This recipe is one I made more than two months ago for Steve’s birthday! It’s been buried on my “to blog” list and I just haven’t had a chance to write it up! But with spring break upon us, I have all the time in the world to blog and cook and bake and blog and bake and cook and blog and…. 🙂 It’s going to be a great weekend 😀 We don’t leave until Monday morning for Arizona and with all of my suite and all my friends gone – I literally have nothing to do except cook and bake and blog about it 😀 Don’t worry, I don’t plan on eating all of it. I plan on giving it to some boys I know who are staying here over break, and bringing some of it to AZ for the team.
But back to this recipe… It’s pretty easy to whip up and the vanilla bean/salted caramel combo is to die for. The cake is quite dense, and almost has a cornbread-feel to it (or maybe I was just hungry for cornbread). I think we all agreed that the leftovers the second day were even better than having it the first day – not sure why, but hey! That just means another excuse to eat cake!
Vanilla Bean Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce
Makes one 9-inch cake
Recipe from Food and Wine
Ingredients:
Cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped or 2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream
Salted Caramel Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a nine-inch round cake pan. Cut out a circle pf waxed paper the size of the pan and place in bottom. Spray lightly with cooking spray so that it comes out easily. In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients, for the cake, together (flour, baking powder, salt). In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add both sugars and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well in between and then add the sour cream and the vanilla. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
2. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour
, until golden and springy and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes then invert onto a wire rack, remove parchment paper carefully and allow to cool completely.
3. When the cake is almost cool, make the caramel sauce. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup and bring to a boil. Using a wet pastry brush, wash down any crystals on the side of the pan. Boil over high heat until a deep amber caramel forms, about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully whisk in the cream, butter and salt. Let cool.
4. When ready to serve, poke the top of the cake all over with a skewer and pour the caramel sauce over the cake, allowing it to seep in and drip down the side. Cut into wedges and serve.
