This Southern Caramel Cake Recipe is a traditional caramel cake made from an heirloom family recipe. It’s delicious topped with homemade caramel icing!
Southern Caramel Cake is one of those desserts that is a true labor of love. So rich and decadent, it’s a cake that surely takes any special occasion to a whole new level and is by far one of my family’s favorite cakes.
We celebrated two birthdays in my family this past weekend – Mama’s and my husband’s. I asked each of them what kind of cake they would like for their birthday and both of them replied, “Caramel Cake!” Any cake that is requested by multiple people in a family the size of mine for their birthday is definitely a cake to make sure you get just right.
It’s a cake to take pride in, even though mine is a far cry from decorator-perfect. Right down to the smudges on the rim of the cake plate. You can surely tell it’s homemade, can’t you?
How to Make Southern Caramel Cake
Ingredients
Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full listing of ingredients, instructions, notes, and estimated nutritional information.
For the caramel cake, you’ll need butter, sugar, eggs, self-rising flour, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and a double recipe of my family’s Southern Caramel Icing.
Room Temperature Ingredients
Make sure your ingredients, especially butter, eggs, and buttermilk, are all at room temperature. This allows them to mix more fully into the cake batter.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Prep. Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare three cake pans with butter and flour. Set aside.
Make the cake batter. Cream together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined after each egg. Add the flour and buttermilk, alternating between the two and beginning and ending with the flour.
Bake the cake. Divide the cake batter between the three prepared cake pans and bake until the center springs back to a light touch and the sides of the cake begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. You may enjoy reading all of my tips for how to tell when your cake is done.
Cool the layers. Remove the cake layers from the oven. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes and then turn them out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Make your caramel icing. This is when you’ll have time to make your caramel icing. I’ve previously posted the recipe for Southern Caramel Icing that I use.
Make this cake soon for someone you love, to celebrate something special, or just because. You won’t be sorry.
Southern Caramel Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) butter, room temperature
- 2 cups (396 g) sugar
- 4 large (200 g) eggs, room temperature
- 3 cups (360 g) self-rising flour
- 1 cup (227 g) buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (9.4 g) vanilla extract
- Southern Caramel Icing Recipe, double the recipe
Instructions
- Prep. Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare three cake pans with butter and flour. Set aside.
- Make the cake batter. Cream together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined after each egg. Add the flour and buttermilk, alternating between the two and beginning and ending with the flour.
- Bake the cake. Divide the cake batter between the three prepared cake pans and bake until the center springs back to a light touch and the sides of the cake begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. You may enjoy reading all of my tips for how to tell when your cake is done.
- Cool the layers. Remove the cake layers from the oven. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes and then turn them out onto wire racks to cool completely.
- Make the icing. Make double the original recipe for Southern Caramel Icing to have ample icing for this three layer cake.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Robyn,
Just made your Southern Caramel Cake. As it is said in India, “Holy Cow” this is a good cake. I was raised on a farm in GA and this is as good any my GrandMa ever made. Thank you for posting this recipe.
The icing was great. I learned that one has to work fast with it.
Do you have a recipe for a chocolate icing?
Thank you,
Dwayne
I made this cake and I must say I was very disappointed. The cake was very dense and did not rise. I thought I followed the directions exactly, but something went wrong. Don’t know where I messed up. Can you help please
Robyn, I would have to rate this cake 0 stars. The cake was very, course, dense and did not rise. The recipe did not call for baking soda/ powder. Was this omitted in error? Thumbs down!
Hi Sheila,
Sorry the recipe wasn’t to your liking. The actual recipe calls for self-rising flour, so no – no baking powder or baking soda are needed in making this cake if you use the ingredients called for. Now, if you substitute all-purpose flour for the self-rising called for in the recipe, you will need to add baking powder and baking soda to make the cake rise. I feel sure this is where the problem would have been caused in your cake.
Hope you have a great week!
Robyn
I may be wrong, and I haven’t made this yet: It sounds like the cake is a white cake and it’s the icing that makes it caramel. Just curious. I’m about to use the frosting part for an office party tomorrow.
I made this cake yesterday 5-4-13 for my dad’s birthday and it was a hit! The cake was really great, it’s rich and flavorful. I had a few small problems with the frosting. Notes for next time: I would only use 2- 9″ pans instead of 3. I wasn’t sure how much heat to use when making the frosting. Next time I need to turn the flame higher (med high) when cooking the frosting, I realized how important it to 240 degrees because I was only ably to get the frosting to 220 degrees and it was still a little grainy. The flavor was amazing, the texture just wasn’t quite right.
Made this cake today. My husband loved it. Easy to follow recipe. This will now be a favorite at my house.
Hi Robyn,
I wanted to thank you so much for this recipe. My dad’s absolute favourite dessert in the world is caramel cake. There is reputed to be a family caramel cake recipe passed down from his mother, but due to family politics, I don’t yet have this recipe. I tried very hard to get it from my sisters on his birthday, but none of them were any help. In a panic, I searched the web for alternative recipes. I took a chance on your, and I’m so glad I chose this one instead of any other. It was perfect, and my dad said it was one of the best caramel cakes he had ever eaten.
So thank you so much for your wonderful recipe. I’ll post a blog about it tomorrow, with a link back to you of course. Please check it out on my site, A Southern Belle in London.
Kate
Hey Robyn the cake turned out GREAT even the icing but the only problem I had was after it was cut, it got really dry really fast!!!!! What can I do!!!
Hi Brittney,
Make sure your cake is really, really well wrapped or covered with a cake dome to keep it moist. It should last for a couple of days like that without drying out. This cake is definitely best eaten within the first day or two.
Hi Robyn! I made this cake with Coffee Butter Frosting, and it was delicious! But the cake was really dense! And had a lot of bubbles. I’m thinking that I may have overbeat it or something like that, but do you know why it turned out this way? Thank you for the delicious recipe though!
Hello! My grandmother made a cake similar to this haven’t had it in years! So I did not have 3 pans only 2 do I opted on making the cake in a angel food cake pan got a little crusty but altogether good! My icing pretty much turned out good but I don’t know if I beat to much because it cooked quickly and became grainy when I tried to spread it, also beat with wooden spoon! Thx!
Great cake, I made the first batch of icing and it was fine, wasn’t enough. I made the 2 batch and it was grainy. Please tell me what went wrong .thanks