Salted Caramel Sheet Cake

Sheet Cakes are my new thing! I used to think they were boring, however lately I have realized that is just not so. This Salted Caramel Sheet Cake is anything but boring, and the perfect treat for a Birthday or special occasion.

Yesterday was my husband’s Birthday. It started as just “one of those days” where everything goes wrong all at one time. We started the day with no power due to a bad storm the night before. We figured by the time we woke up that the power would be restored, however it wasn’t. Next I decided I would go out to the grocery store to pick up a couple things we needed and our van wouldn’t start. When it rains it pours! Finally at about 5 Pm we had power and I thought great, I need to at least bake him a cake.

Totally on the fly I thought, Salted Caramel! He loves peanut butter but we didn’t have any on hand so this was the next best thing I could think of. I used my favorite Vanilla Sheet Cake base. Then I made some American Style buttercream with a hint of cream cheese while the cake was baking. At the end I boiled some sugar and made a homemade caramel sauce to put in the buttercream and top the cake. We had vanilla ice cream on hand as well, which was a perfect addition. At the end of the day we got to sing Happy Birthday to him and he got to enjoy a big piece of cake despite not having power most of the day.

Salted Caramel Sheet Cake Tips and Tricks

• For the Vanilla Sheet Cake base, I use my favorite cake mixing and baking method. This calls for a cup of boiling water at the end. Do not fear, the boiling water will not cook your eggs. This helps yield a super moist cake.
• I always use Watkin’s brand Vanilla Extract. You guys, trust me when I say this is the best vanilla extract I have found.
• American style buttercream is basically butter and powered sugar. I always add a hint of cream cheese to my icing to add flavor. This will take your desserts from fine to amazing! I also added 2 Tablespoons of the homemade caramel sauce to the icing and it gives just a hint of caramel which is what I was looking for.
• Cooking homemade caramel sauce is not as hard as you would think. You just boil sugar (without stirring) until you see it starting to turn an amber color. Then you add your heavy cream and butter and you are done. If you have never made homemade caramel sauce before my best advice is do not walk away from it. It can go from good to burnt very quickly. I was mixing my buttercream while my caramel sauce was cooking, however once I saw some color I stopped my buttercream and focused all of my attention on my caramel sauce.
• I always use parchment paper to line the bottom of my sheet cake pan. This makes it easy to lift the cake out once it cools to icing and cut. I put my parchment paper right on a cutting board and use a large chef knife to cut the cake. After each cut, I wipe the knife off to ensure the next cut is clean and pretty.

Homemade Caramel Sauce

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions: Add sugar to a heavy bottomed pot. Add water to pot and mix to combine sugar and water. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil, do not stir. When sugar is completely dissolved and clear, raise heat to medium high. Cook until sugar starts to turn from clear to amber in color, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat immediately. Stir in heavy cream, butter, and vanilla extract. Your mixture will bubble up when you add these ingredients, just keep stirring. When the caramel is cool enough to give it a try, stir in a dash of salt at a time until you’ve reached your desired taste. If your caramel is lumpy, give it some heat and stir until it is smooth.

Recipe adapted from Fifteen Spatulas. For a full caramel tutorial with pictures, go check out Fifteen Spatulas recipe!

Salted Caramel Buttercream

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 (8 ounce) block cream cheese
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons homemade caramel sauce
• dash of salt to taste

Directions: Place room temperature butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium speed until smooth. Do not use cold butter and do not microwave your butter. Microwaving will cause hot spots that could cause your buttercream to become lumpy. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. Add vanilla extract and homemade caramel sauce.

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