Chocolate Fudge Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream, Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Ganache

A chocolate cake for serious cake lovers...a dark, moist fudge cake with sweet and salty salted caramel buttercream, salted caramel sauce and oozing dark chocolate ganache...

Sweet gods of sugar!



Sometimes, it's best to go the healthy option. It's better to get the salad than the burger. It's better to get the fruit salad than the full, big brekky. Hold the butter, get the skim milk, no chips and no dessert. And then, sometimes it's best to seriously indulge. And this cake is for those times.



All this can make magic. Cake magic. The best magic. Except like, Aladdin's Genie's magic. He could make a million cakes!



This is my Chocolate Fudge Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream, Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Ganache. Oh my diabetes.




If I were magic, I would cast a spell that would take all the calories out of cakes. And then I would eat cake all day long. Probably not the best use of my powers but hey. This is my scenario!



I had been thinking about cake for a week. My favourite chocolate cake is one that was synonymous with birthdays in our house growing up. I love chocolate cake, which should not come as a surprise and all cake is good cake but the Chocolate Fudge Cake is my most ultimate favourite. And it's the only cake that will do when the craving for chocolate cake comes. Which is often.






The contrast between Dutch processed and natural cocoa.



I wanted this cake to be dark and moody and a little bit messy. In order for the cake to really achieve the darker colour, I used Dutch processed cocoa. Dutch processed cocoa is a lot darker, as you can see from the photo above and also tastes different. I assure you, natural cocoa works in this cake perfectly well but for a more adult cake, use Dutch processed. A good explanation of the differences can be found here. 


Caramel and chocolate, live together in perfect harmony, side by side on my kitchen bench.

To top this lusciously dark cake, what goes better with chocolate than more chocolate. A rich, dark chocolate ganache. Drizzled on top, and encouraged to spill down the sides in the most glorious of ways.



The layers of cake, ready to be dressed in buttercream!

But things can't be all chocolate all the time. Well, they can and that would be wonderful however today, caramel is getting a look in. Salted caramel. In both the buttercream and in liquid form. Salted caramel seems to be having more than it's 15 minutes of fame and for good reason. I doubt there'll be anything to come takes it's crown for quite a while.


Buttercream is the best icing. I'll be over here with copious amounts of butter and sugar.

The salted caramel butter cream is made by making the salted caramel and allowing it to cool. In the meantime, make some light and fluffy buttercream then add a generous amount of the salted caramel to the butter cream. The result is a salty sweet heaven.

And this is how the layers of Chocolate fudge cake, salted caramel buttercream and the two sauces go together.

Using a round open tip, pipe a border of fat kisses around the edge...

Then fill in the interior with a layer of butter cream and a generous amount of salted caramel sauce. Allow delicious rivulets to ooze from between the kisses.

Repeat with the buttercream and this time use the dark ganache. 

Repeat again with the caramel... 

Then top with the final layer of cake and let the ganache flow!

This cake is huge too. Don't go making it without some friends to share it with. That being said, Mr. Cakes did manage to eat two-thirds of it in 4 days. What a legend.

The view from the top.

This cake hit my sweet spot and then some. If you like chocolate and caramel and cake, then this is the cake for you. If you don't, seriously, we can't be friends. Unless you like ice-cream, and then we'll be friends. But I still will question your commitment to food.

Like my dark and moody photography? On trend.

There is nothing better than a homemade cake. And the messier and more gooey this cake looks, the better!



Ready for a cake party!



Can I just point out the sifter there? I bought it at an antique shop and it's so old and charming! I elbowed it into the photos, even though I didn't use it. It deserves a moment.

See how dark that Dutch processed cocoa makes the cake? Wonderful!

Open up for the aeroplane!

Mmmmmmmmmm cake.

