Caramel Cake with Caramel Frosting {A Scratch Recipe}
If you're looking for an amazing caramel cake, look no further! This homemade caramel layer cake is soft, moist, and so good! We love it with our decadent caramel frosting.
We especially crave caramel cakes in the fall and winter months, although this is sure to become a year-round favorite for the caramel lovers in your life!
Table of Contents
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 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
- Sour Cream Mixture: In another bowl combine the sour cream, vanilla extract, vegetable 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.
Caramel Frosting
For the homemade caramel frosting, we used a delicious recipe that involves making a caramel sauce on the stovetop.
The caramel sauce is a combination of butter, dark brown sugar (light brown sugar is great also), a bit of light corn syrup to prevent graininess, a bit of heavy cream, and vanilla extract.
After preparing the caramel sauce according to recipe instructions nad cooling for 15 minutes, we poured it into a mixing bowl and added confectioners sugar to create the frosting.
This frosting has wonderful flavor and a consistency slightly thicker than our usual buttercream frostings. Hot water can be added in very small amounts as needed to reach the desired consistency for frosting.
Another Option for Caramel Frosting
*We have also made a caramel cream cheese frosting which combines our usual cream cheese frosting recipe with a bit of store-bought caramel. We used this recipe with our Caramel Italian Cream Cake.
More Caramel Cake & Frosting Recipes
If you love caramel, don't miss these other favorites from our Cake Recipes section!
Some of our most popular are our Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake, Toffee Pecan Caramel Cake, and Caramel Apple Cake.
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Caramel Cake with Caramel Frosting {A Scratch Recipe}
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. (Dark brown is fine also.) (If not using a digital scale, make sure to pack the brown sugar into your measuring cup for most accurate measurement.)
- 3 large eggs, room temperature (If you are in a hurry, place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour (If not using a digital scale, lightly spoon into measuring cups and level with knife for most accurate measurement.)
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream (We don't recommend reduced fat.)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract.
- ½ cup (121g milk) (We use whole or 2 percent milk.)
- ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil (We use canola oil.)
For the Caramel Frosting
- 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups (326g) firmly backed light brown sugar (Dark brown is fine also!)
- 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 three 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.
Wow this looks so yummy, please could you say how deep is each 8" pan. I have 3" deep each.
Thank you.
I just baked and froze to be completed next weekend...smells yummy. I know this icing is different from buttercream and I am sure it "sets up" pretty fast; did you crumb coat and settle or did you just fill and quickly ice? It looks beautiful...sometimes simple is best!
Hi Liza, The cream is cooked and there is quite a bit of sugar in the recipe so it can be kept out. You can refrigerate if you like, just take out a couple of hours before serving.
Amy - The recipe works well for cupcakes
Roze - Our 8 inch pans are 2 inches deep
Dene - The cake was not crumb coated. After the cake was filled, Melissa pressed down firmly a couple of times and then frosted quickly with the warm caramel frosting.
Oh my, this looks so yummy. I have my bridge group coming up mid-October, this will be perfect. Thanks for the recipe.
is the cake Flour the same as Self Rising flour? Or the one that says cake flour, like Swanson Flour?
Hi Cristina, Self rising flour is not the same as cake flour. Self rising flour has baking powder and salt included, cake flour does not. I used Swansdown Cake Flour in this recipe.
Hi
I am going to try this lovely cake!!!
But what is cake flour? Can i use plain flour?
Thank you
Hi Linda, Cake flour is a low protein flour made from soft winter wheat. It gives cakes a finer texture and softer crumb. If you do not have cake flour you can use plain flour (all purpose, in the US). For each cup of flour remove 2 Tablespoons flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch. Whisk for 30 seconds or more to blend and it is ready to use.
Hi when you say cake flour, I'm from England so would that be plain flour we don't have cake flour here x x x
Hi Carmen, Cake flour is made from a soft winter wheat with lower protein. Plain flour is the same as all- purpose flour in the US. You can create cake flour using the formula above in post #21. I hope you like the cake.
Where is the caramel?????
Hi Alice, The butter, brown sugar and whipping cream are cooked on the stovetop to create a caramel sauce, this is then mixed with the powdered sugar to make the frosting.