Baked by Beth: Snickers Cake

Let me just start this post by saying that I'm head over heels in love. I'm in love...with this cake. I'm in love with the moist chocolate cake, with the creamy salted caramel buttercream, and the homemade sea salt caramel that's on top. None of these recipes are new to me, I've made and posted about them before..however, I did make a few small changes that I think made all the difference in the world. In fact, I think these changes elevated this cake from good to AMAZING. The Snickers Cupcakes I made for a bake sale at work a few weeks ago went over so well, that I thought I'd try to convert the cupcakes into a cake. I did, and it worked beautifully. Three days after it was decorated, it is still incredibly moist and perfect. This is a rich cake- definitely not low cal- but in my opinion, I'd rather eat cardboard than low-cal dessert!

The chocolate cake recipe I found on The Novice Chef Blog when I made the Snickers Cupcakes. The only adaptation I made was to use freshly brewed hot coffee instead of boiling water. I am not a coffee drinker, but I love what coffee does to the taste of chocolate when it's used in cake batter. There isn't the slightest bit of a coffee flavor to this cake- it just makes the cake super, super moist!

Printable Recipe: Snickers Cake

Chocolate Cake adapted from Hersheys.com

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare (2) 9 inch round baking pans with nonstick spray and circles of parchment paper cut to the size of the pan.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl, and stir with wire whisk until combined. Add milk, oil, eggs and vanilla and beat with electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in hot coffee until combined- batter will be runny.

Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool pans on wire rack for 10 minutes.

If you're going to frost the cake right away, turn cakes out of pans onto wire rack and cool completely.
If not, place the pans in the freezer for 20 minutes, then turn cakes out onto plastic wrap, and wrap each layer in 3 layers of wrap. Freeze until ready to assemble cake.

Sea Salt Caramel from Doughmesstic
* I doubled this recipe for the cake- and for some reason it didn't work as well as when I've made it as follows. However, the caramel tasted great- it was just thinner than normal, which worked to my advantage here!*

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sour cream

Combine cream and salt in a small saucepan and heat over low until salt is dissolved. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, add sugar and corn syrup. They will not combine well until the sugar starts to melt.
If you have a candy thermometer, cook over high until mixture reaches 350 degrees. If your child thinks the thermometer is a toy (like mine does), cook until the mixture is a light amber color. Remove from heat- the mixture will continue cooking, and the color will darken to a nice caramel color. ( I cooked it to the caramel color the first time, and while it looked great, the caramel had a very bitter taste..I burnt it. Thanks to Susan @doughmesstic for your help!)

Stir in the cream mixture and vanilla, then whisk in sour cream. Let the caramel cool to room temperature, and transfer to an airtight container to refrigerate.

Salted Caramel Buttercream

3 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sea salt caramel
2 lbs powdered sugar

Cream butter in a large bowl with electric mixer. Stir in caramel until combined. Add sugar in small batches, mixing on medium speed with electric mixer, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. If thicker consistency is desired, add more sugar. At this point, my buttercream was creamy and perfect for spreading. I added a bit of sugar to the icing I had left over to get a good piping consistency.

To assemble cake:

Unwrap one frozen layer of cake, and place on cake board. Level with a serrated knife if necessary. I brush a little of my lovely sugar water (great tip from Bakerella) on top to keep the cake super moist. Spread a generous layer of buttercream on top. I chopped up a snickers and sprinkled it on top of the buttercream, and added a drizzle of caramel.

Top with second layer (trimmed and leveled if necessary), brush with sugar water if desired and apply a light layer of buttercream as a crumb coat to trap any loose crumbs. Place cake in freezer for 15-20 minutes to set crumb coat- it's ready when you can touch the frosting and not have any stick to your finger.

Spread a generous layer of buttercream of top and sides of cake. Pipe on top if desired, and if you're feeling super adventurous, flood the top with caramel before sprinkling on chopped snickers.