We are so excited to add this Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake recipe to our collection of favorites! I am a huge fan of all things coffee–actually too much for my own good.
Have you ever tried to pipe buttercream scrollwork after drinking two cups of coffee? Not so easy! (But I love the challenge, haha)
This Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake lives up to it’s name, with all of the star ingredients deliciously represented!
The caramel, vanilla, and espresso flavors are unmistakable without being overpowering. Perfection!
You will love the delightful caramel flavor of these moist cake layers (thanks to the brown sugar in the recipe) along with a hint of espresso.
The additional glaze of caramel between the layers as well as the Vanilla Latte Buttercream makes for a cake that is just out of this world!
How to Make Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake
After baking the three layers of Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake (your kitchen will smell divine), I glazed our cake layers with caramel sauce as I assembled and filled the cake.
Although our cake already has a lovely caramel flavor on it’s own, the caramel sauce gives a delicious boost!
After glazing the first Caramel Vanilla Latte cake layer with caramel sauce, I followed with a lush layer of Vanilla Latte Buttercream frosting. Ohhh so good!
I repeated this step for the second cake layer also. You can see in the above photo that I piped a ring of buttercream around the edge of the cake (using a piping bag with the tip snipped away).
I was playing it safe, although my caramel glaze was applied thinly enough that I probably could have skipped the dam.
After adding our third layer, I frosted the cake in a delicious coat of Vanilla Latte Buttercream! I used a french tip (Ateco 863) to add piping around the top edge of the cake.
Decorating the Cake…
You’ll notice that these piped “stars” on top are a bit lighter in color than our Vanilla Latte Buttercream. When whipping up the buttercream, I reserved about 1/2 cup before adding the coffee to the recipe.
I used this reserved buttercream for my stars. This gives us a little contrast but is a completely optional step!
Next, I drizzled the top with more caramel sauce. You can use a spoon for this, or use a piping bag with the tip snipped away if you’d like a little more control.
Finally, I applied a simple buttercream bead border using a medium sized round tip 12 and added a light dusting of cinnamon. Yum!!
If you love coffee flavored cakes, here are a few more favorites!
Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake Recipe
This Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake recipe has the perfect balance of caramel, vanilla, and espresso!
Ingredients
- 1 small jar Caramel Sauce (*This isn't used until assembly of cake)
- 1 1/2 sticks (169g) unsalted butter, softened slightly
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1/2 cup (108g) brown sugar (firmly pack the brown sugar into the cup)
- 4 large eggs, room temperature ( if cold, the eggs can be placed in a bowl with warm water for a few minutes)
- 2 3/4 cups (312g) cake flour **(if you do not have cake flour see substitution below)
- 1 teaspoon (6g) salt
- 2 1/2 teaspoons (12g) baking powder
- 1 cup (242g) milk
- 1 Tablespoon (4g) instant espresso powder (or instant coffee granules) dissolved in 1 Tablespoon hot water
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (53g) vegetable oil
Vanilla Latte Buttercream
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 6 cups (690g) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons ( 4g ) instant espresso powder (or coffee granules) dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (80g) heavy cream, more if needed to reach desired spreading consistency
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt to cut sweetness (optional) popcorn salt will dissolve more easily because of its fine grain
- Cinnamon (optional) Add a sprinkle of cinnamon over the top of cake if desired.
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8 inch round cake pans. Place a circle of parchment paper or wax paper in the bottom of each pan.
- In a medium bowl, add the milk, coffee, vanilla, and vegetable oil. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, cream the softened butter. Slowly add the sugar and beat at medium speed for 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time,mixing after each until the yellow streaks are blended in.
- Add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet). Do not over mix.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Check at 20 minutes. It is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes then turn out.
- The recipe makes 6 1/2 cups of batter
- Works well for cupcakes, the cupcakes will have a very slight dome
For the Vanilla Latte Buttercream
{*A quick note. I piped a few stars of vanilla buttercream around the top of my finished cake for a bit of a color contrast. If you would like to do the same, do not add the espresso to the frosting recipe until the second round of mixing, which is the last few minutes of mixing on low speed.}
- In the bowl of your mixer, mix the softened butter until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar along with the cream, vanilla, salt and espresso.
- Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes (longer if using a hand mixer) adding more liquid if needed to reach desired spreading consistency.
