Salted Caramel Cake Recipe

This salted caramel cake is three 8 inch vanilla sponge layers filled with homemade salted caramel sauce and covered in caramel buttercream. You need about 30 minutes of prep, 25 to 30 minutes in the oven at 350°F, and it serves 10.

One rule holds the whole cake together: cool the caramel before it touches butter. Warm caramel melts buttercream and slides out of the layers. Cool caramel stays thick, so the filling stays where you put it.

Salted Caramel Cake Timing, Pans and Yield

• Pans: three 8 inch round cake pans, greased and lined
• Oven: 350°F (175°C), 25 to 30 minutes
• Time on the card: 30 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking, 20 minutes extra, about 1 hour 20 minutes in total
• Yield: 10 slices
• Caramel split: ½ cup of the sauce goes into the buttercream; the rest fills the layers and drips over the top
• Keeps: 2 days covered at room temperature, 5 days in the fridge

Make the sauce first. It needs time to cool while the layers bake, and that order removes most of the waiting.

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Baking the Three Vanilla Sponge Layers

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl so the leavening is spread evenly. A pocket of baking powder leaves a bitter spot and a lopsided rise.

Beat the soft butter and sugar for about 3 minutes, until the mix turns pale and fluffy. That air is what lifts the sponge. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.

The eggs and the whole milk should both be at room temperature. Cold milk firms the butter back into small lumps, and the batter looks curdled. Add the dry mix and the milk in turns, starting and ending with flour, and stop mixing as soon as no dry streaks remain. Whole milk keeps the crumb tender. Lower fat milk gives a drier, tighter sponge.

Divide the batter evenly so the three layers bake in the same time. They are done when a toothpick in the center comes out clean and the tops spring back. Cool them completely on a rack. A layer that is still warm in the middle will melt the buttercream from the inside. The same creaming method is behind my simple moist vanilla cake, if you want plain vanilla another day.

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Cooking the Salted Caramel Sauce Without Burning It

This is a dry caramel: just sugar in a pan over medium heat, stirred. First it clumps into pale, sandy lumps, which looks wrong but is normal. Keep stirring and the lumps melt into a clear liquid that darkens fast.

Take it to a deep amber, the color of a copper coin. Pale caramel tastes only sweet. Caramel that smokes and smells sharp has gone bitter, and no amount of cream fixes that, so start again.

Stir in the cubed butter, then pour the cream in slowly while whisking. Warm the cream first. Cold cream makes the hot sugar seize into hard lumps, and the whole pan will bubble up hard either way, so stand back and use a long whisk. Off the heat, stir in the flaky sea salt. If you only have fine table salt, use about half as much, because it packs more salt into each teaspoon.

For a deeper look at the sauce on its own, my homemade caramel sauce recipe walks through it in more detail.

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Caramel Buttercream: Cool the Sauce First

Beat the butter alone until smooth and pale, then add the sifted powdered sugar on low speed so it does not cloud over the counter. Pour in ½ cup of the salted caramel sauce and 2 tablespoons of cream, then beat until light.

The sauce must be at room temperature: pourable, but no warmer than your hand. If the buttercream turns soft and shiny, chill the bowl for 15 minutes and beat again. If it is still too soft, add a little more powdered sugar. If it is stiff and tears the sponge, add the third tablespoon of cream.

For the same frosting on cupcakes or a sheet cake, my salted caramel buttercream frosting is the stand-alone version.

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Filling the Salted Caramel Cake Layers So the Caramel Stays Put

Caramel sauce is softer than buttercream, so on a flat layer it slowly creeps toward the edge. Pipe or spread a ring of buttercream about ½ inch wide around the rim of the bottom layer. Spread a thin layer of buttercream inside the ring, then spoon the caramel into the middle. The ring works as a dam.

Add the second layer, press gently, and repeat. Set the third layer on top, bottom side up, for a flat surface. Cover the cake in the remaining buttercream, drizzle caramel over the top edge, and finish with a pinch of flaky salt.

Refrigerate the frosted cake for 20 minutes before cutting. The buttercream firms up, and every slice shows clean stripes of caramel. A thicker, spoonable middle works too: my caramel cake filling can replace the sauce between the layers.

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Salted Caramel Cake vs Southern Caramel Cake

Both are called caramel cake, but they are built differently. A salted caramel cake, like this one, uses a pourable caramel sauce between the layers and a soft caramel buttercream outside, with sea salt to cut the sweetness. A Southern caramel cake is usually covered in a cooked brown sugar icing that is poured on warm and sets firm and fudgy.

Choose this version if you want a soft, spreadable frosting and a salty finish. Choose the Southern style if you want a crackly, candy-like coat.

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When the Caramel or Buttercream Misbehaves

• Hard lumps after adding the cream: the cream was cold. Return the pan to low heat and stir until the lumps melt.
• Sauce looks greasy after the butter: keep whisking while the cream goes in; the cream brings it back together.
• Sauce is too thin to fill the cake: it is still warm. Caramel thickens a lot as it cools.
• Buttercream is soupy: the caramel or the layers were warm. Chill 15 minutes, then beat again.
• Layers dome in the middle: trim the tops flat with a serrated knife before filling, so the caramel does not run downhill.

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Making Salted Caramel Cake Ahead and Storing Slices

Split the work over two days. Cook the sauce and bake the layers on day one; wrap the cooled layers tightly in plastic wrap and keep the sauce in a covered jar in the fridge. On day two, warm the sauce for a few seconds until it pours, let it settle back to room temperature, then make the buttercream, fill and frost.

Once assembled, keep the cake covered at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. Cold buttercream tastes firm and muted, so take refrigerated cake out about an hour before serving. Add a fresh drizzle of caramel just before slicing if the top looks dull.

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Salted Caramel Cake Questions

Can I use store-bought caramel sauce?

Yes, choose a thick caramel sauce, not a thin ice cream syrup, and add flaky salt to taste. Homemade gives a deeper, slightly bitter caramel flavor that balances the sweet buttercream.

Can I make salted caramel cupcakes with this recipe?

The flavors work, but bake times change. For a recipe written for cupcakes, try my caramel cupcakes with a vanilla center.

Why did my caramel turn grainy?

Sugar crystals stuck to the side of the pan fell back in. Keep stirring over the heat until every lump melts before you add the butter.

Looking for something smaller with the same flavor? Salted caramel cookies or a caramel apple pie use the same sauce idea in a different shape.