Caramel corn popcorn cake with a salted caramel Swiss merengue buttercream. Yes! The inspiration for this beauty was my sister’s big 40th birthday! I was planning an intimate surprise dinner to celebrate her advancing into middle age status and putting her in range for mid-life crisis! Haha.
My sister is a popcorn nut! She loves it, always has. When we go to the movies she gets a giant tub of popcorn and polishes it off! I really don’t know how she does it. My tummy would never allow it! Her love of popcorn always makes me think of a story of us when we were kids. She had to have been around 10. She decided that she would give up her beloved popcorn for lent! Lofty goals for a 10-year-old. Especially since we had popcorn every Friday night for our family movie night. She really put in a good effort. The first two weeks she held strong. Then one fateful night, we had made a batch of popcorn. None of us were feeling it and my brother went to go dump the popcorn in the garbage. Laura’s mood shifted, her eyes glazed over and as my brother was walking with the giant bowl of the popcorn heading straight for the trash, Laura leaped up with the grace and ease of a panther, the world slowed down around her as she headed straight for my brother, the guttural sound of Nooooooo, leaving her small 10 year old girl frame, she knocked the bowl out of his hand before it made it into the trash, bowl cradled against her chest with one small hand, the other hand shoveling the popcorn in her mouth. All was right with her then, the need to feed on the popcorn was just too great for her. Needless to say, that was the last year she gave anything up for lent.
Naturally, to commemorate my sister’s big bday I had to make her a popcorn cake! I brought it the restaurant and it served as the perfect centerpiece for the table. Then she walked in and surprise! Although, she said she suspected, so much for trying to pull one over on her. I did a surprise party for her 30th, so I guess I am predictable. I said well, don’t expect anything for your 50th!!
So back to this masterpiece. I used my yellow cake base and infused the popcorn flavor directly into the batter by steeping freshly popped popcorn in scalded milk for about 25 to 30 minutes. Then I strained the milk out and used that for my batter. It gives the cake a nice hint of popcorn without being overpowering, but you get it. Don’t use microwave popcorn though! Just do it the old-fashioned way and pop it on the stove. World of difference in taste! The addition of the salted caramel in the light Swiss merengue really is the icing on the cake! I have said this before and I will say it again, I LOVE Swiss merengue buttercream. It’s so airy and fluffy and not too sweet, the perfect amount of sweetness for the cake. I then sprinkled Fleur de Sel over the top of the cake to really get the salted caramel flavor. Of course, it had to be decorated with caramel corn, so good!
That’s it. You have a unique, beautiful and delicious cake for your next celebration! Or just because you are just as big of a popcorn nut as my sister!!
Enjoy!
Diane
- For the cake:
- 2 cups AP flour ¾ cups cake flour
- 4 eggs
- 4 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1¾ cup sugar
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- 4 cups whole milk for steeping ( 1 ¼ cup go into batter)
- ¼ cup mascarpone
- 1 tbsp. vanilla
- 10 to 12 cups popped popcorn for steeping with the milk
- For the buttercream:
- 7 egg whites
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ½ tsp. salt
- 4½ sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temp
- ⅓ cup + 2 to 3 tbsp. salted caramel sauce
- For the cake:
- In a large heavy bottomed pot, over medium high heat, pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in and half a cup of popcorn kernels. Cook popcorn until most of the popping has subsided. Set aside. In a large sauce pan over medium heat, bring the milk to just scaled. That’s when small bubbles just start to form around the edges. Remove from heat. Add 10 to 12 cups of the popcorn directly to the milk and push down until fully submerged. Allow to steep for 25 to 30 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh strainer, until you are left with 1 and ¼ cup of milk.
- In a large bowl mix all your dry ingredients and set aside. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line with parchment paper and lightly spray three 8-inch round cake pans.
- Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until smooth, about 2 minutes. Slowly add in the sugar and beat until light and fluffy on medium high speed.
- Next add in the mascarpone and beat to combine.
- Add the eggs one at a time and beat until fully incorporated after each addition. Add the vanilla extract.
- Slowly add ⅓ of the dry ingredients until just combined. Add half of the milk and mix to incorporate. Add another 3rd of the dry mix to incorporate, scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Add the rest of the milk and incorporate and then add the remainder of the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, don’t over mix.
- Evenly distribute the batter into the 3 prepared cake pans. Place in oven staggering two on top and one on bottom rack, rotating half-way through bake time. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes depending on your oven, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Start checking at the 20- minute mark.
- Allow to cool about 10 minutes in pans on racks. Remove from pan and allow to cool completely on wire racks.
- For the buttercream:
- Separate whites from yolks in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Pour sugar and salt in the bowl of stand mixer with the egg whites.
- Place bowl over, not touching, a pot with simmering water.
- Whisk constantly until sugar has completely dissolved around 160 degrees. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, you can tell it’s done when you rub a little of the mixture between your fingers and it is completely smooth with no graininess. Should take about 10 minutes.
- Then return bowl to stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.
- Begin beating the eggs and sugar until whites are glossy and stiff peaks have formed. The bowl should be cool to the touch, this will take around 10 minutes.
- Next switch to the paddle attachment and beat on medium high speed.
- Add the butter slowly one piece at a time to incorporate. The mixture will look like it’s curdled, keep mixing, that is normal. Mix until frosting is smooth and shiny.
- Add in the vanilla extract and salted caramel and mix to combine.
- Decorate cooled cake as desired. Store in air-tight container for up to 2 days at room temp or covered in the fridge for up to 5.
- Enjoy!
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