Aunt Lily loved the cake. I saw her cutting another piece after her first one. She told me the cake was so moist and that she loved the ganache. That’s a big compliment coming from Aunt Lily because she is one heck of a frank woman. She will tell you if it’s not delicious and will never lie to you. I felt kinda happy about the reception of the cake. It’s a good thing I didn’t try with the decorations anymore or they would have laughed at me. But then again, when they taste the cake, they would probably stop thinking about other things.
See what our friends from the Whisk Kid have to say about the recipe:
“This cake is definitely a labor of love. But, for me, it was as much of a treat to make as it was to eat! I’ve made this cake 3 times and it gets better and better with each bite.”
This cake definitely needs your time and effort; but I assure you that the result will be so worth it. Every slice of this cake will be gone in a few minutes.
Ingredients
Salted Caramel
1/4 c (60 ml) water
1/2 c (100 g) Domino sugar
1 Tbsp Karo light corn syrup
1/4 c (60 ml) Borden heavy cream
1/2 tsp Roland fleur de sel
1/8 c (30 ml) Daisy sour cream
Whipped Caramel Ganache
1/4 c (60 ml) water
1 c (100 g) Domino sugar
2 Tbsp Karo light corn syrup
1 lb (454 g) Ghirardelli dark chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 c (180 ml) Borden heavy cream
2 c (473 g) Land O Lakes butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces, softened but still cool
Sour Cream Chocolate Cake
3/4 c (67 g) Hershey’s cocoa powder
1 1/4 c (296 ml) water, hot
2/3 c (156 ml) Daisy sour cream
2 2/3 (378 g) c Gold Medal all-purpose flour
2 tsp Clabber Girl baking powder
1 tsp Clabber Girl baking soda
1/2 tsp Morton salt
3/4 c (177 g) Land O Lakes unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c (104 g) Crisco vegetable shortening
1 1/2 c (300 g) Domino granulated sugar
1 c dark (142 g) Domino brown sugar
3 Eggland’s eggs, room temp
1 Tbsp McCormick pure vanilla
Instructions
For the salted caramel:
Combine the water, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan with tall sides, stirring to combine. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Cook until the mixture reaches 350F on a candy thermometer, about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the cream and salt. Bring to a boil and cook until salt has dissolved, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the cream from the heat and set aside.
When the caramel has reached 350F, remove it from heat and allow to cool for 1 minute. Carefully add half of the hot cream to the caramel (it will bubble) and whisk quickly to combine. Add the remaining half and whisk to combine. Whisk in sour cream.
Cool the caramel completely and store in an airtight container, refrigerated, for up to 3 days.
For the caramel ganache:
Combine water, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan with tall sides, stirring to combine. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until the mixture reaches 350F on a candy thermometer, about 10 minutes.
In another small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
When the caramel mixture has reached 350F, remove from heat and allow to cool for 1 minute. Carefully add half of the hot cream to the caramel and whisk to combine. Carefully whisk in the remaining caramel and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
Place the chocolate in the bowl of an electric mixer and pour the slightly cooled caramel sauce over the chocolate. Let sit for 1 minute. Slowly begin stirring the mixture, but hand, from the center out until the chocolate is melted and smoothed.
Attach bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and run on low until the bottom of the bowl is room temperature when touched from the outside. Add butter and increase speed to medium-high, beating until mixture is well combined, thickened, and slightly whipped, about 2 minutes.
For the sour cream chocolate cake:
Preheat oven to 325F. Oil and line three 8″ x 2″ round cake pans.
In a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa, water and sour cream. Set them aside to cool, about 10 minutes. Set aside.
In another large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Fit your electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat the butter and shortening together until very smooth, about 7 minutes. Add both the brown sugar and white sugar, then continue beating until light and fluffy, about 7 additional minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat each until very well incorporated before adding the next, scraping the bowl often. Add the vanilla, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and mix again for 30 seconds. Add flour mixture alternating with cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Divide the batter evenly (using a scale, if you like!) among the three prepared pans. Bake until the cake is just firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes in the pan on a rack, then de-pan and cool to room temp. For the sake of trimming the cakes, I like to refrigerate the layers, well wrapped in plastic wrap, immediately after removing them from the pan. If you’re not too worried about crumbs, feel free to skip that step.
To assemble:
Using a serrated knife, trim the tops of cakes to make them level. Place the first layer on the cake plate. Using half of the caramel, spread a thin layer on the cake. Top the caramel with a layer of about 1 cup of the ganache icing. Add the second layer of cake on top and repeat the process with another layer of caramel followed by a layer of ganache icing. Place the remaining layer on top of the second layer with the bottom side on top. Frost the entire cake with the remaining ganache and garnish with fleur de sel.
USE RED NEXT PAGE LINK BELOW.
Quick Tip: Garnish with fleur de sel on top.
Thanks again to Whisk Kid for this amazing recipe.
