Today is Club Baked day! Twice a month the club bakers are given a recipe to make from the book Baked Exploration by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Everyone makes the same recipe and then we share it, with the hostess posting the actual recipe. This time around the recipe was Chocolate Coffee Cake . So why is my recipe called Chocolate Caramel Cake? I am not a coffee lover. At all. The previous Club Baked recipe was Coffee Ice Cream. I didn’t join in because, ya know, the coffee thing. I didn’t want to miss another round of baking, so I made some changes in the recipe, and I was good to go. So was the cake. It was delicious!
Chocolate Caramel Cake w/ Milk Chocolate Ganache Cake: 3/4 cup dark unsweetened Cocoa Powder 2/3 cup Sour Cream 2 2/3 cup Flour 2 teaspoons Baking Powder 1 teaspoon Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon Salt 3/4 cup Butter (soft, cut in to 1″ cubes) 1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening 1 1/2 cup Sugar 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar 3 Eggs 1 tablespoon Vanilla
Caramel Buttercream
1 1/2 cups Sugar 1/3 cup Flour 1 1/2 cup Milk 1/3 cup Heavy Cream 1 1/2 cup Butter(soft, cut into small pieces) 1 teaspoon Vanilla 3 tablespoon Caramel Flavoring Syrup
Chocolate Glaze
8 ounces good quality Milk Chocolate 3/4 cup Butter (soft, cut into small pieces) 1 tablespoon light Corn Syrup
Cake:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare your pans. In a medium bowl, mix your cocoa powder and sour cream with 1 1/4 cup hot water. Set aside to cool. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. With your mixer and a paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening on medium until fluffy and light, about 5 minutes. Add the sugars and beat on medium until light and fluffy, about 5 more minutes. Add eggs, one at a time. Turn mixer to low, and add vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and mix again for 5 minutes. Beginning with the dry ingredients, add the dry mix and the cocoa mix to the mixer bowl, alternating each and ending with the dry. 
Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes. Let cool.
Caramel Buttercream:
In a medium saucepan, whisk the sugar and flour together. Add milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until mix comes to a boil. Transfer mixture to bowl of standing mixer. Beat on high until cool, about 7-9 minutes. Reduce to low and add the butter. Mix until incorporated. Increase speed to medium high and beat until frosting is fluffy and light, 1-2 minutes. Add vanilla and caramel flavoring, and continue mixing until combined. If frosting is soft, place in fridge until it firms up. Then remove and beat again. If your frosting is too thick, set the bowl over a pot of boiling water, and beat with a wooden spoon until it is of proper consistency. 
 Frost your cake. Chocolate Glaze: Place chocolate, butter, and corn syrup in the top of a double boiler. 
 Stir until mix is completely melted and smooth. Remove from heat, and stir some more to release heat. Drizzle glaze over cake. If you want you can place your cake on a wire rack with a piece of parchment under it. When you drizzle, the unused glaze will end up on the parchment. If you don’t wish to do it this way, just drizzle the cake when it is on the plate.  It piles up a little, but it still looks pretty!! Garnish cake with chocolate rocks.  Refrigerate the cake for about 20 minutes to set the glaze,
but serve at room temperature.
This cake would be perfect for Father’s Day!!
This cake is wonderful. It does have a lot of ingredients, but you
get to make homemade buttercream, and if you love
chocolate, it’s perfect! You can also make it in stages.
I made the cake one day, put it in the freezer, the buttercream the next,
and then make the ganache the final day!
Thanks for joining me!
