This Vanilla Bean and Caramel Cake is a simple vanilla bean layer cake with an old fashioned boiled caramel frostin

 

This Vanilla Bean and Caramel Cake is a simple vanilla bean layer cake with an old fashioned boiled caramel frostin

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups cake flour (such as Swan's down, do not substitute homemade cake flour)

1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

2 egg yolks, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups whole milk, room temp

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract (I used Rodelle)

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out and pod discarded (I used Rodelle)

Caramel Icing

3 cups (light) brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup plus 2 TBSP heavy whipping cream

4 TBSP unsalted butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract (I used Rodelle)

1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. For the cake:
2. Line the pans with parchment circles. This will prevent your cake from sticking to the bottom. Because spray doesn’t always work.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch round pans and line with parchment.
4. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Whisk together egg whites and yolks and milk in a separate bowl; set aside.
5. Using a stand mixer, cream butter using the paddle attachment until soft and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add sugar gradually and beat until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla extract and seeds.
6. Add flour mixture alternately with the egg white/milk mixture. Begin and end with flour mixture and beat until smooth on medium-low speed after each addition.
7. Divide batter between pans.
8. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
10. After 10 minutes, remove cakes from pans and let continue to cool on the wire rack.
11. Frost when cool.
12. For the Icing:
13. Mix sugar and heavy cream in a heavy saucepan and cook, stirring over low heat until syrup reaches the soft-ball stage, 235 degrees on a candy thermometer. If lacking a thermometer, check doneness by dropping a tiny bit of syrup into a cup of cold water.
14. When the syrup can be gathered up in fingers and will almost hold its shape, it has reached the soft-ball stage.
15. Remove pan from heat. Stir in butter, then let syrup cool.
16. Add vanilla and beat until icing reaches spreading consistency.
17. Frost the bottom layer of the cake with ½ of the caramel icing, leaving the remaining half in the bowl.
18. Place the second layer on top of the frosted bottom layer.
19. Add 1 cup powdered sugar to the remaining icing. This will make it thicker and more frosting like. Frost the top layer with the new frosting.
20. Serve with milk or ice cream.