Lately, I’ve been having hard core cravings for cozy autumn flavors. We’re talking nuts, cinnamon, caramel, pumpkin, apple, and all manner of Halloween-y teas (Hellooooo, spiced apple chai!). And of course I’m always craving chocolate. So I was thrilled when, while reading the Nancy Drew book THE SECRET OF SHADOW RANCH, I noticed that Nancy makes a chocolate walnut cake. I immediately said, “This! But make it autumn.”
As befits the Halloween season, this beautiful chocolate cake is a Frankenstein of different recipes I’ve developed over the years. The sponge and frosting recipes are slight variations on those used in the Delicious Death cake in my cookbook, A LITERARY TEA PARTY. I candied and spiced the walnuts, using a recipe from my latest cookbook, A LITERARY HOLIDAY COOKBOOK. Then I topped it off with a cinnamon butterscotch drip top, a twist on the butterscotch sauce I made to fill Mr. Rochester’s Bonbons earlier this year.
Here are a few cake decorating tools I found super helpful (though they’re not required):
- Turntable. This makes it a lot easier to get a smooth finish on the sides, and it allows you to focus on the timing of your butterscotch drips instead of trying to turn a heavy plate smoothly at the same time. I took a detachable one from underneath a rotating serving plate my grandma gave me, and it worked great!
- Large frosting knife. If you have a bench scraper, use that to get a smooth finish on your frosting, but if not, a big frosting knife will do. It also helps smooth the caramel.
- Tall enough fridge space for a 3-tier cake. I’m lucky enough to have a basement fridge with one shelf removed. If you’ll be storing this in your main fridge, plan accordingly.
- Squeeze bottle. You can add your drip top with a spoon, but if you’re new to the method (like me) a squeeze bottle gives you lots more control.
The finished cake was chocolaty, decadent, and scratched that fall flavor itch. It’s definitely the perfect end to my Nancy Drew menu…and a perfect reward for volunteering to stay home and hand out candy on Halloween!
A
Cinnamon Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake with Spiced Walnuts
“Now for the icing,” said Nancy.
When the cake was cool enough, she covered it with thick creamy swirls of dark chocolate and studded the top with whole walnuts.
Bess sighed. “It’s too bad we can’t have just a teeny piece now, isn’t it?”
— The Secret of Shadow Ranch
INGREDIENTS:
- FOR THE FROSTING
- 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 bag (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
- FOR THE CAKE
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 room temperature eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup hot coffee
- FOR THE BUTTERSCOTCH DRIP
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
- 2 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- FOR THE WALNUTS
- 1 cup halved walnuts
- 3 Tbsp honey
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
Makes 1 3-tier 6-inch cake
INSTRUCTIONS:
- FOR THE FROSTING. Heat the cream until steaming in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring regularly. Add all the ingredients to a double boiler over medium-low heat. Whisk until smooth.
- NOTE: You can create your own double boiler by putting a heat safe bowl over a pot of boiling water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the top of the water. Since this is a large batch of frosting, you’ll want both bowl and pot to be large.
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour. Stir, re-cover, and chill for another 1 1/2 hours. The mixture should be spreading consistency (if not, continue to chill and check every 15 minutes).
- FOR THE CAKE. Preheat oven to 350°. Coat 3 6-inch cake pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper circles. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients and set aside.
- Whisk the egg, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla together in a large bowl. Whisk the dry mix into the wet mix about 1/2 cup at a time. Gradually stir in hot coffee until smooth.
- Divide batter evenly between pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow cake layers to cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen edges with a knife, then flip cake layers out of pans. Turn layers upright and allow to cool completely (about 1 hour).
- Level the layers. Place one layer of cake onto an appropriately sized cardboard cake circle or serving plate. Spread frosting over the top in an even layer about 1/4-1/2 inch high. Repeat with another layer of cake. Add the final layer on top. Cover top and sides with remaining frosting (reserving about 1/2 cup for decorations later). Smooth with a frosting knife. Place in the fridge to chill until ready for the drip top.
- NOTE: Since this frosting is very thick and creamy (and the color almost matches the sponge), I did not do a crumb coat. If you would like to do one, you will need to increase the frosting recipe by 1/3.
- FOR THE BUTTERSCOTCH DRIP. Combine brown sugar and water in a small saucepan and stir until sugar is dissolved. Cook over medium-low heat, gently swirling the pan occasionally, until mixture reaches 270-275° on a candy thermometer. You may want to swirl more often when you get within 10° of your target temperature, since the mixture will be more viscous and more prone to burning in the center. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter until combined (take care, as the hot sugar will bubble up considerably when the butter is added). Whisk in the heavy cream. Whisk in the cinnamon and salt. Transfer to a glass liquid measuring cup (or other pourable, heat-safe container). Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes, stirring every 2-3 minutes to encourage even temperature. Before being added to the cake, it should be warm but approaching room temperature. While you wait, place an empty bowl in the fridge.
- Remove the bowl from the fridge turn it over on a plate. Pipe some test drips along the top edge so you get a sense of how fast the drips will move and how long you should squeeze to get the lengths you want.
- Remove your cake from the fridge and place on a turntable. Starting around the edge of the top of the cake first, squeeze the butterscotch just over the side, turning the turntable as you go. Squeeze for about 1-3 seconds per drip (it’s better to ere on the shorter side, since they can drip down another 1/2 inch or so in the fridge). I recommend staggering the lengths so you don’t have to stress about getting them all exactly perfect. When you have completed all your drips, fill in the center, working quickly so the butterscotch does not get too firm to spread. I recommend adding it mostly to the center and spreading it to the edges with a frosting knife. Spread until it just touches the ring of caramel on the edge. Chill until ready to add walnuts.
- FOR THE WALNUTS. Preheat oven to 325°. Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Coat with cooking spray and set aside.
- Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir to combine. Spread mix onto foil, separating the individual pieces as much as possible (you may need to separate them with your hands). Bake for 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through, trying to maintain separation.
- Cool the nuts on the pan for 15 minutes (coating will harden). Gently remove the nuts from the foil and break those that have joined together into individual pieces.
- Using reserved frosting, pipe 5 swirls on top of cake using a large star piping tip. Top each with a walnut half. On the bottom edge of the cake, alternate piping swirls and pressing in walnuts. Chill until 20 minutes before serving.
- Slice and serve to your favorite sleuth!
I’m still a novice when it comes to decorating “fancy” cakes, but I think I’m getting better! Definitely having fun trying out different drip tops.
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