Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake Recipe
We are so excited to add this Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake recipe to our collection of favorites!
We love of our coffee, and when it can be incorporated into cake, there's nothing better! That is certainly the case with today's Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake. Caramel and espresso are a match made in heaven. Today's cake recipe is based in part on our favorite homemade Caramel Cake recipe!
Table of Contents
Why We Love It
There are so many reasons to love this delicious Caramel Vanilla Latte Cake. Here are just a few!:
- Moist, tender crumb
- Brown sugar adds amazing flavor as well as moisture
- The caramel, vanilla, and espresso flavors are unmistakable without being overpowering.
- Perfect birthday cake recipe for your coffee-loving family and friends
- The additional glaze of caramel between the layers as well as the Vanilla Latte Buttercream takes the cake to another level!
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 ½ 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're interested in details on piping this simple border, check out our Basics of Piping with a Round Tip)!
Recipe FAQs
Coffee Flavored Cakes
If you love coffee flavored cakes, we've made many over the years! Sometimes just a touch of espresso added to spice cakes, caramel cakes, and more makes such a difference!
Some of our favorites are Mocha Toffee Crunch Cake, Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake, Tiramisu Layer Cake, and Gingerbread Latte Cake.
*We also have many more Caramel Cake Recipes for you!
Enjoy the Recipe
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 Cake Recipes section for our full collection of favorite cake recipes, frostings, cake decorating tutorials, and more.
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 Vanilla Latte Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 small jar Caramel Sauce *This isn't used until assembly of cake
- 1 ½ sticks 169g unsalted butter, softened slightly
- 1 cup 200g sugar
- ½ 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 ¾ cups 312g cake flour **(if you do not have cake flour see substitution below)
- 1 teaspoon 6g salt
- 2 ½ 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
- ¼ 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
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons 80g heavy cream, more if needed to reach desired spreading consistency
- ½ 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 ½ 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)
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!