Dulce De Leche Buttercream

When my mom was here, she required that one night I had to bake her something. So I told her that she had to pick. I gave her a few options, but of course she chose chocolate! Who could blame a girl? So, the night before I left, we hopped in the kitchen together and made some can cakes. We had to go hiking first in order to burn off all the calories that we would eat!

Doesn't this cake look scrumptious, especially in the middle!?

Half Moon Bay is AMAZING, and has the most gorgeous views! It's a little windy, as you can see in this photo! :) Isn't my momma gorgeous - I hope I take the aging genes from her - cause she doesn't have any!

We had such a great time, now if I could just convince my family to live in California! The weather's pretty much perfect here.

Back to chocolate! I made these cakes once before, but used a chocolate buttercream frosting. Then I found THIS!!!!! MMMMM. Oh Joy the Baker - You are a genius! Not much this frosting can't cure! Ha. Just joking.

I've been experimenting more with ganache, and still can't seem to get the trick completely, but it sure does taste good to experiment with the tests!

For complete instructions on the can cakes, see the link above, below for the dulce de leche buttercream and ganache.

Can Cakes with Dulce De Leche Buttercream and Ganache (From Joy the Baker and Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

Frosting - This makes a large amount of frosting, I halved it and still had extra for the can cakes

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened

3 Tbs. heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cups prepared dulce de leche (found in the hispanic section at grocery store)

Ganache -

8 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

Directions -

Prepare cakes as directed in previous post and allow to cool. Cut as desired into 2 or 3 layers.

For Frosting:

1. Combine butter and powdered sugar in a stand mixer with paddle attachment. Cream together on low speed until combined and creamy.

2. Add vanilla and cream and mix on medium speed until smooth with no lumps.

3. Add the prepared dulce de leche and mix to combine.

Here's a picture of the dulce de leche I bought - I'm sure you can get all kinds, this is just the one I found in case you needed a visual! :)

4. Frost the cakes, and each layer, with the frosting.

Ganache -

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces so it will melt evenly - otherwise the outside will melt and inside will not, and you'll end up with a goopy mess with lumps. YUCK.

I chopped mine roughly with a knife, then threw into the food processor to get smaller pieces.

2. Place chocolate in heatproof bowl. Bring cream just to a boil over medium high heat. Pour over chocolate and let sit for 10 min.

4. Stir very gently, making sure not to overwork the cream until smooth. Mixture should become glossy.

Decorating -

1. Place frosted cakes on top of cooling rack over top of a cookie sheet.

2. Pour ganache over top of cakes, making thicker pool in middle and using frosting spatula to spread if needed. You may need to allow the first layer to harden and pour another layer on if first is too thin. That's where the tray underneath comes in handy, because you can collect it all and repour!