- Reduce speed of mixer to low and mix 3 minutes or more until the buttercream is creamy and smooth.
To Assemble the Cake
- Place the first cake layer onto your pedestal or cake base. Pipe a dam of buttercream around the layer. Spread a thin layer of caramel. Follow with the Vanilla Latte Buttercream filling. Add another cake layer & repeat.
- Frost the cake as desired with Vanilla Latte Buttercream. Drizzle caramel around edges and top. (I used a piping bag with the end snipped away for the caramel drizzle.)
- If you wish, you can apply Vanilla Buttercream stars around the top edge. (I did so with an Ateco 863)
Notes
***If you do not have cake flour, you can make your own. Substitution for cake flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of the all purpose flour (plain) and replace with 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch. For this recipe, remove 5 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons flour and replace with 5 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons teaspoons cornstarch. Whisk to blend.
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We hope that you give this fabulous homemade Caramel Vanilla Latte cake recipe a try! Even if you aren’t a huge fan of coffee, the hint of espresso is perfectly complemented by the caramel and vanilla. I can’t say enough about this cake!
Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to stop by our Recipes Section for our full collection of favorite cake recipes, frostings, and more!
OMGosh! Sounds divine :-) I will be adding this to my To Do List :-)
I am wondering about the cream. I am confused. I dont know what kind of cream to use. Can you please help me out.
Thank you
Thanks MsGF!! xo
@Jennifer- Thanks, I’ve updated the recipe to say “heavy cream” although you would be fine to use whipping cream or milk also. We just wanted to add a bit more richness.
My oh my you have everything I love in this cake, I cannot wait to get some free time to make this beauty, printed and on my fridge as my next to do. Thanks for sharing.
This looks delicious and is on my list to try next week :) I was happy to see that it uses the traditional method as I am one who can’t seem to get the reverse creaming method down. I know you are working on traditional method for your recipes and was wondering..do you have a sort of basic template that I could follow to turn any recipe into traditional method myself? Thanks ?
I made this today for my daughter’s Sweet 16. It’s delicious, but I did have a problem with the frosting. It kept slipping from the layers over the caramel sauce. Any recommendations?
Oh my deliciousness! I’m with you Melissa…reverse method doesn’t work well for me either!
Thank you – this recipe is on my To Do List too! Thank you for putting in the grammage for the recipes – I find that far more accurate. As I follow you from South Africa, I am querying your large eggs – we have large, extra large and jumbo. What is the weight of your eggs please?
Hi Marie-Anne, That is a good question. The gram weight of my eggs (with shell) range from 56g to 58 grams.
Hi Melissa, This is the basic formula for rewriting a reverse creaming recipe into the conventional mixing method.
Rewrite the recipe listing the ingredients in order of use:
Butter
Sugar
Eggs
Flour
Leavening (baking powder, baking soda)
salt
Milk
vanilla
vegetable oil (if used)
Have the eggs at room temperature
Set out the butter to soften slightly
Place the flour, salt and baking powder/baking soda in separate bowl and whisk, set aside
In another bowl add liquid ingredients such a milk, vanilla or vegetable oil, set aside until needed
1. Mix the slightly softened butter until smooth
2. Slowly add the sugar and mix on medium speed (4 on my Kitchenaid) 4 to 5 minutes. It will lighten in color and become fluffy
3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each until yellow streaks are blended in
4. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with dry ingredients (3 additions dry – 2 of wet)
Do not overmix.
It is a good idea to count the ingredients to make sure nothing is left out when rewriting a recipe.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have other questions.
I have to reiterate everyone’s comments. This cake looks absolutly divine. Can’t wait to make and share it.
I made this cake the other day to take into work and it was fantastic! Thank you so much for the recipe.
Hi Sue! So glad that you made it! LOVE the decoration!
The only change I would make is making my own caramel sauce because yum and it’s easy so everyone should learn to do it and I would make a SMBC or IMBC buttercream because the obsession with American Buttercream is completely lost on me. Ew. Otherwise this recipe is GENIUS! NOMNOMNOM
Hi Bake it, I’m so glad you like the recipe and the changes you suggest would be great also.
