How to Make Caramel Cake
This caramel cake recipe is so moist, flavorful and delicious. The recipe is not difficult to follow, and you will love the brown sugar flavor!
You can find our full, printable recipe card further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- Flour Mixture: In a separate bowl combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk at least 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
- Sour Cream Mixture: In another bowl combine the sour cream, vanilla, oil, and milk. Stir and set aside.
- Butter and Sugar: In the bowl of your mixer add the butter that is still very cool and cut into ½ inch slices. Beat on low to medium speed until smooth and light, one to two minutes (longer if using hand mixer). Slowly add the white and brown sugar beating on MEDIUM speed until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes (longer using a hand mixer).
- Eggs: Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each egg is added, just until it is blended in.
- Alternating Dry and Wet Ingredients: With the electric mixer on low speed (with paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Time to Bake! Pour batter into 3 prepared cake pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the center pulls out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. The cake also springs back when lightly touched.
- Cool: Cool the cakes, still in their pans on a wire rack for about ten minutes before turning out.
More Favorite Caramel Cake & Frosting Recipes!
If you love caramel, don't miss these other favorites from our Recipes section!
Caramel Cake with Caramel Frosting {A Scratch Recipe}
This moist, delicious Caramel Cake with Caramel Frosting is sure to please a crowd! The brown sugar gives it a wonderful flavor!
Ingredients
- Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour three 8 x2 inch round pans
- 1 ½ sticks (12 T) (170g) unsalted butter ...cut into ½ inch slices, softened slightly,
- 1 cup (200g) white granulated sugar
- 1 cup (217g) light brown sugar (packed)
- 3 large eggs
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour, lightly spooned into measuring cup and leveled
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla flavoring
- ½ cup (121g) milk (We used whole milk)
- ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil
For the Caramel Frosting
- 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups (326g) firmly backed light brown sugar
- 1 (18g) tablespoon light corn syrup
- ⅓ cup (72g) whipping cream (half and half or whole milk works also)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 4 cups (460g) confectioners sugar (measure then sift)
Instructions
For the Caramel Cake Layers
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. (For dark colored pans, heat to 325 F). Grease and flour two 8x2 inch round pans.
- In a separate bowl combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk at least 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
- In another bowl combine the sour cream, vanilla, oil, and milk. Stir and set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer add the butter. Beat on low to medium speed until smooth.
- Slowly add the white and brown sugar beating on MEDIUM speed until the mixture has lightened in color and is fluffy- approximately 2 minutes (longer using a hand mixer).
- Next, add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each each addition until yolk is blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stop and scrape down the sides of bowl once or twice as need. After the last addition of dry ingredients, mix just until blended.
- Pour the cake batter into 3 prepared cake pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the center pulls out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. The cake also springs back when lightly touched.
- Makes 8 cups of batter
For the Caramel Frosting
- In a rather deep saucepan, heat butter, brown sugar, and light corn syrup over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue cooking for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Try to keep mixture off sides of pan.
- Add the cream and salt and continue stirring until it begins to boil. Remove from heat, add the vanilla, and cool for 15 minutes or so. Pour into the bowl of your mixer if it is metal or a heat proof bowl. You can also use a hand mixer. Pour carefully as this is very hot.
- Add the confectioners sugar to the hot mixture bit by bit, mixing at medium speed until smooth.
- The mixture will thicken as the powdered sugar is added. Add a small amount of very hot water (Tablespoon or teaspoon) as needed until the frosting reaches a good consistency for spreading.
Notes
This caramel frosting is not the consistency of a typical buttercream frosting. It quickly develops a crust as it cools (though not at all grainy) and works best with textured designs rather than piped.
However, I have found that the crusted frosting smooths very easily with a hot (slightly dampened) spatula or even a Viva (no impressions) paper towel.
For the hot knife method, just freeze the cake for 15 minutes (or just until frost is firm) and then go over it with a very hot metal bench scraper or spatula to remove any imperfections in the frosting. (We heat the spatula/bench scraper under very hot water).
Hi Beth- I haven't tried to do much piping with this recipe- I'll make it soon and leave an update for you. This frosting does set up very quickly...the amount of powdered sugar could be reduced and would probably make it better for piping. I'll let you know!
I made this recipe and absolutely love the cake. It is moist and delicious. The frosting has a great taste but it’s a little too sweet but that may just be me.
Love your recipes!!!
Hello, would love to make this cake and the frosting. Just wondering if there's any substitute for the heavy whipping cream? I love your recipes, easy to make and absolutely delicious
Hi Melissa, will you be able to help with the measurements for making a 6" cake..
Ann
Hi Ann, We use approximately 2 cups batter for each 6 inch round pan. This recipe makes 8 cups of batter, so to make a 2 layer cake using 6x2 inch round pans you can divide the recipe in half. To divide the 3 eggs in half, you will use 1 whole egg and for the 1/2 egg do the following: break an egg into a measuring cup and whisk with a fork to blend the yellow and the white. When well blended, if you have a food scale you could weight the blended egg (gram weight) and use 1/2 of that amount. If you don't have a scale, 1 large egg is usually 1/4 cup, 1/4 cup is 4 Tablespoons so you will use only 2 Tablespoons.
Thanks a lot for your reply... I tried and it came out well....have you tried using full brown sugar for a more caramel taste (instead of half white and brown sugar)
Ann
Hi Ann, We have never tried using all brown sugar. If you try that, let us know what you think.
Hello! Can't wait to try your recipe. Would this work to make this same recipe into cupcakes? And what is the drizzle that you used for the cake? Is there a recipe for it?
Hi LaTanya, Yes, this will work well for cupcakes. For standard size cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. The drizzle on the cake is the caramel that you will make, a few Tablespoons will be reserved before completing if you want some for a drizzle. Melissa explains this in the write up. Remember that this frosting sets up very quickly. Hope you love the recipe.
Hi! Can I use the reversed creaming method
On this and your peanut butter cake?
Hi Kim, The Reverse Creaming Method of mixing works well in recipes when the weight of the sugar is equal to or greater than the weight of the flour. For this Caramel Cake recipe the combined weight of the white and brown sugar is 417 grams and the flour is 342 grams, so Reverse Creaming should work well for this recipe as well as the Peanut Butter Cake recipe. Hope you will enjoy the cakes.