Halloween treats are my favorite kinds of desserts to make! This Caramel Chocolate Cake is no different. I used a basic chocolate cake batter and elevated it with layers of salted caramel, nutella frosting, and sugar glass shards. I will warn you- these sugar shards were pretty sharp. They taste awesome, but I removed them from the cake before the kids dove in. Just in case.
You may be wondering what those green splats are on the glass. They were supposed to be spiders… I tried to draw them on while the sugar was setting because I wanted it to look like they were inside the glass. Kind of a big fail. They ran all over creating a slime look. According to Patrick’s son it was really cool, but I still want to try again with the spiders.
The frosting is my favorite chocolate buttercream with a hint of nutella and the bloody topping is salted caramel sauce with a little food coloring.
I love a cake with surprise filling. I lined the edges of each cake layer with nutella frosting then filled the rest of the space with caramel sauce. It makes for a really moist and flavorful cake!
- For the cake:
- 1/4 cup of melted salted butter
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/2 cup of hot coffee ( I used caramel coffee)
- 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
- 1 egg at room temp
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- For the frosting:
- 4 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp of nutella
- 1 stick of room temp butter
- 2 tbsp of heavy cream
- For the salted caramel:
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 4 tbsp of butter
- 1/4 cup of cream
- 1/2 tsp of sea salt
- 1/2 tsp of red food coloring
- For the glass:
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/2 cup of water
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- I added all the ingredients except the coffee to a large bowl and mixed on low until just combined.
- Slowly pour in the coffee.
- Mix. The batter with be pretty thin.
- Pour into three 6in greased pans or two 8 inch greased pans.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until there is no longer a jiggle in the center.
- While cakes are cooling prep the frosting.
- Mix together the butter and sugar.
- Mix in the cocoa.
- Add the vanilla and cream.
- When you have the desired consistency add in the nutella.
- I like my frosting on the thicker side, but still spreads easy.
- For the salted caramel:
- In a small sauce pan melt the butter and add in the sugar. Bring to a boil.
- Turn off the heat and add the cream.
- Stir until thickened.
- Add food coloring and salt.
- For the sugar shards:
- Bring water and sugar to a boil in a small sauce pan.
- Pour on a baking sheet and allow to cool.
- Break into pieces once hard (about 15 minutes)
- Pipe a thin line of frosting around the inside cake layers then fill with caramel.
- Stack layers then continue to frost until entire cake is covered.
- Decorated with sugar shards and drizzle with remaining caramel.
This looks like a ton of steps, but I promise it only took me 2 hours with the cooling times. Probably 45 minutes of active time. It is so worth the time! Feel free to get creative. You can skip the nutella and add extra chocolate if you want! It is definitely the time of year to get creative!