Just one question, could I leave out the coffee part of it and just have a caramel cake? I’m not a really big fan of coffee. Or would that alter the recipe any? TIA
Hi Jackie, Yes, you could use this recipe and leave out the coffee. We have a Caramel Cake recipe in the recipe section that you might like. Here is a link, https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/caramel-frosting-scratch/
I am SO looking forward to trying this cake after this ramadan.. ive got one small problem. In tiny little Denmark we cant buy caramel sauce in jars. The only thing availble is hersheys caramel bottle but im afraid its too concentrated for the cake?
Woow your recipes are amazing. Made this caramel vanilla cake and it was an instant hit. Love love this. Keep it up Bebe and CeCe.
Hi Melissa, BeBe and All Who Are Reading This :-)
I have had GREAT success with REVERSE CREAM. In fact, it’s my favorite method. I have had many positive reviews re the subtle change in density of cake, texture of crumb and the cake is still light and “airy”. Often, I take recipes that look appealing and make subtle changes to what is originally a conventional method and create a reverse cream method cake. Great results. I will also change from 8″ to 6″ with several additional pans to use for the extra batter. In other words, (as an example), an 8″, 2 pan can become a 6″ 3-pan recipe and will use 335 temperature vs 350. No dome, gorgeous sides/edges. Moist, WOW! This particular cake recipe looks lovely. QUESTION? If I were to adjust sugar (total gram weight), can I reverse cream, pretty please? :-D :-)
Hi Lisa, You can use the reverse creaming method with this recipe. The reverse creaming method works best with high ratio cakes, meaning the weight of the sugar is equal to or greater than the weight of the flour. In this recipe the weight of the sugar and flour are almost equal so I think it would be best not to decrease the amount of sugar (if that is what you meant by adjusting the gram weight).
Hi BeBe, thank you for your reply to my question. To confirm that I am indeed understanding you correctly, “do what you do” when using the Reverse Cream method, (I’m very comfortable using the steps re the order of ingredients, their additions and amount of time for mixing) from your recipes that use reverse cream and leave sugar as it is in the recipe as shown as sugar weight is “close enough to work”. Good?
Hi Lisa, Yes, I think the sugar weight at 308g is close enough to flour weight of 312g, but it would be fine to increase the sugar 4g making both sugar and flour 312g. Hope you like the recipe.
Hi BeBe, thank you again for your reply to my eMail and clarification of sugar adjustments. I’ll keep you posted on my results. This recipe sounds like a delicously perfect dessert for my BBQ next weekend. :-) Lisa G.
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Dear Melissa and BeBe, it’s hard to pick a favorite as you both have created so many wonderful recipes … but this recipe might just “take the cake”. It’s absolutely wonderful. Thank you both for all that goes into each creation, then for all the support and expertise we get as your students. This cake is absolutely delicious. I can hardly wait for the next “excuse” to bake. :-) Your Fan, Lisa G.
I must be pleased for sharing your ideas. Thank you for the good writes up. It’s a brilliant job.
Greetings, CakenGifts :-) Thank you for your kind words. Happy Baking. :-)
Love all your cake. I love to cook and bake. I really want to learn how to make cakes. This website is very helpful of making cakes. I just wish i can go to school for this. Thank you. God bless
@Lisa G- Sorry for my delayed reply but I’m SO glad that you liked the recipe! xo
@Hazel- Thanks so much!
Hey Melissa and bebe
I do make fondant cakes but I have one big issue when I make any cream filling like mascapone or any soft fillings
My cakes sweat… please why it sweats and can we do fresh cream filling cakes with fondant
I have this in the oven but it’s a smaller recipe than I expected. Can I double this without having any issues?
Hi, This recipe makes 6 1/2 cups batter. I have not doubled this recipe, but you should be able to do so without any problems.
I know it says to use 3 8” pans but I used 2 and my cakes are a little less tan 1” high. I was expecting them to be a little taller since I cut out a pan. I do this quite often with cake recipes that call for 3 8” pans because mine are 3” high and usually accommodate the batter and…I only have 2. This sort of makes the decision pretty easy!
Sorry, a little over 1” high.
The cake layers should definitely be higher since you only used 2 pans. Check the date of your baking powder to make sure it is still good.
All my ingredients are fresh, I go through them too quickly! I measured them before I torted them and they were about 1.25″. I carefully measure my batter using a scale so they were about as evenly poured as you can get. Aside from having to alter for high elevation, I made no changes. However, they are amazing! Such a delicious cake, I’d consider doubling it so I only have to bake once. I like 4 layers of 1″ cake, it’s my thing I guess…not really sure why. This recipe is delicious and the crumb is wonderful. I made home made caramel and vanilla & coffee flavored swiss meringue buttercream and it’s just perfect. I’m taking it to work tomorrow and I’m pretty sure everyone is going to love it!
