Butterscotch Cake

This cake is delicious. Reminds me of a butterscotch brownie, only in cake form. Yum. I found this recipe through Ultimate Recipe Swap, hosted each Thursday by FishMama. Let me tell you... I have found so many wonderful recipes through her carnival and other recipe-swap memes that I don't think I ever need to buy another cook book!

Butterscotch Cake* - Modified from Sweet and Simple Mama

Cake
1/2 C butter (1 stick)
1/2 C applesauce
7 T brown sugar, packed
1/3 C white sugar
3 eggs (I used two eggs and 1 egg white)
1 1/2 C flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 T heavy whipping cream


Frosting
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C cold water
1/2 + 1/8 C whipping cream
3-4 oz cream cheese


Start by preparing the frosting/icing. To do so, dissolve the sugar in water over low heat, stirring only occasionally.






Meanwhile, cream together the butter (softened) and the applesauce.



Then, add in the sugars.



The consistency looks different due to the applesauce -- but, trust me, it's fine.




Check back in on your sugar. You'll want to boil it until it begins to turn a golden brown. (I kept mine on medium heat and this took about 20-25 minutes).




Back at the batter, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add in the eggs and flour mixture to the creamed butter/sugars.





Then, mix it up!



The batter is light a fluffy looking -- yummy!

Add in roughly 3 T whipping cream to make the batter a little bit more runny than it currently is... stirring between each T addition to check the consistency.





Check back in on your sugar/water.... just to make sure it's doing okay!

Lightly grease 2 8-inch round cake pans (I used 9-inch and the cakes were pretty thin), and pour half of the batter into each cake pan.



Bake these two cakes at 375 for 25 minutes, until golden brown and cake springs back in the center when lightly touched.



Check back in on your sugar/water.



When it's golden brown, remove from the heat and whisk in the cream. Don't wait too long to do this, or your "caramel" will have solidified. If this happens, just re-warm it over the heat before you add the cream.

Here's mine re-warming... with the cream on top.



Return to the heat and whisk the mixture until smooth.



Pour into a measuring cup and refrigerate until completely cool.



Now, your cakes should be done. Take them out, and let them cool in the pans for about 10 minutes.

Then, turn them out onto a cooling wrack to cool completely.



When you're ready to frost them....

Cream the cream cheese in a metal bowl.



Pour in nearly all the caramel sauce and beat until smooth.





Then, frost the first layer with frosting.



Yum.



Add the second layer over the top.



Double yum.



Frost the top layer, and sides, if desired.



Then, pour/drizzle the remaining caramel mix over the top of the cake.



Refrigerate the cake until ready to eat.

Slice and serve! This is especially tasty with blueberries :)





Store in the fridge.


*This recipe needs time to cool ... so you might want to make the frosting first! In total, I needed 2 hours from the time I started until it was finished and frosted. It's really easy to put together, just needs cooling time, so plan ahead :)

The original recipe calls for double the amount of frosting. We don't like a lot of frosting around here, so I halved the recipe and it was plenty, especially because this cake is so sweet.

This recipe is shared at Friday Feasts and Share My Recipe Sunday!