Southern Caramel Cake

Caramelly, boubon-y, praline-y, sweet... this homemade, from scratch cake is just fantastic. You'll want a cup of good, strong coffee to savor along with updated southern dessert.

❤️ Why you'll love it

• Three layers of caramel cake filled with gooey pecan filling and smothered in ultra-creamy bourbon caramel butter cream.
• Moist, tender, and so buttery rich!
• Light and fluffy, from scratch cake.

I've had a lot of southern caramel cakes but this is my favorite. It's based on a recipe from an old (and I mean OLD) church cookbook and it's not what you normally think of when you think of a southern caramel cake.

Of course the addition of Jack Daniels is all my idea.

But oh-my-good-golly is it ever good.

🥫 Storage

Store caramel cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

The cake freezes well unfrosted for up to four months.

📖 Variations

• Use any frosting you like.
• Add a sprinkle of fleur de sel or sea salt to the top after it's frosted if for a salted caramel flavor.
• Use walnuts in place of pecans

💭 Tips

Expert Tip: If you prefer not to use alcohol you can use any caramel sauce and substitute milk for the whiskey in the cake recipe.

• Be sure the cakes are completely cool before frosting them.
• Stir the brown sugar constantly as you are melting it so that it doesn't burn. Don't get tempted to hurry the process by turning up the heat.
• Make sure the pecan filling is completely cool before using it between the cake layers.

👩‍🍳 FAQs

📚 Related recipes

Here are some of more of my favorite cake recipes here on Restless Chipotle. Some of them are variations on cakes I've found in my old cookbooks while others are pretty much the way I found them.

• Classic Yellow Cake with Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting is what childhood birthdays are made of. Buttery, tender layer cake is filled and frosted with an impossibly rich chocolate buttercream.
• Chocolate Mayonnaise cake is another old fashioned cake that is a classic! I've done this one in layers with chocolate buttercream for filling and frosting.
• Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is one of my favorites in the fall. All of those warm spices!
• White Wine Lemon Bundt Cake is my twist on an old favorite! The white wine adds a buttery smooth touch that really enhances the lemon. Everyone will wonder how you did it.
• White Texas Sheet Cake is like a pecan praline fudge in cake form. The cake batter is so good you may find it impossible to stop licking the spoon! It's delicious!

🍽️ Serve with...

Cake and ice cream is a classic combination and I love this classic caramel cake served with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.

📞 The last word

Regional foods are something we are losing as chain restaurants and insipid foods shipped from all over the world become the norm.

It's sad, really, that so many people will never know what a really ripe peach tastes like, or the melting texture of fresh crab-cakes, or the aroma of smoky barbecue.

Like so many other activities, traditions, and lifestyles of our ancestors, unique flavors are becoming extinct.

This Southern Caramel Cake recipe is a little different than most. I found it in a church cookbook that had been published in the 1940s to raise money for the troops. Of course, being a southern church cookbook it didn't have Jack Daniels in it ... or any kind of whiskey at all.

That, my friends, was all me.

Really. It's good.

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!

If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 Recipe

Southern Caramel Cake with Jack Daniels Frosting

4.50 from 4 votes

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Southern caramel cake from scratch is full of old fashioned goodness is stacked 2 layers high with a gooey pecan filling between the layers. THEN it's topped with a decadent Jack Daniels caramel frosting. This is decadently delicious!

Course Dessert - Cake

Cuisine American - Southern

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cooling and Assembly: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 45 minutes minutes

Servings:10

Calories:795

Author:Marye Audet-White

Ingredients

Buttercream

• ▢ ¼ cup butter
• ▢ ½ cup caramel sauce, I used homemade caramel sauce from this recipe
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar, you may need more
• ▢ ¼ cup heavy cream
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla

Cake

• ▢ ½ cup brown sugar, dark is best I think
• ▢ ¼ cup boiling water
• ▢ 1½ cups white sugar
• ▢ ⅔ cup butter
• ▢ 3 eggs, separate and bring to room temperature
• ▢ 3 cups cake flour
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ ¾ cup cold water
• ▢ ¼ cup Jack Daniels
• ▢ 1½ teaspoons vanilla

Pecan Filling

• ▢ ½ cup sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons flour
• ▢ ½ cup heavy cream
• ▢ 2 tablespoons butter
• ▢ ½ cup pecans, chopped
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Caramel Cake Frosting

• Fit a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
• Beat the butter, salt, and confectioner's sugar on medium speed in the bowl of a stand mixer until crumbly.
• Add the caramel, beating at medium high speed until well blended and creamy.
• Add a little of the heavy cream and beat on high until the frosting is thick and spreadable. You may need to add a little more confectioner's or cream to get the exact consistency.

Caramel Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350°
• Beat the egg whites until stiff. Set aside.
• Grease 2 8-inch round cake pans, fit a round of waxed paper or parchment paper in the bottom, grease again, then dust with flour.
• Cook the brown sugar in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring often, until it is melted.
• Add the hot water, whisking constantly.
• Simmer until the mixture gets syrupy - about 3 to 5 minutes.
• Cool.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer combine white sugar and butter, creaming until light and fluffy.
• Add the egg yolks, one at a time beating well after each.
• Blend in the cooled water mixture.
• Mix the flour, baking powder and salt - set aside.
• Mix the cold water, vanilla, and Jack Daniels.
• Add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, blending well.
• Add ½ of the water mixture. Blend well.
• Repeat with the dry mixture, then the water, then the remaining flour mixture.
• Fold in the egg whites gently.
• Divide batter between prepared pans and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Remove the caramel cake layers from the oven.
• Cool for 10 minutes - turn out of pans to finish cooling on a wire rack (remove the waxed paper from the bottoms!).

Pecan Filling

• Combine sugar, flour, butter, and cream in a heavy saucepan.
• Cook until thickened, stirring constantly
• Add the nuts, vanilla, and salt.
• Spoon between the layers of cooled cake.

Assembly

• Place one layer on a cake plate.
• Add a thick layer of pecan filling.
• Top with the other layer.
• Frost with the buttercream.

Notes

Expert Tip: If you prefer not to use alcohol you can use any caramel sauce and substitute milk for the whiskey in the cake recipe.

• Be sure the cakes are completely cool before frosting them.
• Stir the brown sugar constantly as you are melting it so that it doesn't burn. Don't get tempted to hurry the process by turning up the heat.
• Make sure the pecan filling is completely cool before using it between the cake layers.

You'll find more helpful tips and variations in the body of the post.

Nutrition Facts

Calories: 795kcal | Carbohydrates: 124g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Cholesterol: 75mg | Sodium: 312mg | Potassium: 194mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 86g | Vitamin A: 865IU | Calcium: 75mg | Iron: 0.7mg

Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

First published April 10, 2012. Last Updated December 20, 2021.