Hannah Obee's Salted caramel chocolate cake

Hannah Obee's Salted caramel chocolate cake

This sophisticated cake, one of the final three in our 20th birthday cake competition, is dark, rich and moist

Difficulty and servings

For the keen cook

Serves 12 - 0

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 45 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr 10 mins

Method

  1. First, make the caramel. Pour 100ml water into a large saucepan. Add the sugar and golden syrup, gently cook until melted, then turn up the heat a bit and cook until the caramel is a dark goldenbrown colour. Swirl the pan occasionally to prevent sticking but do not stir. Turn off the heat and carefully whisk in the butter, double cream and crème fraîche - it will bubble up quite high. Whisk until smooth, then leave to cool until slightly set. You can make this up to 3 days in advance and chill in the fridge - just gently reheat until soft enough to spread before assembling the cake.
  2. Now make the cake. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease a 23cm springform cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate, butter and milk in a large pan over a low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, then beat in the sugar and vanilla. Cool slightly. Beat the egg yolks and crème fraîche together, then mix this into the chocolate mixture, followed by the flour and baking powder. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Stir a third of the egg whites into the cake mix, then gently fold in the rest along with the sea salt. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40-50 mins until firm to touch. Leave to cool for 20 mins, then remove from the tin and finish cooling on a wire rack.
  3. For the ganache, heat the chocolate and cream together over a low heat until the chocolate has melted. Pour into a bowl to cool.
  4. To assemble, slice the cooled cake in half horizontally. Sandwich together with some of your caramel - you may not need it all, but be generous in order to balance the bittersweet ganache topping. Spread the ganache over the top of the cake and sprinkle with some sea salt crystals and chocolate truffles, if you like.

901 kcalories, protein 7g, carbohydrate 97g, fat 57 g, saturated fat 32g, fibre 3g, sugar 76g, salt 2.35 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, November 2009.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • Binder photo Sandra

    2009-10-09 16:05:19.423194

    Sandra commented on this recipe

    A tablespoon of salt seems rather a lot if one has to watch ones intake of salt!

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  • Binder photo RachelG

    2009-10-10 13:18:33.13575

    RachelG rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Superb cake, tricky to make but well worth it! :P

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  • Binder photo jackowacko

    2009-10-28 14:54:28.972854

    jackowacko commented on this recipe

    At last, a chocolate cake for the grown-ups. I've made this for a birthday dinner party, and it was a success. Was asked for the recipe by all 11 guests. It'll be made again for my New Year 2010 dinner party.

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  • Binder photo Frantic Flapjack

    2009-11-25 12:23:39.41266

    Frantic Flapjack commented on this recipe

    I loathed this cake. I made it for my son's 17th birthday. It looked great but tasted SO salty. I only used half the recommended amount of salt in the mix and didn't sprinkle any on the top. Out of a party of 8, only 2 could manage to eat it. Very disappointing and a waste of time and money.

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  • Binder photo dobsy

    2009-11-25 21:26:58.398955

    dobsy commented on this recipe

    made it and i didnt put sea salt in as too much salt bad 4 u theres enough salt in the butter realy mummy defo make it again

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  • Binder photo Dizzy

    2009-11-26 09:44:44.780719

    Dizzy commented on this recipe

    Fantastic receipe. Best chocolate cake ever! Not sickly like so many receipes. I used Maldon salt and that did nto make it too salty at all - just enhanced the flavours. Will be making this again for Christmas. Yumm

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  • Binder photo gertan

    2009-12-16 19:27:48.683112

    gertan rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    It was delicous. I try to make yesterday before my nephew's birthday and perfect result. I'll make it again her birthday party. Absolutely delicous.

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  • Binder photo ab8179

    2010-03-04 17:47:37.377652

    ab8179 rated this recipe

    3 stars

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  • Binder photo emmajoseph1

    2010-04-07 15:37:10.312027

    emmajoseph1 rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    Much too salty and I only used half the amount recommended. I would make it again but without the salt and also less butter in the caramel as i found it too runny.

