This Real Deal Southern Caramel Cake Recipe is the best caramel cake recipe on the web! If you want a moist yellow cake with the best authentic caramel icing, you must make this recipe. It is the real deal for real. If you love desserts with caramel then you definitely need to check out Homemade Caramel Pie, Caramel Buttercream Frosting, Caramel Apple Cheesecake, Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Salted Caramel Lava Cake.
Southern caramel cake recipes have always been a classic that I could have any day of the week. My family has made it for decades, and it is definitely an old time Southern favorite.
The funny thing about this cake is a lot of people did not become familiar with it until the movie “The Help” mentioned it. After the movie was released in theaters, I saw tons of replicas of this classic cake online but none of these recipes were as authentic as I thought they should be.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The cake cooks up a moist yet slightly dense (but still light) yellow butter cake that isn’t too sweet and serves as the perfect vehicle for the caramel icing.
- It truly celebrates the caramel icing is the true star of the party.
- No shortcuts! This classic southern caramel cake uses uses granulated sugar and evaporated milk to create the luscious flavor of a true caramel icing. Don’t opt for a quick brown sugar butterscotch method, which is a caramel frosting substitution and not the same thing!
Ingredients You Will Need
Simple, baking ingredients are all you will need to have to make this southern cake recipe.
- Butter: You’re going to want to use unsalted butter to make the cake.
- Vegetable oil: Any vegetable oil works just make sure it has a neutral flavor.
- Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and texture tot he cake.
- Flour: Be sure you use sifted cake flour which gives the cake its light texture.
- Eggs: You be using whole eggs plus egg yolks to add rich flavor and more yellow color to the cake.
- Baking powder and salt: Simple baking ingredients to create the texture of the cake.
- Sour cream: Gives the cake its moistness.
- Vanilla extract: Make sure you use pure extract for the best flavor.
- Evaporated milk: Cooks up with the butter and sugar to make the best caramel icing. Make sure you’re not using condensed milk.
How to Make the Best Caramel Cake Recipe
- Cream the butter, oil, and sugar on high until fully incorporated and light and fluffy, about 5-6 minutes.
- Turn the mixer to medium speed and mix in the eggs and egg yolks one at a time until they are well incorporated. Next, add in vanilla extract and mix again.
- Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt into a medium sized bowl.
- With the mixer on slow speed, alternate adding in flour mixture and sour cream ending with flour mixture. Mix just to combine, do not over mix.
- Pour batter into the individual cake pans and bake in the oven until fully baked, about 23-30 minutes.
TOP TIP: You don’t want to over bake the cakes. I suggest checking earlier and watching closely in the last 5-10 minutes of cooking so you can remove them as soon as they are done.
- Remove the cake pans from oven and cool on cooling racks for 10 minutes and then remove them from the pan to continue cooling.
How to Make the Caramel Icing
Here is a look at how the caramel icing begins to come together.
Some people struggle with knowing exactly how the icing should look after about two hours of cooking on a very low heat so hopefully after these tips, you will feel like a pro!
TOP TIP: The one thing you need to remember through out this process, low and slow is the best way to achieve this perfect icing. The color will deepen and it will naturally thicken but it takes time.
- Add the butter, evaporated milk, and sugar to a saucepan over medium heat, mix together after it all melts.
- Cook over low to medium heat for about 1 1/2- 2 hours, watching the entire time to make sure it does not burn until thickened and caramel has darkened to a beautiful golden brown.
TOP TIP: Remember to make sure that the caramel turns the color of the photo below before stopping the heat. It should also COMPLETELY coat the back of a spoon to ensure thickness. Be careful to watch, adjusting heat temperature to not let it burn.
- When the correct color is reached, remove the caramel icing from the heat and add in the vanilla extract.
- Cool the icing for about 15-20 minutes to allow it to thicken before icing the cake.
Caramel Icing Tips
Here are a few important tips to keep in mind when making this caramel cake recipe! The icing is the star of the show so you want to be sure to get it right!
- After cooling the icing, if you see that it is too warm and still not completely thick enough, cool it in the refrigerator to allow it to thicken more.
- Want more of a frosting texture? Some people like to take the caramel and whip it in a stand mixer to create more of a frosting rather than an icing. That is totally up to you.
- Give it time to cool. I like to let it cool at least 30 minutes. It will help with frosting the cake without the icing dripping everywhere and the layers sliding too much.
