Caramel frankenstein cake ^^

I made this messy, frankenstein-ish cake for Baby pig who turned 14 yesterday ^^

His eyes were exceptionally bright and sparkling when he saw the caramel overload, haha! And when I heard his tell-tale soft humming after he had a slice of cake, I knew he was extremely happy! la-da-da-da... ^^ ^^ ^^

In case you fail to recognise the cake due to the mess, it's actually a decadently indulgent treat made up of tish boyle's deep chocolate sour cream pound cake, smothered with peanut butter buttercream frosting, layered with sliced bananas and drowned in oodles of salted caramel sauce ^^ oooooohhh, so so yums!!!

Tish Boyle's Deep chocolate sour cream pound cake (recipe from rima@bisouatoi)
90g all purpose flour
29g cake flour
21g dutch processed cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
170g unsalted butter
200-210g granulated sugar
2 large eggs (I used the egg separation method, for a bouncier cake) 
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g sour cream

This is 1/2 the original recipe, which I baked in a 7" round cake tin at 170C for 60-65 minutes. For the step by step to making this cake, please head on to bisouatoi.. hehe, am too lazy to write it out, 'cos it's the usual way of cake making ie. butter cakes ^^
* I sliced the cake into 2 layers, and piled on the frosting, bananas and caramel sauce to make this birthday treat!
* I also tried the DIY wet cloth/towel wrapped around the cake tin method for even baking and to prevent a cracked domed top.. and it WORKS!!! No cracks at all, and the top was nicely flat and evenly baked ^^
* note to self: cake was soft and had a nice texture on day it was baked, but turned a touch dense after being refrigerated.. maybe a chocolate sponge cake would've been better as a cake base? 
* question to self: wonder if using a dutch-processed cocoa powder makes a difference? Answer: Yes, there's a difference.. stick to dutch processed cocoa if the recipe says so!!!

Peanut butter buttercream 
100g creamy peanut butter
30g unsalted butter, softened
80-100g icing sugar, sifted
30g-60g heavy or whipping cream, add to own desired consistency
* make more if planning to ice the whole cake

Beat peanut butter and butter together till soft and fluffy. Add sifted icing sugar and beat till well combined. Slowly mix in the whipping cream to your desired consistency. Do not make frosting overly runny/soft like I did (I even did it on purpose because I wanted a soft, runny frosting.. bad idea! this is what happens to amateurs who don't know much about frosting, haha!), or you'll end up with a frankenstein-y mess! ^^||

Bananas, sliced

Salted caramel sauce (recipe from sallysbakingaddiction or check here)
200g granulated sugar
6 tbsp butter (salted or unsalted is fine)
1/2 cup / 120ml heavy or whipping cream
1 tsp sea salt, or add to taste
* keep leftovers in the fridge, drizzle over ice cream etc.. yums yums! ^^
For best step by step to making caramel, see my favorite guy, david lebovitz's post. That's where I learned how to make caramel.. no thermometer needed!

An epic, frankenstein-caramelly-good birthday cake for an epic, caramel-toothed boy! Love you caramel-loads, Baby pig ^^

taken with phone under slightly better lighting ^^

** p.s I've actually played around with this combo of flavors before.. it was last year (see here), and it was for the same caramel-toothed person. But I didn't manage to make it then. 'Cos last year, we made an amateur Dr Who Bow Ties Are Cool cake, which almost ended up on Cake Wrecks, haha!