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  • Binder photo LV20000

    2010-05-01 23:07:39.339572

    LV20000 rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Used only 1 teaspoon of salt but was still too much. Also the caramel was too runny even after if was left in the fridge for a few hours!

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  • Binder photo chochotte

    2010-06-05 10:15:00.670758

    chochotte commented on this recipe

    To those who are finding this recipe too salty, it's worth remembering that different kinds of salt will add different levels of saltiness. Using a dessertspoon (which is the equivalent of TWO TEASPOONS, not a tablespoon, which is THREE teaspoons) of coarse sea salt such as Maldon will give a much less salty result than the same volume of fine table salt. That could explain the problem.

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  • Binder photo cakefactory

    2010-08-21 00:53:05.76757

    cakefactory commented on this recipe

    i am now obsessed with all things salt caramel ice-cream, spread, chocolate so will definitely try this recipe!

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  • Binder photo Nicola

    2010-09-17 10:52:37.192843

    Nicola rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Delicious sponge (I made sure I used sea salt crystals - added a bit less than it said as I was still a bit worried about making it too salty!), and the ganache was perfect....but my caramel squidged out all over the place...none stayed in between the sponges. I expect I may not have cooked the caramel long enough, but I'm not sure. I cooled it in the fridge and it was perfect and spreadable, but then I put it on the cake, added the top and it all came out! Think I'll make it again but use a different caramel recipe as this one was a bit tricky for me.

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  • Binder photo Nicola

    2010-09-30 12:56:16.750905

    Nicola commented on this recipe

    Made it again, and tried the caramel part again, cooking it for longer, but still I didn't think it was quite right so I wont make it again.

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  • Binder photo BlueFish

    2010-11-01 18:24:29.911822

    BlueFish rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    This cakes delicious!! Although instead of using the caramel to fill the cake I fiilled it with chocolate and dusted the top with icing sugar leaving the caramel as a delicious sauce on the side. Deffinetly worth making, Didn't think it was too salty but I used maldon salt flakes rather than pouring.

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  • Binder photo Anna

    2011-09-14 20:25:05.586321

    Anna commented on this recipe

    My daughter and I made this cake for her boyfriends birthday, everyone loved it!! it was moist and delicious.. a complete success :-) We didn't sprickle salt on the top

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  • Binder photo Nelly

    2011-09-29 20:08:49.077843

    Nelly rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I love this cake - the caramel is tricky but it's so worth it for a special occasion

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  • Binder photo Ermintrude75

    2011-10-08 17:55:45.485336

    Ermintrude75 commented on this recipe

    I'm tickled that people think there's too much salt in this to be healthy, conveniently ignoring 900 calories and 32g saturated fat in each portion. We also found the caramel too runny to act as a sandwich layer, and after the required time/temperature in the oven, the cake was not cooked.

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  • Binder photo jeanblome

    2011-10-12 20:47:02.639704

    jeanblome commented on this recipe

    Carnation makes a very good substitute caramel from sweetened condensed milk. Just open the tin, beatthe caramel with a fork to make it spreadable, and spread it on the cake. As easy as that.

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  • Binder photo debbie

    2011-10-12 22:08:58.967397

    debbie commented on this recipe

    Well I'm going to give it a go, after reading the comments I might use the caramel as a pour over to drizzle on the top and put some chocolate buttercream in the middle...

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Difficulty and servings

For the keen cook

Serves 12 - 0

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 45 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr 10 mins

Ingredients

  • 115g salted butter , plus extra for greasing
  • 225g plain chocolate (70% cocoa)
  • 150ml milk
  • 225g light muscovado sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs , separated
  • 150ml crème fraîche
  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp sea salt crystals
  • chocolate truffles, to decorate

FOR THE CARAMEL

  • 450g caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 115g salted butter
  • 125ml double cream
  • 2 tbsp crème fraîche

FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE

  • 225g plain chocolate (70-80% cocoa solids)
  • 250ml double cream
  • dessertspoon sea salt crystals (or to taste)
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901 kcalories, protein 7g, carbohydrate 97g, fat 57 g, saturated fat 32g, fibre 3g, sugar 76g, salt 2.35 g

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