Tuesdays With Dorie - Caramel-Cashew-Topped Brownie Cake

Being the sucker that I am for anything caramel, I couldn't pass up the chance to make a brownie cake topped with homemade caramel and nuts. The nuts in question were supposed to be peanuts but, my apologies to all of you peanut lovers out there, I was not going to make this cake with salted peanuts.


I thought about pecans, which would have been lovely, I'm sure, but I got a flash when I saw a tin of cashews at the grocery store. "Aha! Yes, cashews, that's it!" I love it when that happens. Anyways, I decided to halve the recipe because, again, knowing how much I love caramel, making the whole cake would have been dangerous. I even bought a few mini-springform pans for the occasion. Ah, how nice it is to have an excuse to shop for kitchen stuff!

Once my cutie cakes were baked and out of the oven, I noticed a little something was amiss. They both had huge craters in the middle! Hmmm, Dorie warns about the cake forming a small crater upon cooling but this was not a small crater! OK, moving on to the caramel, I must give you one word of advice: don't let yourself be distracted while the sugar is caramelizing! It will turn from a beautiful amber color to an awful burnt brown in a matter of seconds. If that happens, don't even bother with the cream and butter, just start over with a new batch of sugar.

My second batch of sugar, water and corn syrup was watched much more closely and became the gorgeous caramel called for in the recipe. The crater-cakes were then filled with spoonfuls of cashews and caramel and left alone to rest. The caramel wasn't runny at all once it had a chance to set, but it wasn't hard either, just the perfect texture. All my taste testers were in awe of the cake and so was I.

Another great Tuesdays with Dorie! Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy chose this knock out cake this week so you must visit her for the recipe!