Dulce de Leche Cake (Wheat Free, with Gluten Free Option)

Happy birthday, Stefi! 

This month my brother’s partner celebrated her birthday, which gave me another excuse to make cake! Unlike my other family members, I still have room to experiment with her birthday cakes because her tastes aren’t as definite as my parents and siblings. She migrated to Ireland from Ecuador, where they celebrate birthdays differently, with different kinds of cake and sweets. 

However, I know she likes caramel! At home, she would make a caramel sauce by slow cooking milk, sugar, and baking soda together until dark brown and syrupy. When she and my brother went to Ecuador, they brought me back a big ol’ tub of dulce de leche, which was summarily consumed in banoffi pies and on ice cream. 

So, I thought I’d return the favour by making her a delicious caramel flavoured cake, with browned butter and buttery caramel icing. Browning the butter adds a delicious note of caramelly goodness to the cake mixture, and this non-crusting icing is more like a caramel cream than a buttercream. And I love jazzing things up with sugar confetti! 

I used my Madeira cake recipe, adding a little bit of lemon zest and almond essence. I also cooked the butter until it was a deep brown and then let it cool before adding it to the mixture. Take note, however, that when you brown butter it will evaporate a lot of water, which needs to be replaced. To do this, simply pop the cooked butter in a bowl on the scales and top it up with water until it’s its original weight. 

I made the icing by whipping unsalted butter and thick dulce de leche until light and whippy, and then I added salt and vanilla essence to taste. After sandwiching the cake with straight up dulce de leche, I iced the cake with swoops of caramel cream icing, and topped it off with colouredy sprinkles! 

Despite it being absolutely loaded with sugar, the fattiness of the butter in the icing and the warm zestiness of the lemon in the cake makes sure that the whole cake isn’t too sweet. Although, I still recommend eating it in small doses. You can also add lemon juice to any part of this to cut through the richness even more, if you like.

INGREDIMENTS

One 8 inch lemon Madeira cake, made with spelt or gluten free flour, cut in half for filling

About 14 ounces (397 grammes) of dulce de leche, either shop bought or homemade

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence

6 ounces (170 grammes) soft unsalted butter

Colourful sprinkles

METHOD

• Trim the dome off the cake and cut in half horizontally to get two layers. As you can see in the picture above, I didn't actually have enough cake to cut off the dome because I accidentally used a 9 inch tin when I only had enough mixture for an 8 inch. Lesson learnt!
• Set aside 9 ounces (250 grammes) of the caramel for the icing, and use the remaining caramel to fill the cake in a nice thin layer. (You'll have some leftover, which you can eat secretly with sliced banana on digestive biscuits later)
• In a mixing bowl, whip with butter with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add in the caramel and whip until creamy. Add more vanilla and salt, to taste: some people like saltier caramel than others.
• Use the icing to coat the top and sides of the cake, and swoop and swirl the icing to make it look extra delicious. Decorate with sprinkles.