The other day I walked into the kitchen to find my 1-year-old baby Valentine standing on a chair by the kitchen counter, eating an entire stick of BUTTER. Such are the risks of softening butter on the counter in this house. I snapped this picture literally minutes after I had finished giving her a bath to clean up her adventures in the toilet. She rewarded me with butter hair. These kids! It’s a good thing she’s so cute.
Caramel Cake…sheet cake?
I’ve been a little obsessed with sheet cake lately. I posted the recipe for The Only Texas Sheet Cake You’ll Ever Need just a few weeks ago, after testing it 3 times. And then I moved straight into the caramel version. (Side note, do you pronounce it car-mel, or care-uh-mel? I grew up saying car-mel, but in the past few years for some reason switched to care-uh-mel, and now I feel like a pretentious food snob every time I say it. The truth comes out!!)
Southern Caramel Cake wannabe
What I really wanted was Caramel Cake, the Southern kind with layers, but without all the fuss of actual, well, layers. The cake part of a traditional Southern Caramel Cake is not actually caramel-flavored; it’s a yellow or white cake that’s there to soak up all the caramel icing goodness. The cake part of today’s recipe, though, actually tastes caramel-y because we’re using 2 cups of brown sugar. And we’re throwing it into a sheet pan to bake so that it’s done in 20 minutes!
Caramel Cake Ingredients
Here is everything you need. So easy!
How To Make Caramel Cake
This cake recipe is soooo simple. Kind of the opposite of real Caramel Cake, ha. Here’s a basic overview and I’ll give you some more details and photos below!
What size pan should I use to bake caramel sheet cake?
How To Make Caramel Frosting
And now for the icing. Legit, from scratch, pour-straight-up-dry-sugar-into-a-pan caramel icing takes like an hour to make, stirring a pot the whole time. Noooo thank you. I’m all about the brown sugar shortcuts. Bless you, brown sugar. Here’s a quick overview! (This is what your caramel should look like when it’s boiling. It will thicken in just a few minutes.) Ice bath time. You can see how beautifully thick it is now. You still get that deep caramel flavor by boiling it on the stove with some butter and evaporated milk, and it only takes a few minutes. Much easier than the dry sugar method. After boiling, you cool for several minutes in an ice bath to thicken it up. I LOVE this method for cooked frosting, and use it in several recipes, including Nana’s Famous Fudge Brownies and this Peach Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting. It makes the frosting thicken up so nice and smooth. I eat it by the spoonful! (It’s much better than fistfuls of butter.)
Is there a difference between icing and frosting?
Frosting is thick enough to be spreadable. It stays soft on the edges. Imagine the frosting on your favorite Chocolate Cake. Swirly soft for days. Icing is thin enough to be drizzled on top of a cake, and usually hardens on the edges (like today’s caramel frosting!) It will look crackly when you cut into it, like the icing on this Glazed Lemon Bread. Today’s caramel frosting is kind of like a frosting-icing hybrid.
How To Store Caramel Cake
Store this cake covered on the counter! If you leave it in the pan you baked it in and don’t have a lid for that pan, it’s going to dry out pretty fast, even if you cover with plastic wrap. I like to transfer it to a large rectangular food storage container. Keep it only in one layer if you need the frosting to stay nice for presentation. It also freezes beautifully, if well sealed.
How Long Does Carmel Cake Last?
First you should ask yourself, am I REALLY going to have any leftovers? And then you should probably pop the cake in the freezer, if by some trick of fate the cake has already been out a few days. Frozen cake is good for up to 3 months. Look at this you guys. Can you see how this literally looks like I’m slicing up a square of soft caramel? It really is caramel, with the added bonus of cake underneath it! It’s so incredibly rich, and so good. A little bit goes a long way. (For some people who are not me.) This cake feeds a crowd and would be a great dessert to bring for game day!
More sheet cakes that you will die and go to heaven for!
More caramel recipes, yes please
Are you a caramel fiend like me? I get it, caramel is definitely a whole mood, and you need recipes to feed that mood. Don’t worry, I gotchu. Here are some of my favorites:
The Salted Caramel Sauce of my Dreams » thicker, richer, and more FUDGY than your average caramel The Best Homemade Caramel Sauce » a more classic version of caramel sauce Salted Caramel Sandwich Cookies » the most caramel-y of all caramel cookies with some of that thick and fudgy salted caramel in the first link above in between brown butter cookies! Homemade Salted Caramel Brownies » one of overall favorite desserts. And that’s truly saying something!! Soft Caramel Pecan Sticky Buns Recipe » take cinnamon rolls, and take them to level 1,000. The sticky caramel sauce and toasted pecans are chef’s kiss Bananas Foster from Grandbaby Cakes
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