Hello everyone, I hope you are all ready for an excess of fatty foods, sugary products and salty nibbles. While preparing this week’s contest, I must admit that I had to consult the dictionary to have the right definition of “guilty pleasures”. A “guilty pleasure” is defined there as something that you like, even though you know it’s not good. Now that got me thinking: can food in any way, shape, or form be bad for you? My first reaction was “no”. But the word “moderation” immediately sprung to mind and it made me feel a little bit less guilty of the initial thought.

My guilty pleasure in life is salted caramel. Everything and anything with salted caramel will get me going. I, nevertheless, felt a pinch of guilty to classify salted caramel as a guilty pleasure for a number of reasons. I supposed when you like something it is hard to try and associate it with something with a negative connotation. Needless to say that throughout the week I’ve battled with the idea of creating something with salted caramel. 

As a result, I’ve been eagerly awaiting other participants to post their entry for week #8. The hope was that they would have an entry that uses salted caramel and that would provide me with a good enough reason to look for a different “guilty pleasure”. In my anticipation I spent the week going through different regular @cookwithus participants blogs to try and learn more about them or to interact with them. All in all it was an interesting week getting to know other fellow contestants. I had the opportunity to ask @whattheduck for tips on how to showcase my dishes in a different light.

I digress so back to the contest! With nothing in view by midweek, I got on talking with my husband that I will need to quickly come up with something considering the busy weekend ahead. In week #7, @whattheduck offered to promote the contest through other social medias and that got my husband thinking about looking at some of the cooking channels on Facebook. 

Strangely enough (and you really have to ask yourself whether we are not being secretly spied upon) there was a video of a Salted Caramel cake! He showed me the video and at that point in time I thought that there was no escaping my ghost from the past! Salted caramel it is and salted caramel it will be.

In an attempt to free myself from all guilt, I decided to coincide the baking of the cake with the birthday of one of my closest friend, also a fellow steemians (@tomekkk happy birthday again!!). We had them over for diner on Saturday night and cut the cake at the end of the night. Interesting fact about this cake, I actually didn’t follow any recipe. I saw the video once and attempted it instinctively. 

And hell it was sweet!!! 

Very very very sweet!!!!!!! 

It was a slow death by salted caramel!

Ingredients:

Chocolate cake

• 226 g unsalted butter, softened
• 400 g sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 55 g vegetable oil
• 330 g all purpose flour
• 80 g unsweetened  cocoa powder, sifted
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot water

Yellow cake

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs vegetable oil
• 285 g cake flour
• 300 g granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 169 g unsalted butter, softened

Butter cream

• 500 g butter
• 500 g icing sugar
• Caramel sauce

Salted Caramel

• 100 g brown sugar
• 90 g butter
• 1/2 cup thicken cream
• Sea salt flakes

Method:

For the purpose of this recipe I will only highlight the process for baking the chocolate cake as the same principle applies for the yellow cake.

1. In a bowl, add the flour, sifted cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk to blend and set aside.





2. In the mixer bowl, beat the softened butter on medium speed until light and creamy. Add the oil and vanilla. Gradually add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. 





3. Add the eggs 1 at a time, mixing after each egg just until the yellow disappears. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.





4. Mixing on medium speed, add the flour mixture and milk to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.










5. Add the cup of hot water. The batter will be very thin. 





6. Pour into cake tin. Bake at 175 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Check for doneness at 30 minutes mark by putting a toothpick in the centre of the cake.










7. To prepare the butter cream, add the softened butter in a bowl and beat until pale. Gradually add icing sugar followed by a few spoons of salted caramel sauce.















8. To prepare the salted caramel, in a sauce pan add the thicken cream, brown sugar, butter and sea salt. Once ready add 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Cold down for two minutes then reserve in a jar for later use.





9. Start by levelling both cakes into 8 inch layers. The first layer will remain untouched however all subsequent layers will have a hole in the middle.










10. To assemble the cake, place the untouched layer of the yellow cake at the bottom. Spread the butter cream around the edge and leave an empty circle in the middle.





11. Continue assembling the cake by adding the other layers by alternating the chocolate cake and the yellow cake with a hole in the middle.





12. Once the cake get to a reasonable level, use a funnel to pour the salted caramel in the hole. Use remaining cake to plug the top of the cake.










13. Decorate the cake with the remaining butter cream. Decorate with popcorns and splash some more salted caramel to complete the cake.










14. Cut a chunky piece of cake and indulge!! 

At the time of writing this post I’ve got my feet up, the laptop on my thighs and an IV to try and cleanse my blood of all that sugar!!!

Oops... that's obviously not me but the cat busy digesting...

I hope you enjoy it!

Bon appétit!