Salted Caramel Drip Cake

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

• 400 g unsalted butter
• 400 g light brown sugar
• 7 Large eggs (or 8 medium)
• 400 g self raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 4 tbsp whole milk (optional)

Salted Caramel Buttercream

• 250 g unsalted butter (room temp)
• 600 g icing sugar
• 175 g caramel (carnations)
• Pinch sea salt

Decoration

• 200 g caramel (carnations)
• Pinch sea salt
• rolos
• sprinkles

Direction

For the Cake

1. Heat the oven to 180ºc/160ºfan and line three 20cm/8inch cake tins with baking parchment – leave to the side.
2. In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and light brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add in the flour, eggs, baking powder (if using) and beat again briefly until combined – try not to overbeat!
4. Divide the mixture between the three tins and smooth it over – bake for 25-30minutes until the cakes are golden and when the cake springs back (skewer should also come out clean)
5. Once baked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then remove and leave to cool fully on a wire rack. If the cake has domed slightly, leave the cake to cool upside down to flatten it slightly.

For the Decoration

1. In a stand mixer, beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is smooth
2. Beat in the icing sugar 1/3 at a time until its fully combined. Keep beating the buttercream for 5-6 minutes on a medium speed so it starts to get fluffier and lighter.
3. Add in the carnations caramel and beat again with a pinch of sea salt and beat again for 3-4 minutes. Taste it, and if its salty enough then leave it, if not, add a little more and beat again.

Decoration

1. Once the cakes are cooled, put the first layer on the serving plate spread some of the buttercream onto the top of the first layer, add the second cake on top, and then top again with some of buttercream and then add the final sponge layer. 
2. Only use about 2 tbsp of buttercream per layer so that you have enough to decorate with!
3. With the leftover buttercream, as you can see, I covered the sides (and top) too! Do a first layer of around the edge and top using a large metal scraper and refriergate for 30 minutes. Repeat again with a slightly thicker layer of buttercream. 
4. I slather it on all over using an off-set spatula, and then run the metal scraper round till its smooth. The more you put on, the thicker it’ll be as because you are making it smooth, more comes off than you realise with smoothing it over.
5. Set the cake in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
6. Loosen the caramel you are using by briefly mixing in a bowl. Add to a piping bag.
7. Pipe it round the edge of the cake, edging over slight bits to create the drip. You don’t need to use too much per drip as it’ll drop quite far down by itself! Fill in the top with more caramel so the top is also covered. Refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes.
8. Pipe on the rest of your buttercream, and put on some Rolos, and sprinkles! Don’t pipe the buttercream too close to the edge of the cake as the weight might make it fall down (because of being on the caramel) so move it in slightly like I have! Enjoy!