting is a little difficult to work with. It involves making a homemade caramel and then mixing that with powdered sugar and spreading on the cupcakes while it's still warm. The problem is that there's not a lot of fat in the frosting, and once it starts cooling, it becomes a crumbly and difficult to spread (it's really more of a layer of soft caramel candy). So I suggested a naked cake.
Basically, a naked cake is a cake that just has the frosting between the layers and not along the sides. It lends itself to a more rustic look, which is perfect for the wedding vibe the bride-to-be was going for. The best part is that any imperfections just add to the feel of the cake, so it's a great way to make a beautiful cake that you don't need to spend a lot of time fussing over.
That said, I'd never made one before, and I wasn't sure how it would turn out with this recipe, so we needed to do a trial run!
I used the same recipe that I used for the cupcakes from Sally's Baking Addiction. This was just a trial, so I just used the standard sized cake pans that come in a set. I wrapped some plastic wrap around my fingers, took a big chunk of Crisco, and greased the pans. Then I sprinkled flour in them and tapped the pans around so there was a light layer of flour. Flip the pan over the sink and gently tap the bottom and sides to shake off the excess. (I realize this might be basic, but a lot of people don't know about flouring pans. This is the best way to get your cakes to release without sticking to the bottom or sides.)
I doubled the recipe, and poured it into the two pans. For future reference, the double recipe made about six cups of battter. This is important to help me plan on how much I'll need to make for the actual wedding cake.
Now, the recipe is for cupcakes and so the baking time listed was about 22 minutes. I am paranoid about overbaking cakes, so I set the timer for 35 minutes. And when I tested them with a toothpick they came out clean. However, once they had cooled and I started cutting them, they were a touch underdone. I'll bake them a little longer next time!
Once the cakes had cooled, I flipped them over and carefully cut the top off so it was nice and flat. I use a big bread knife (pictured to the left) and very carefully keep my left hand on top of the cake while I start at one side and work across. Applying pressure from the top keeps the cake from tearing along the edges, and also helps keep the cut as even as possible. You can then throw the thin top layer away, save it to crumble up as part of the cake presentation, or do what I do and use it for "quality control" purposes. (Have to make sure you're serving a high-quality product to your guests!)
The key to making the naked cakes beautiful is for the layers of cake and frosting to be similar in thickness. Since the frosting is VERY rich, I knew that I would just be using a thin layer, so the cake layers needed to be thin as well. So using the same technique as before with the bread knife, I very carefully cut the two cakes in half, so I had four layers. I chose the bottom piece that turned out best and used that for the top (placed cut side down so the top is nice and smooth and you don't have to worry about crumbs), the other bottom piece was used for the base, and then I only ended up using one of the middle layers since I didn't quite have enough frosting for a four-layer cake! (Again, this is why it's important to experiment!)
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| The layer on the right became the top of the cake. The little spots are just a couple spots where the brown sugar didn't get mixed in as well as it should have. |
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| I desperately need more counter space for my projects! |
With this particular recipe, you need to work fast once the caramel is made, so I got my cake layers ready, and then went to work on the frosting. I doubled the recipe to make the caramel, and then mixed about three-fourths of that with four cups of powdered sugar, reserving the rest of the caramel to pour on top at the end. I quickly spread the caramel between the cake layers. By the time I got to the top (seriously, this probably took less than 5 minutes), the frosting was beginning to cool to the point where it wasn't spreading easily with my off-set spreader. However, it worked pretty well for me to just press it out with my hands. I knew I was going to be pouring the caramel over the top and putting the candies on top, so I wasn't concerned about getting the layer perfectly smooth, but I did want it to be level. I also wanted to make sure that you could see the caramel frosting layer between the cake layers. You can see that I did a better job of that between the second and third layers than between the first and second layers. Good thing I practiced!
I let the reserved caramel cool a little longer until it had thickened up, and then carefully poured that over the top of the cake, making sure I poured from center out so that I could make sure the caramel would drip down the side of the cake. Looking at the amount of pooling that occured at the bottom of the cake, I could've cut back on the amount of caramel I poured on top, and I'm definitely making a note of that for when I make the final wedding version.
Even with the beautiful caramel poured over, it just needed something else on top to make it feel completed. And since there wasn't enough sugar already, I unwrapped a bag of Rolos and piled those on top in the center. As a finishing touch, I found some salt flakes at our local Fresh Market and sprinkled a generous amount over top of the Rolos to give it a little sparkle.
Since this was coming to work with me, I didn't display on a cake stand, but I'm sure you can imagine how beautiful it could be as the centerpiece on a dessert table at a wedding.
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| Final product!
I think for the wedding we'll end up doing a tier of this cake and a tier of an apple spice cake with cream cheese frosting with the caramel poured over the whole thing. This is just too rich for an entire wedding cake! To help cut the sweetness, you could also top with salted nuts. I refrigerated this overnight and it wasn't completely warmed to room temperature when we cut into it at work the next morning. But you will want to try to make sure it's at room temperature before serving.
What do you think? Ready to attempt this one on your own? Let me know if you have any questions!
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