Khalua Iced Chocolate Cake with Caramel
Chocolate? Check! Coffee? Check! Booze? CHECK!!
If you are a caramel mocha kinda person who also loves to add Khalua to any beverage they can think of, then this cake is definitely for you! This is a fairly simple chocolate cake that’s been dressed up with a bit of coffee and then iced with a delicious Khalua buttercream. Oh, and did I mention we are adding caramel?
What you’ll need for the cake:
– 2 cups flour (260g)
– 1 1/2 cups sugar (320g)
– 1 cup cocoa powder (81g)
– 1 t salt
– 1 t baking soda
– 1 T baking powder
– 3 eggs
– 1 cup milk
– 1 cup coffee, cooled to at least room temp, plus extra to use for assembly
– 1/3 cup oil
– 1 T vanilla
What you’ll need for the frosting:
– 1 cup butter, room temp
– 1 32oz bag powdered sugar
– 2/3 cup Khalua
– 1/2 t salt
– Option: 1 cup caramel sauce
What you’ll do:
– Preheat your oven to 350F and grease 3 6 inch baking pans or 2 9 inch pans.
– Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients and then pour over dry and whisk for 2 minutes.
– Evenly divide batter between the greased pans and bake for about 25 minutes. You can use a toothpick to test the center, but I prefer to gently press down on the center of the cake with my finger. If it springs back then it is finished. After a few minutes, gently flip cakes out of pans onto a cooling rack.
– While your cakes are cooling, add your ingredients for the frosting (not the caramel) to a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
– Once the cakes have cooled, level them so that they are flat on top and are all the same height. Place your first cake layer on a cake board or serving plate. Using a pastry brush or spoon, moisten your layer with the extra coffee (I used maybe 2-3 T per layer). Add a layer of frosting and then top with a couple spoonful’s of caramel. Top with the second layer and repeat this process.
– Once you’ve completed the second layer, top with the final cake layer and moisten with coffee. Then use a minimal amount of frosting to crumb coat the cake and chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to set.
– Once your crumb coat has set, ice the cake so that it has a smooth finish (you can go for a textured look, but I prefer smooth when doing a drip finish).
– Using a spoon or spatula, drip caramel along the sides of the cake. Then pour any remaining caramel over top and spread out so that it reaches the sides.
– Add dollops to the top of the cake by adding some frosting to a piping bag fitted with a 2D tip and pipe dollops evenly around the top of the cake.
– Cut a slice of cake that that is much bigger than probably recommended and ENJOY!!
A few notes:
– When assembling the cake, I recommend not passing up on moistening the layers with some extra coffee. The bitterness of the coffee really helps to offset the sweetness of the frosting and caramel and definitely makes a difference!
– Just to make things a bit simpler, I did buy the caramel sauce that I used. This one was Hershey’s brand but any will do!
– The 2D tip is the one I had on hand, but any similar tip will give the same affect. Also, if you’re more about taste than appearance, then that step can be skipped.
– To ice my cake, I personally love using a small offset spatula. It can be a bit more tedious, but I find that it gives me much more control.
– If you’re new to icing cakes or would like to improve, you can check out this video for some helpful tips!
– Leveling the cakes will leave you with some cake scraps and there will likely be some extra frosting (and caramel if you bought a jar from the store), so see below to find out what I did to use it all up!