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream, Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Ganache

Prep time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 55 mins

Total time:  1 hour 25 mins

Servings: 12 slices

Chocolate Fudge Cake

200g butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

1 cup Dutch processed cocoa

1 cup hot water

1 1/2 cups milk

3 teaspoons vinegar

1 1/2 cups plain cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda

Salted Caramel

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup brown sugar

180g butter

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt flakes

Dark Chocolate Ganache

300g dark chocolate

350ml heavy cream

Salted Caramel Buttercream

375g butter, room temperature

3 cups sifted icing sugar

1 1/2 cups salted caramel

Chocolate Fudge Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Grease, flour and line, with baking paper, two 20cm/8 inch cake pans
3. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs, beating after each addition until incorporated.
5. Add cocoa to a separate bowl and add hot water, a little at a time until it forms a thick paste.
6. Add gradually to butter mixture.
7. Add vinegar to milk to sour.
8. Sift together flour, baking powder and bicarbonate in a separate bowl.
9. Add the flour to the butter mixture in three lots, alternately with milk, starting and ending with the flour.
10. Fold the batter til fully incorporated.
11. Pour 1/4 of the batter into each of the tins and bake for 23 mins.
12. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes in the tins, then turn out to cool on a cooling rack.
13. Bake the remaining batter in the re-prepared tins.

Salted Caramel

1. Add sugars to a heavy bottomed sauce pan, stirring occasionally, until the sugars melt and becomes smooth.
2. Add the butter and whisk until the butter is melted and stirred through.
3. Remove from the heat and slowly pour in the heavy cream.
4. Return to the heat and allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute.
5. Remove from heat and stir in salt.
6. Allow to cool down before using.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

1. Melt the chocolate in a large microwave proof bowl in the microwave in 30 second intervals.
2. Once melted, add cream and stir to combine until smooth.
3. Allow to cool slightly. Ganache should be pourable but not hot

 Salted Caramel Buttercream

1. Beat the butter until light, fluffy and butter has become paler in colour.
2. Sift in the icing sugar and beat well.
3. Add in 1 and 1/2 cups of the previously made salted caramel and beat well.
4. Refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes, until buttercream is slightly firmer and pipeable. 

 Assembly

1. Place one layer of the chocolate fudge cake onto a piece of baking paper or cake plate.
2. Fill a large piping bag fitted with a large open tip with salted buttercream and pipe a border of large 'kisses' around the outside of the cake.
3. Using an offset spatula, fill in the interior created with buttercream then spoon on a generous amount of the salted caramel sauce.
4. Repeat with all the layers of cake, alternating the salted caramel sauce and dark chocolate ganache.
5. Top with more piped kisses and pour over ganache, using a ganche to encourage it to drip over the sides.
6. Serve and enjoy!

Caramel Easter Egg Cheesecake

An indulgent and decadent Easter cheesecake with a layer of caramel and chunks of caramel Easter eggs baked in, topped with milk chocolate ganache, more caramel and more Easter eggs!

Oh baby.

Easter is upon us. Or as we like to call it in my household, Chocolate Christmas. What I first envisioned when I was dreaming up an Easter recipe was a Cadbury Creme Egg Cheesecake. But bunny help me, I just don't like Creme Eggs! I know they're all the rage and we're all supposed to be whipped up into a mad buying frenzy when January rolls around and the supermarkets start putting out their Easter wares. 

Anything made up of this is gonna be good.

But I just think they're too sweet. And that might sound strange from someone who calls herself Cassie Cakes but it's the truth. So there I was, rolling ideas around, bouncing them off my friends to see what they thought but I just wasn't getting the excitement in my waters. Until I realised, "hold on, this is MY recipe! I can make whatever I like!". And so I give you my Caramel Easter Egg Cheesecake!

Giving the food processor its well deserved glory.

People seem to get upset each year when the Easter eggs start popping up in the shop, as though the Easter bunny got dementia and forgot when he was supposed to come. But personally, I think it's great! How could longer to enjoy delicious, delicious Easter chocolate be a bad thing?

Making caramel the easiest way ever!

Seriously magic.

 I don't want to blow my own horn but this is seriously one of the best cheesecakes - if not THE best cheesecake - I've ever had. TOOT TOOT! What we have here is a classic vanilla baked cheesecake with a layer of dulce de leche (Latin American caramel) and chopped caramel Easter eggs in the center. Then, because too much of a good thing is never enough, a layer of smooth and silky milk chocolate ganache is poured on top followed by lashings of more dulce de leche. Whole caramel Easter eggs are arranged around the outside and boom. Mind blown.

Okay now I think the food processor might be getting a big ego.

It might be a justified ego...look at the smooth, cheesy goodness.

Cheesecake is my jam. I love it. I love the texture and the taste...there's simply nothing else like it in this world. Some people will try and tell you that a cheesecake doesn't have to be baked, that you can make what they call a "set cheesecake" but those people are liars and you don't need that in your life. Team Baked. Team Baked FOR LIFE. 

