Monday, August 3, 2009

Sweet and Salty Cake


My husband's birthday was last week, though we waited until yesterday to celebrate it. You may recall the great love he has for chocolate, so it was no surprise when he chose this for his birthday cake. The frosting alone has a pound of chocolate in it (it also has 2 cups of butter and 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream - this cake is not for the faint of heart).

The recipe is from Baked, and can be found here.

This is a 3-layer devil's food cake. Each layer is covered with a salted caramel sauce, topped with a whipped caramel ganache buttercream frosting, sprinkled with coarse sea salt, and then the whole cake is slathered with more frosting and garnished with more salt.



I love the concept of this cake, though I wasn't completely sold out on it. The caramel sauce was delicious, the frosting was ridiculously good, but the cake itself fell a little short for me. It was a little bland, generic even. It had no depth of flavor, and really couldn't stand up to the glory - yes, glory - of the other components. It is perplexing to me that someone can design a frosting so out-of-this-world delicious, and then create a cake that is so unworthy of it. Before I made it, I actually read a few reviews of it on other blogs that said the same thing, so perhaps I should have known better...


If anyone has tried and true devil's food recipes, send 'em over - this cake could be revelatory! If not for the cake... I'll certainly be on the lookout for a suitable replacement.

Despite my criticism of the cake, it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The frosting and caramel sauce will certainly be making future appearances in my house.


7 comments:

  1. The cake looks beautiful with the flowers and it's so cute that your husband had help blowing out the candles! I saw the authors of Baked at a local bookstore and this cake was what they strongly encouraged everyone to bake, so I have been very curious to try it (you really need a special occasion for that much butter, though). I'm glad I saw your review of the actual cake part, maybe I'll try it with a different chocolate cake.

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  2. what a beautiful cake! SOUNDS and LOOKS delicious, sorry it didn't taste up to par! But I'm glad everyone enjoyed it anyway :)

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  3. I'm sorry that the cake didn't measure up to the other components, what a bummer. I've been eyeballing this recipe for awhile now. I guess I'll wait until I find a good devil's food recipe before I attempt it. It's a gorgeous cake, though! I love the flower decorations.

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  4. I love the flowers on top- my favorite colors! Sorry the cake didn't meet your expectations. That's the worst when you've been building something up in your mind and then it disappoints you.

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  5. Your cake is beautiful! Sorry the taste wasn't what you were hoping for.

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  6. Oh, too bad the cake fell short in the flavor department. At least the frosting was delicious! It looks gorgeous.

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  7. Beautiful cake. Love the flowers, etc.

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