This brown sugar salted caramel cake is everything that you love about a latte in cake form! We have a brown sugar vanilla bean cake soaked in espresso and filled with a gooey salted caramel. Then it's all finished with a salted caramel 'cream cheese' frosting that's topped with flaky sea salt. This cake is ridiculously soft, rich, and tender, and you'll never believe me when I tell you it's all vegan- no eggs, no dairy!
2 ounces freshly brewed espresso (decaf if desired)
1 batch vegan salted caramel
1 batch of vegan vanilla cream cheese frosting
1/2 batch of the salted caramel from above
1 tsp flaky sea salt, to garnish
Categories
Cake
Cuisine
American
Steps
Preheat the oven to 350F, and line a 9×9 baking pan with parchment paper.
Whisk together with the melted vegan butter, oil, sugar, light brown sugar, dairy free yogurt, and vanilla extract and paste. Then add in the baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt and whisk again. Add in the cake flour, and pour in the vegan buttermilk as you gently whisk JUST until the dry ingredients are incorporated (it doesn’t have to be a super smooth batter- DON’T over mix).
Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean the cake passes the bounce back test with a lightly golden top.
Let the cake fully cool before assembling. There should be absolutely no warmth in any of the of the components.
We’ll assemble the espresso and caramel portions first. Brush the top of the cake with the espresso using a pastry brush. Then use a large skewer, and poke holes into the top of the cake, like in the photos above. You want to go only about 1/2″ into the cake with skewer, not all the way through. Fill a piping bag with 1/3 of the cooled salted caramel, and pipe the caramel into the holes you made using the skewer.
When you’re ready to frost, make the cream cheese frosting according to instructions. Then add in 1/3 of the salted caramel from the batch to the frosting and whisk until incorporated.
Frost the cake with the salted caramel frosting on top. Drizzle the remaining salted caramel onto the frosting and top with flaky sea salt.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 7 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