Storage
This cake can stay at room temperature for 3-4 days due to the high sugar content cooked icing. However if you want to refrigerate it, make sure you bring slices to room temperature before serving and eating.
When to Serve
This caramel cake recipe is perfect for the holidays. It is not an easy cake to pull off because as I mentioned before it can take up to 3 hours to complete the recipe.
Make it for special occasions and holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or a family reunion.
This cake is made with love and should be shared with those very special people in your life. If you love this cake, you might also become infatuated with some my other holiday desserts like my Ultimate Lemon Cake, Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Brown Sugar Pound Cake and Southern Peach Cobbler!
Expert Tips and FAQs
- This cake recipe takes planning. Make sure you allow plenty of time to make this cake recipe – it’s going to take at least three hours from start to finish. One thing that may help is to bake the cakes a day in advance so you don’t have to wait for them to cool.
- Is your cake sliding? It’s because the caramel icing recipe is too thin.
- Is your icing too thick? If you let it GET TOO THICK, just add a little bit of milk. Really follow your instincts here.
- Make sure the cakes are fully cool before icing.
This southern caramel cake recipe is the real deal caramel cake. Caramel icing is thinner in texture than a frosting but not as thin as a glaze. It also has more shine and a smoother consistency than caramel frosting.
To help thicken your caramel, you can stick the caramel in the refrigerator after you finish it to allow it to thicken. Wait for it to solidify some, and then add a little milk if you need it to be more spreadable.
Your Cake Creations
I love seeing your Real Deal Caramel Cake Recipe Creations!! Check out some of the amazing photos I have received! After more than five years, I must say this southern cake recipe is still my most popular cake recipe.
More of the Best Cake Recipes You’ll Love
- Hummingbird Cake
- Black Forest Cake Recipe
- Banana Pudding Cake
- Sour Cream Pound Cake
- Peach Pound Cake
*Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating and leave comments below!* Post a photo of how your version of the recipe came out on Instagram (using #grandbabycakes)!!
Real Deal Southern Caramel Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 6 large eggs room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks room temperature
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups cake flour sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sour cream
For Aunt Bev’s Caramel Icing:
- 3/4 cups salted butter 1 1/2 sticks
- 24 oz evaporated milk 2 (12 oz cans)
- 2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix together butter, oil and sugar on high speed until fully incorporated and light and fluffy, about 5-6 minutes.
- Turn mixer to medium speed and mix in eggs and egg yolks one at a time until well incorporated. Use spatula to scrape down the bowl.
- Add in vanilla extract and mix.
- Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt into a medium sized bowl.
- With mixer on slow speed, alternate adding in flour mixture and sour cream ending with flour mixture until mixed through.
- Do not over mix.
- Spray three 9 inch round cake pans with baking spray or grease and flour them.
- Pour batter into individual cake pans evenly.
- Bake in preheated oven for 23-30 minutes or until fully baked (but DON’T OVERBAKE THESE CAKES- CHECK THEM EARILER SO THEY DON’T DRY OUT).
- Remove cake pans from oven and cool on cooling racks for 10 minutes.
- Remove cakes from pans and wait until completely cooled to ice.
For the Caramel Icing:
- Add butter, evaporated milk, and sugar to saucepan over medium low heat until everything has melted together.
- Leave over medium low heat stirring consistently for about 1 1/2- 2 hours (watch the entire time to make sure it does not burn until thickened and caramel has darkened to a beautiful golden brown. Note: if it is taking a while, you can turn up the heat a little more to speed up the thickening process but you MUST WATCH CAREFULLY AND STIR FREQUENTLY.
- Make sure that the caramel turns the color of the photo below before stopping the heat. It should thicken to the texture in the video as well.
- It should also thickly coat the back of a spoon to ensure thickness. See notes below for additional tips for the caramel.
- Be careful to watch, adjusting heat temperature to not let it burn.
- Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
- Cool for about 15-20 minutes to allow it to thicken before icing the cake. If you see that it is too warm and still not completely thick enough, cool it in the refrigerator and get it thick!
- P.S. Some people like to take the caramel and whip it in a stand mixer to create more of a frosting texture. That is totally up to you.
Video
Notes
- This cake recipe takes planning. Make sure you allow plenty of time to make caramel cake – it’s going to take at least three hours from start to finish. One thing that may help is to bake the cakes a day in advance so you don’t have to wait for them to cool.
- Is your cake sliding? It’s because the caramel icing recipe is too thin.
- Is your icing too thick? If you let it GET TOO THICK, just add a little bit of milk. Really follow your instincts here.
