Vanilla Cake with Caramel Buttercream

This homemade vanilla cake with caramel buttercream is a classic recipe with wonderful flavor!

We used our super moist Vanilla Buttermilk Cake for this recipe-it is tender, fluffy, and has the perfect amount of vanilla.

Our Vanilla Velvet Cake, Yellow Birthday Cake, and our Caramel Cake would also pair perfectly with this frosting!

The Vanilla Buttermilk Cake layers are glazed with homemade caramel sauce and then frosted with our soft homemade Caramel Buttercream. Unlike traditional caramel frosting, this recipe is softer and pipes beautifully.

How to Make Vanilla Cake with Caramel Buttercream

You can find our full cake recipe further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!

1. Preheat & Prepare the Pans- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, grease and flour three 8×2 inch round pans. We also like to line the bottom of the pans with circles of parchment paper.
2. Flour Mixture-In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
3. Buttermilk Mixture-In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.  Set aside..
4. Butter and Sugar- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
5. Eggs- Add the room temperature eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
6. Add Dry and Wet Ingredients Alternately- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid).
7. Fill the Pans- Divide the cake batter between the three prepared cake pans.

8. Time to Bake! Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out. Baking times may vary.

For the Caramel Sauce

The caramel sauce is the real star of the show! It provides a delicious glaze for our vanilla cake layers and provides the caramel flavor for our frosting as well.

As you'll see below, we will reserve ½ cup of the finished caramel sauce for glazing. The remaining caramel sauce, (or at least most of it) will be used in the frosting.

You can find the full recipe further down in this post, but here is a quick look at our steps!

1. Using a medium size saucepan (deep enough to prevent boil over) melt the butter over medium heat.
2. When the butter has melted, add the brown sugar, milk, salt, vanilla extract, and light corn syrup. (The light corn syrup helps to prevent sugar crystals from forming, which can cause graininess.)
3. Once the mixture begins to boil, turn the heat to low and put a lid on the pot. Simmer 5 to 6 minutes. 

4. Check the saucepan now and then to make sure it will not boil over.  A lid on the saucepan steams the sugar crystals, preventing them from forming on the sides.
5. When the time is up, remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the caramel into a heat proof bowl.  We wanted to speed up the cool time and so we poured it into a long baking dish.

6. The caramel will look too thin but keep in mind that it will thicken as it cools.  You can refrigerate to speed up the process. 
7. This recipe makes approximately two cups of caramel sauce (amounts may vary slightly based on how long it simmers).
8. Reserve ½ cup caramel for spreading onto layers when assembling the cake.

For the Caramel Buttercream

We love this caramel buttercream frosting because it's a great alternative to the traditional caramel frostings which become firm very quickly and are difficult to decorate with.

This creamy caramel frosting is light, fluffy, and great for piping!

1. Add stick of softened unsalted butter to mixing bowl and mix until smooth.
2. Mixing on low speed, add about half of the powdered sugar and and mix until incorporated. Gradually add the 1 ½ cup caramel sauce, remaining powdered sugar, and ½ teaspoon of salt.

1. Increase to medium speed and mix for 3-4 minutes until frosting is well mixed, and has a light, creamy consistency. To reduce air bubbles, you can mix for an additional 1-2 minutes on the lowest setting as a final step.

Assembling the Cake

1. Place the first vanilla cake layer on the cake plate or pedestal.
2. I piped a dam of caramel buttercream around the edge of the cake layer using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.
3. Spread about ¼ cup of caramel within the dam on top of the cake layer (adjust amount to your liking).

4. Spread caramel frosting over the caramel glazed layer. I often pipe the buttercream onto the filling and spread it but if you'd rather, you can spread the next cake layer with frosting and apply it to the first cake layer frosting-side-down. Repeat for the other cake layers.

5. Fill any gaps between the cake layers with frosting (I used the same piping bag that I used for the dam for this step.)
6. Apply a thin layer/crumb coat to the cake. At this point, I like to chill the cake for 10-15 minutes or refrigerate for longer.
7. The chilling step firms everything up for the final coat of frosting so that you don't have to worry about the layers shifting as you decorate.
8. Add the final coat of frosting- I used a small offset spatula to create swirls in the buttercream. I finished things off with a buttercream shell border (using a medium sized star tip 21).

More Cakes with Caramel!

Love Caramel? We have more cake and frosting recipes for you to try!

Chocolate Turtle Cake

Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake

Homemade Caramel Cake

Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake

Easy Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Caramel Mousse Filling

Pecan Caramel Bundt Cake

Enjoy the Recipe

Thanks so much for stopping by. We hope that you enjoy this delicious cake! If you give it a try, we would love for you to leave a comment or photo below!