Southern Caramel Cake Recipe
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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.
For the icing have you tried boiling a can of condensed milk for about 2-3 hours and using the cooled contents as icing?
Looks like a great recipe which I will soon try.
regards
Sal
I love this cake and my family does too! I have not been able to perfect the frosting but I have used this cake recipe several times. Thank you for sharing your recipes, do you have a video blog showing how to make some recipes? I would love video instructions on how to make your caramel.
can i use 2/3 of recipe since i have 2 9 inch cake pans
I have two pans and just divided the recipe in half – will take slightly longer to cook but works fine. You can cut the cakes in half horizontally if you want a more layered effect.
Ramon, I didn’t notice until I printed it, but the cake recipe says to double the icing recipe so you probably wouldn’t have enough icing if you reduced the amount to 2/3. I noticed that a couple of other people said they didn’t have enough icing, so maybe they didn’t notice either.
Well, I am excited for my birthday cake to have the caramel icing. My question is:
Idon’t want to use crisco, can I use coco nut oil? Or just a cup of butter?
Thanks for your reply.
Sheril
THE BEST CARAMEL CAKE EVER….I’VE MADE IT 3 TIMES IN 3 MONTHS AND MY BOYFRIEND AND HIS FAMILY LOVE IT!! WILL BE MAKING IT AGAIN THIS WEEKEND FOR HIS BIRTHDAY AND NEXT WEEKEND FOR MY DAD’S BIRTHDAY! THANK YOU FOR SHARING IT, ROBYN!!
I just made the cake for my son’s nanny’s birthday tomorrow. Wow the directions were great! Somehow my frosting was a little too stiff (didn’t even add all the powered sugar) but still a dream to spread. I just had a hard time covering the entire cake. I snuck some tastes and Yum! I can’t wait for a slice.
Melissa, I don’t know if it would make any difference to the icing consistency, but the recipe calls for granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar.
I accidentally made this cake with all purpose flour and it was delicious! The cake was more dense but came out wondeful. However when I noticed I mistakenly used the wrong flour. I tried redoing the recipe with the self rising flour. The cake crumbled when I tried to flip it from the pan and did not taste as good as the all purpose. I would recommend anyone who made this cake to use all purpose flour as a substitute.
Robyn,
I could not get the caramel icing recipe link to open either.
I would like to make this for moms birthday if I an get the icing recipe.
Thanks
Hi Sue,
This is the direct link to the recipe — https://addapinch.com/cooking/2011/06/08/southern-caramel-icing/
Hi Sue,
This is the direct link to the recipe — https://addapinch.com/cooking/2011/06/08/southern-caramel-icing/
I’ve been searching for a yummy caramel cake recipe for my Mom’s birthday tomorrow, hoping to somewhat replicate my late Grandma’s recipe (which is now lost, sadly). Your cake looks scrumptious, but I’m curious what makes the cake taste caramel? I’m a bit of a novice baker so any help is appreciated!
Dumb question….. Why is my icing white and yours brown? What am I doing wring
Are you using a meat/candy thermometer? Make sure you are letting the icing cook to at least 235 degrees.(Thats when it get most of its color.) Once sugar hits 230 it goes kinda fast so you must work fast and be careful because it can really burn you badly.