Those chunks of Easter egg are just amazing when you bite into them in the cheesecake,

Tiny peaks of chocolate hinting through.

I have a big old food processor that I hardly ever use. I love it, it's one of my appliance children but it's definitely the child I leave in the cupboard with it's brother, The Juicer, cos frankly, I can't be bothered washing them up. But this cheesecakes gives you a chance to bring the neglected child out of the cupboard and give it a bit of well deserved glory. Use it to crush the biscuits then after, pop all the cheesecake ingredients in and give them a good processing. If you don't have a food processor, a hand or stand mixer will be more than adequate for the cheesecake mix and there's nothing wrong with bashing some biscuits with a rolling pin.

Oh I've really wanted to say this...you just Jackson Pollock the caramel on top...

...Nigella always says that.

That caramel, that ganache!

Now a note on dulce de leche. It is so easy to make at home but you do need to keep on eye on it. To make, place a whole can of sweetened condensed milk (for this recipe you'll need two) on it's side in a heavy-based saucepan and cover completely with water. Simmer for 2 hours, ensuring the can is always covered with an inch or two of water. If you allow the can to simmer uncovered, it can explode. And that would be a mess to clean up. A delicious mess, but a mess nonetheless. If this sounds too time consuming, you can buy a can of Top 'n' Fill from the supermarket - it's basically exactly the same. I just like doing things the long way. 

I love you, cheesecake.

But oh what a cheesecake. I can't say that this is a quick dessert, but it's not hard, just time consuming. And since you have a whole long weekend coming up, why not give it a go? I give you my word that you'll love it. Unless you don't like deliciousness and then I don't even know why we're friends. 

Ready for its close-up!

Drool. 

I could look at this beauty all day, erryday,

To. Die. For. 

Caramel Easter Egg Cheesecake

Prep time: 140 mins 

Cooking time: 60 mins

Total time:  3 hr 20 mins 

Servings: 14

Dulce de Leche
2 x 395g sweetened condensed milk

Baked Caramel Easter Egg Cheesecake
125g butter + extra, melted
250g packet butternut biscuits
750g cream cheese, softened
300ml sour cream
100g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 x 125g Cadbury caramel Easter eggs

Milk Chocolate Ganache
300g milk chocolate
300ml thickened cream

Dulce de Leche

1. Place both cans on their side in a heavy bottomed pan
2. Cover with water, until there is two inches of water covering the cans
3. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 2 hours, topping up with water regularly. DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED.
4. Carefully remove from water and allow to cool before opening.
5. Once cooled, decant into a bowl and vigorously beat with a fork to make smooth. Set aside until required. 

 Baked Cheesecake

1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Melt butter and use a pastry brush to brush the base and sides of a 24cm spring-form pan with melted butter. Set remaining butter aside til required.
3. In the bowl of a food processor, process butternut biscuits until fine. Alternately, place biscuits into a freezer bag and crush with a rolling pin until fine.
4. Add the melted butter to the biscuits and pulse until the biscuits begin to pull away from the sides.
5. Press the biscuits firmly into the base of the prepared pan then refrigerate until required.
6. Wipe out the food processor bowl then place remaining ingredients into the bowl and process until smooth. 
7. Pour half the cheesecake mix into the biscuit base then return to the refrigerator. 
8. Set aside 14 of the caramel Easter eggs, then roughly chop the remaining eggs.
9. Spoon 3/4 of the dulce de leche mix onto the cheesecake, then top with chopped Easter eggs.
10. Pour the remaining cheesecake mix on top, covering any lumps with the mix.
11. Bake for one hour, then turn the oven off and allow to cool with the door shut for 10 mins.
12. Leave the cheesecake in the over, after the 10 mins have elapsed, with the door ajar until cooled. 
13. Refrigerate until cool. 

Milk Chocolate Ganache 

1. Melt the chocolate in a large microwave proof bowl in the microwave in 30 second intervals.
2. Once melted, add cream and stir to combine until smooth.
3. Allow to cool slightly. Ganache should be pourable but not hot.

Assembly

1. Remove the cooled cheesecake from the refrigerator.
2. Pour the ganache over the top of the cheesecake until completely covered.
3. With a spoon, drip the remaining dulce de leche over the top of the cheesecake,
4. Arrange the reserved 14 Easter eggs around the outside of the cheesecake.
5. Serve and enjoy!