Absolutely delicious & a big hit!! As always! Thank you so much!
Hi GuppyLove, Thank you so much for posting your comment!! So glad you like the cake!!
Omg I made this cake last week and the batter tasted so good , I had to find ghtbiff my family to get it baked!! Delish! This cake is to die for! Thanks so much for sharing it!
Hi Ann-Marie! So happy that you liked it! xo
This looks delicious! Love your recipes. Can this cake be covered in fondant? Thank you. ?
Hi Gloria, We have not covered it in fondant, but I think it would be fine to do so.
I love to make this kind of frosting but i can’t find heavy cream instead its an all purpose cream. What can you advise me to my all purpose cream turns to heavy cream?
Hi Marjorie, If you have a cream that can be used to make whipped cream, it will be fine for this recipe.
Hi Melissa I’m from Zimbabwe we don’t have caramel sauce but we have a caramel treat. It’s a dairy dessert filling and topping. It’s thick like condensed milk. Can it be used.
Hi Manjula, Melissa and I never used this product so I can’t be sure, but it does sound like it could work in the recipe. I would give it a try. Let us know how it goes.
Hi Bebe, here is a pic of my cake
Hi Manjula, Your cake is beautiful!! I’m very happy it worked for you, thank you so much for posting your picture!!
Is this firm enough to cover in fondant?
Hi Lisa, Yes, it is.
Hi Melissa, I made this today. I used only two 8” pans but the layers were only 1” in height. The icing was very sweet. I added more cream as well but it was still way too sweet. So I will have to make another cake.
Hi Hazel, I’m sorry that you had trouble with this recipe, it is one of our favorites. If only making two layers, they should definitely have baked up taller than 1 inch each. Since the cakes didn’t rise, I would double check that your baking powder isn’t out of date.
If I were to make this recipe for cupcakes should I use the conventional method instead?
Hi Jessica, This recipe is written in the conventional method and works well for cupcakes. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3’s full, they do not rise with a high dome – they will be gently rounded. Bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
Hi Melissa, the icing tasted way too sweet but after the cake has been in the fridge it was delicious. I wasted my time making another cake. Lucky neighbors got a share. Thank you!
Hi there. I am longing to try this cake for my daughters birthday in a couple of days because she loves anything caramel but I can’t seem to find the recipe for the caramel sauce that you use. Can you please advise on that.
Thanks,
Jenny
Hi Jenny, We did not make caramel sauce. We used a small jar of Smuckers caramel sauce It is usually found on or near the ice cream isle. It is the first item listed on the ingredient list. You could use homemade sauce but we just wanted to use this shortcut. I hope your daughter will enjoy the cake.
Is the batter supposed to be pretty runny?
Hi Amanda, I don’t remember the batter being extra runny, but so many cakes, I can’t be sure.
Hi! mine was a bit more runny than I am accustomed to, however, it turned out great. No problem. <3
Hi Fariza, Yes, you can use all brown sugar in the recipe. The cake will still have the same sweetness but using all brown sugar will change the texture and flavor a bit. Since brown sugar contains molasses, I would use light brown sugar to have less of a flavor change. Let us know how you like the recipe using this change.
It looks so scrumptious. Thanks for sharing the wonderful recipe.
Just made this, but the cake layers are much thinner than I am used to. I think I will make 1.5 batch next time. I checked my baking powder and it is good. Used 8×2” pans. Scaled all my ingredients as well. Each pan took about 430 gm batter.
Hi David, We like to make 3 layer cakes. If you used three 8 inch round pans, a layer will not be very tall (approx. 1 1/4 to 1 1/2″). We do this because we like having more frosting in each slice. The filled and frosted cake should be 4 1/2 to 5 inches high. I hope you enjoyed it.
Not sure I understand. I used three 8 inch pans as the instructions state. These layers are all about ½ inch tall. Experienced baker here and this recipe got my attention and I just whipped it up. I like layers that are at least 1 inch tall.
Hi David, my response was because some bakers think 1 1/4 inch layers are too thin. I’m sorry the recipe did not work for you, the layers should definitely rise more than 1/2 inch.