- Make sure the cakes are fully cool before icing.
Nutrition
This post was published in November 2018. It has been updated with new content.
Check out my Banana Pudding Cheesecake Blondies!
Or my Red Velvet Blackberry Cake!
Or my Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Tiff says
This looks so good and I’m trying to find a good caramel filling for my daughter’s birthday cake this weekend.
My concern is you said that the caramel doesn’t get firm, I’m trying to avoid something that is like caramel sauce as I dont want it to soak into the cake and I would like it to have a caramel texture and not just the flavor.
Would you say that the caramel recipes that use brown sugar and heavy whipping cream would firm up more? Thanks!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
This isn’t like that and those are technically butterscotch so you will have a totally different taste.
Jennifer Deaton says
Thank you for publishing this! I lost my grandmother’s (Ms. Helen, Fort Valley GA) recipe and this is it! My favourite cake ever, and I’m a dessert foodie. The caramel icing is right on; old fashioned style.
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Awww I’m so sorry you lost it. So happy to have it here for you!
Debbie says
It would help if there was something indicating the size of the pot. I think those of us who had trouble getting it to thicken were using a smaller pot. After 2 hours my icing was barely peanut-butter color and not at all thick. Finally I put it in a larger saucepan and turned up the heat, stirring frequently, and towards the end, stirring constantly. It has a nice consistency but to me it still tastes like evaporated milk, not like the caramel Icing my mother used to make. I think she used the burnt sugar syrup method. I guess it all depends on what you grew up with.
Jan Shapiro says
I was making this cake for the first time for a friend. Her Mom always had a caramel cake for her birthday. I read all the comments about the cake and it turned out very well. These are my comments for a first timer. The cake does need to be watched time wise. It was very flavorful however too dense for my liking, The icing should be done in a heavy stainless pot and I found it should be slowly bubbling and watched as directed in the instructions. It really does take 1hr. and a half to thicken and brown. It needs to cool a long time before you can frost as it is very soft icing and runs down the sides. I iced the cake and had to place toothpicks all over ,covered it and left it in the fridge to harden. I then repeated icing,cleaned it up and kept it cool. Not a cake to take to a friends unless its winter. The icing and its flavor is wonderful.I used hot pink roses and blackberries to decorate. Everyone was happy including the birthday girl. If I were to make this again I would use a lighter cake but use the icing as a stable, its very good.
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Patricia Thurman says
After trying several Carmel cake recepies this is the BEST! I finally mastered Carmel icing. I baked it for my family and they loved it. I also purchased your cookbook which arrived a few days ago. I look forward to trying other recepies.
Camille Scott says
This is the absolute best icing I’ve ever had. I made a caramel cake and this icing for a gathering after a funeral and it was a hit. I’m a southern woman so if you make something and it’s not good, you’ll hear about it, this got rave reviews. Thanks for sharing something so delicious.
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Hooray I am so so glad you enjoyed it. It is truly my fave recipe.
Bonnie says
I just made this cake and it’s FABULOUS. I followed your recipe step by step and it came out perfect. It looks just like the picture. Thank you. My 7 year old wanted a caramel cake for her birthday tomorrow. I’m ready to please.
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Hooray this makes me so so happy!!! I hope your 7 year old enjoys her cake!!!!
Debbie Stevens says
Caramel cake is my absolute favorite – and I love me some cake! I found your recipe and decided to make this for a dear friend’s birthday last year [caramel cake is her favorite, too]. We had planned a big shindig for her out of town and your cake was the grand finale.
Boy, that icing took its time to set – so, after putting together the cake, I placed it in my ancient Tupperware container, along with leftover icing, to put some finishing touches on it in case the icing dribbled off. The container was packed into the back of my friend’s car and, when she opened up her hatch, out flew the container. We watched helplessly as it somersaulted on to the ground. I couldn’t stop laughing – I had been so careful in making that precious cake only to have it land upside down! God bless that Tupperware seal – nothing was lost, just shifted. I used the extra icing for the bottom of the cake and it was a huge hit! It really is the best caramel cake I’ve ever eaten. Next time, I might try making it into a trifle – a little easier on my nerves!
P.S. Your youtube video is adorable!
Keena Benning says
Omg that is my greatest fear, dropping a cake… So glad the trusty Tupperware held up… Mineturned out great to but it is not for a novice baker or the faint of heart! Lol
Richa Gupta says
Oh my, this looks absolutely delicious!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Thank you so much!!