This salted caramel cake is a fluffy, delicious layer cake fit for any celebration! Moist caramel cake layers are frosted with a tart orange buttercream for a unique, bright flavor combination. Dress this cake with greenery and cranberries for the holiday season, or simply enjoy it any time of year!
This salted caramel cake is super rich and sweet - not filled with your typical holiday spices, but still gives you a festive flavor, especially paired with a fluffy orange buttercream. It’s a sweet, citrusy dessert that you can dress up for the holidays with greens and berries, or keep super casual for any other day! This recipe is an homage to my Nana and her support of my baking journey. Her absolute favorite time of year was the holiday season (Christmas, especially) and her favorite flavor (and color) was orange. Orange popsicles, orange lollipops, orange slices to go on her garlands on her Christmas tree - you get the picture. So I wanted to make a recipe that represented her love for the holidays as much as her love for all things orange, and I think I’ve done just that.
Here are some more cake recipes you’ll love: Black Forest Cake, Butterscotch Bundt Cake, and Decadent Chocolate Cake.
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Ingredients & Equipment
You’ll need the following ingredients and equipment to make this salted caramel cake with orange buttercream:
- Cake pans
- Flour
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Eggs
- Caramel sauce
- Almond milk
- Powdered sugar
- Heavy cream
- Orange juice
- Baking powder
- Maple syrup
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
Customize This Recipe!
There are a few different ways you can customize this recipe:
- Add orange zest to the cake batter. Adding a bit of orange zest to the cake batter helps to tie in that orange flavor even more between the cake and buttercream. Only add a couple tablespoons at most, though, or else it will overpower the caramel.
- Dress it up or down. I decorated this cake for Christmas, but you can make it for any occasion! Add some spring flowers and fun sprinkles for a bright Easter cake, or use food coloring to customize the cake for a special birthday!
Kitchen Tips:
- Utilize mise en place! Make sure you have all of your ingredients prepped and ready before you begin making this recipe - it will help save you time and keep you organized.
- Use cake strips for flat layers. If you use cake strips on your cake pans, your cake layers will come out flat, so there's no need to level them after baking!
More cake and cupcake recipes:
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Salted Caramel Cake with Orange Buttercream
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- 2 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup butter room temp
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 3 eggs room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- ½ cup caramel
- 1 cup almond milk
For the buttercream:
- 1 cup butter room temp
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoon heavy cream
- 2 teaspoon fresh orange juice
- pinch salt to taste
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF and prepare three 6in baking pans.
- Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
- In a standard mixer, beat together butter and sugars until fluffy.
- Add in eggs one at a time until fully combined.
- Add vanilla, syrup and caramel until fully mixed and smooth.
- Alternate adding dry mixture and milk until both are fully combined into the cake batter.
- Pour your batter evenly between pans and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cake rounds cool fully before assembling.
For the buttercream:
- In a standard mixer, beat the butter until fluffy (whisk or paddle attachment are both fine).
- Add in powdered sugar one cup at a time until fully combined.
- Add in your vanilla, orange juice, heavy cream and salt - taste, then adjust however you'd like if necessary.
- Chill until needed to frost cakes.
To assemble the cake:
- Place one cake round on a cake stand (or whatever you'll be serving the cake on).
- Spread about ¾ cup buttercream onto the cake round.
- Optional: drizzle some caramel sauce over the buttercream to add more flavor to the filling.
- Place second cake round on top, then repeat the process.
- Use the remaining buttercream to frost the outside of the cake. I prefer a naked look when frosting, but you can fully coat the cake if you'd like!
- Continue to decorate however you'd like, and enjoy!
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