Salted Caramel Pretzel Cake

Salted Caramel pretzel cake! What's not to like about that! I've made this cake 4 or 5 times now and it never fails to impress. The first time I made it was a few years ago and it was the first larger cake I had ever made. I really enjoy making cakes I find it quite calming. My favourite part of the cake making process is definitely the stacking and icing of the cake. My skills have improved vastly since the first time I made this cake. I am now more confident in my decorating and now cut each layer into two to make a total of 8 layers to be stacked up. The slice is definitely more aesthetic when this is done.  

Ingredients

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350g plain flour

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65g cocoa powder

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570g caster sugar

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1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

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240ml coffee (cooled)

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210ml veg oil

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240ml buttermilk

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7 eggs

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270g unsalted butter

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50g soft dark brown sugar

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250g self raising flour

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1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

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3 tbsp milk

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300g unsalted butter 

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530g icing sugar 

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1xsalted caramel

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200g dark chocolate

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225ml double cream 

Method

Preheat the oven to 170c and make the cakes. 

Chocolate cake:

Sieve together the plain flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder and 370 g sugar in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the coffee, 3 eggs, buttermilk and vegetable oil. Make a well in the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients. Stir together until all the ingredients are smooth and incorporated. Divide over two lined 8" cake tins. 

Caramel cake

Cream the butter, the remaining 200g sugar and brown sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add in the 4 eggs, one at a time beating in between. Sieve in the flour and gradually add the milk and vanilla. Beat until all the ingredients are well combined. Divide over two lined 8" cake tins. 

Bake both cakes for 20 - 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool. 

To make the buttercream beat the butter until pale and fluffy, this will take about 5-6 mins. Next add in half the icing sugar. Beat until well combined. Add in the final amount of icing sugar and beat until fully incorporated. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Finally add in just over half the salted caramel and beat until well combined. 

For the ganache, heat the cream in a saucepan until warm but not boiling. Pour over the chocoate chips and leave without stirring for a couple of minutes. Now stir until smooth and glossy. Leave aside until the ganache becomes spreadable. 

Now for the stacking and layering. Before starting transfer the salted caramel to a piping bag and level and split all the cakes in half. To layer, alternate the cake flavours. Sandwich each layer with buttercream and pipe some caramel on top of buttercream. Repeat until final layer. Make sure to leave about 50/60g buttercream to the side (this will be used for the top of the cake) 

Now for the crumb coat and chill stage of the cake making process. This is potentially one of the most important stages as this thin layer of buttercream locks in all the cake crumbs and ensures a crumb free appearance for the final coat. Once the cake has chilled spread the ganache around the cake, using a cake scraper to smooth the edges. Place in the fridge one last time to chill. Remove cake from fridge and spread the remaining buttercream on the top. To finish the cake, stick the pretzels in the buttercream. Finish by drizzling the remaining salted caramel over the pretzels. If you are making this cake in advance don't place pretzels into the cake until ready for serving. This is because the pretzels will go soggy.