It’s the weekend after Thanksgiving, official start to Christmas shopping and Sugar Season. It’s the time of year that I pick up 5 pounds of sugar or a liter of corn syrup every time I’m at the grocery. The extra sugar was a good excuse to adapt Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, created by Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater.
A few words on this cake…it is dense…dense like a pound cake. The sheer heft of the cake when I removed it from the pan was what made me sure the cake was a disaster. If you make cupcakes with this, you’ll get caramel flavored hockey pucks.
The heft comes from using a true butter-cake technique of creaming butter and sugar together, then alternating additions of flour and milk….rather than the usual “quick bread” technique in vegan baking of mixing wet ingredients carefully into dry ingredients (more like muffins than true cake).
The thing that makes this cake work is the caramel syrup. It gives the whole thing a subtle, rich, buttery flavor.
I decorated with Starburst candy. Just zap the candies in the microwave for a few seconds, roll them out and cut into shapes. Cool!.
Print
Caramel Cake
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons dairy-free margarine
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup Caramel Syrup (recipe below)
- 2 Ener-G egg replacers whipped until thick (I use an immersion blender)
- Splash of vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup dairy-free milk, thickened with 1 T. cider vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Line two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans with a parchment round and spray well with oil.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream margarine until smooth.
- Add sugar and salt, cream until light and fluffy. This takes forever, I’m not kidding.
- Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl.Scrape down bowl and increase speed.
- Add egg replacers and vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.
- Sift flour and baking powder together.
- Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the flour mixture.
- When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time.
- Add another third of the flour, then the other half of the milk and finish with the flour. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}
- Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform.
- Divide batter among the two pans.
- Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean.
- Remove from pan to a cooling rack as soon as you can, if it sits in the pan for too long, it gets really soggy. Cool cake completely before frosting.
Caramel Syrup
Description
Sugar and water, this is just magical.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup water 1 cup water for “stopping”
Instructions
- In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand.
- Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush.
- Turn on heat to highest flame.
- Cook until rich amber. You can test the color by dabbing a bit on a white plate.
- When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and prepared to step back.
- Whisk over medium heat until it the sugar is dissolved and the syrup has reduced slightly. It should be the sticky thickness of maple syrup or warm honey.
Caramel Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup dairy-free margarine
- 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 T. Caramel Syrup (recipe above)
- 1 t. vanilla
- 2–4 T. dairy-free milk
Instructions
- Cream shortening and margarine and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add caramel syrup and vanilla.
- Add enough milk to make a thick frosting.
Notes
See my posts on Dairy-Free Milk Substitutes and Dairy-Free Butter Alternatives, if you need suggestions.
Shop This Post
Your cake is beautiful! I love the leaves!
You get the prize on the most darling decorated cake. I love how you made if for each person to enjoy. I found this cake to be a keeper.
Awesome job on the cakes!! – such pretty decoration too…as a Canadian, I have maple leaf appreciation inborn 🙂
Oh la la,
What a wonderful and beautiful cake you have there. Now, I am jealous!
Good job, dear.
Cheers,
Elra
I think your maple tree decoration is unique. Very creative indeed.
Aww! That is so cute! Lovely cake,
Terrific cake–aren't you a trooper to make it twice! Love the starburst leaves…so much better tasting than marzipan, don't you think?
I love how your decorated the cake!
And you made two???? Oh my goodness..I barely had time to make the one! Great job@
I love the tree on the cake and the photo is to die for. Sounds like you really enjoyed this challenge. thanks for the comments on my blog. Happy holidays to you and your ken.
What a stunning cake — I love the tree!!
Wow! I LOVE how you decorated this cake, its so beautiful I would have been hesitant on cutting it up!
Amazing job.
The Starburst leaves are gorgeous!
Lovely lovely fall decorated cake!
I love the starburst decorations–really great.
Yours is one of the more colorful caramel cakes I've seen- It's really lovely!
How creative! The cake looks beautiful!
Wowie!! What a fantastic cake. So creative. I love it. And it looks like it tasted great.
Wow, these recipes are intense! …and you seem to have quite a following. Good work!
Glad you liked the videos. They're fun to show after all this time but, Yikes! there's a lot of bad ones to go through.
Have you heard of google's "reader"? It's great for blogs. It brings all the blogs you follow to one place, kinda like when you "follow" a blog on blogger but the whole thing comes there. I just discovered it and have you, dan, and two friends from china on it.
Lovely, as usual. Hey – can you point me in the right direction? I am looking for easy recipes for lunch and dinner. Thanks for any help!
I am new to your blog, but I am so excited about it. We have the same allergy issues with my little man (14 months old). Anyway, we made this cake and it tasted so good. YUMMY. I made it for an extended family meal, and no one knew that it was "Timmy safe". Thanks!
Oh my goodness you are talented!!!