Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake with a Kick
This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking adventure really surprised me. I saw the photo in the book and it looked beautiful, but registered with me as run of the mill, predictable, I thought I knew what I was going to get.
photo by David Peterman
What I didn’t count on was a velvety soft brownie cake that was the perfect balance to the chewy caramel peanut topping. This simple cake worked so stunningly well primarily due to the excellent combination of textures. I took the caramel pretty dark to keep it from being overly sweet and ensure it delivered a nice strong caramel flavor; then I added a little kick to the topping in the manner of 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. It was a perfect little swell of heat at the end of each bite. The nice thing about cayenne is the heat hangs back for the finish so the chocolate, caramel and peanut flavors can all be enjoyed before it is detected.
The only difficulty with this cake was cutting it after it had been sitting for a few hours. The darker caramel is cooked the stiffer it is when cooled, which I knew, but didn’t expect this to cause any problems because it was still a rather loose caramel topping. Interestingly this was only a problem for the knife. After cutting the first piece I thought the topping was going to pull everyone’s fillings out, but much to my happy relief, it was very easy to bite and chew. I think the knife had difficulty because the soft layer of cake under the caramel provided no resistance to cut against. The nature of the brownie-style cake had a good structure which made it easy to eat out of hand and the topping was soft and very easy to bite through, just difficult to cut with a knife. I cut a left over portion of cake into pieces by flipping it upside down so the caramel was against a cutting board making it was easy to cut perfect litle pieces. Turn them pretty side up and serve, but this technique would only be applicable if the caramel has set enough not to fall off the cake or stick to the counter.
I took a lot of process shortcuts in making this. All of the recipes I have made so far in Dorie’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours
I defied Dories warning against making half a batch of the caramel and did so with no problems. It was the perfect amount for the cake topping. I make caramel fairly often and prefer to add the butter once the caramel has cooled a bit, and then I stirred in the peanuts once the butter was in and the caramel had cooled even more. Once it was set enough not to run right off the cake, I spread it on.
Thank you to Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy for selecting a recipe that I might not have gotten around to making on my own. I loved this week’s result and will be making it again in the future.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:55 am
That is one good looking cake! Can you please save me a slice? Thanks.
Great job.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I dared and made a half batch of caramel too - we’re dangerous people! And using the bottom as the top sounds like a great way to get good presentation (although I liked using the sunken area as a pool for caramel - yum!)
October 7th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Nice job with the cayenne kick! I agree. This one was a little tricky to take process photos. I almost dropped the camera a couple of times! HAHA
Clara @ iheartfood4thought
October 7th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Cayenne pepper hey? Great idea, though I don’t handle heat very well. I made half caramel too but didn’t come across any problems? Great job, you’re cake looks nice and moist.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Beautiful picture! And the cayenne touch sounds very interesting!
I’m glad you liked it and I found that the caramel got a little too hard after a while to cut too…
October 7th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Ooooh, cayenne sounds great! A perfect balance for the sweetness of the cake. I used a serrated knife to cut my cake, no problems at all.
October 7th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I am so pleased you liked my pick!
October 7th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Wow, that is an amazing picture! Your cake looks so delicious!
October 7th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Spicy caramel cake. WooHoo!! Looks great.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
It looks fabulous. I had some trouble with the caramel, but I’m going to give it another try soon. Yum!
October 7th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
looks great–i love the kick! i had no problems making small batch of caramel either…it worked well.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Totally inspired - I love it!!
October 7th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Wow! This looks great. Love the pepper addition…I’m making note of that!
October 8th, 2008 at 7:22 am
I wish I’d halved my caramel recipe, because now I have a jar of caramel that needs to be made into sauce, that will only help my thighs to expand even more!
October 8th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Your cake looks great. I have seen someone lose a filling to sticky candy so I am glad your eaters were spared.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:18 am
beautiful job on the cake! you are braver than me to add in cayenne pepper
glad you enjoyed this so much!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Wow, the picture made my mouth water, and then reading what you said about the caramel just made my want to grab a fork and take a bite out of the computer. my attempt was not as successful as yours. great job!
October 8th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Wow, yours looks great! Thanks for the information about caramel.
I was thinking “this recipe needs something — a little bite or kick” but couldn’t quite figure out what it should be. Cayenne pepper! What a great idea!
October 9th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
That looks fantastic! I’m so glad it worked out well for you… which was no small task considering all of the burned caramel posts I’ve read in the past few days.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I do agree that the texture of the caramel is perfect for this type of cake. The addition of the cayenne is a great idea…delicious!!!!
October 11th, 2008 at 5:51 am
I love your idea of adding a touch of cayenne pepper!
October 12th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Gorgeous! I’d like some now, please.