Spelt Brownie Cake with Chocolate & Salted Cashew Caramel

This quick and easy spelt brownie cake has a rich, dark chocolate base, a slathering of sweet and gooey cashew caramel, and topped off with milk chocolate.

Although this salted caramel spelt brownie cake has a somewhat grand title, in reality, it is super simple to make.

I pride myself on making recipes from scratch. However, sometimes, standing there for 30 minutes making your own caramel seems a silly waste of time. Why not cut yourself some slack and open a tin of ready made caramel (dulce de leche), instead? Let’s face it, this spelt brownie cake is not going to win a healthy recipe prize anyway, so why not go all out?

What is the difference between dulce de leche and caramel?

It might be surprising to realise that the two are not as similar as we might think. To me, they look and taste the same, so what are the differences between dulce de leche and caramel? Firstly, caramel is made by heating water and sugar (with sometimes butter) to high temperatures, causing the sugar to cook and transform to a thick consistency.

While dulce de leche involves being heated until caramelisation takes place, sweetened milk is used in place of the water, hence the name (leche means milk in Spanish). In most cases, dulce de leche and caramel can be used interchangeably. This is certainly the case for this particular recipe. If you are curious to find out more about it, you can read a brief history of dulce de leche. 

Adjusting the texture of brownies

The hardest part (and we really are stretching it to call it hard) is the brownie base. I’ve used my go-to recipe and it’s absolutely fool-proof. I’ve made it so many times I could do it in my sleep.

There’s huge debate about whether a brownie should have a cake like texture or whether they should be gooey. I am most definitely on team gooey. The great thing about brownies is that the texture can be changed, depending on how long they are baked for. This brownie bottom in this recipe is the same as the one I use for my kladdkaka (Swedish sticky cake). The only difference is how long they are baked for. Reducing the time in the oven can create an irresistible runny centre akin to a lava cake. 

I prefer my brownies to be soft in the middle, like my caramel fudge brownies, but I like my kladdkakor to be molten in the centre. I mean, full on molten, like my white chocolate and blueberry kladdkaka. For this particular recipe, I wanted more of a firmer base to carry the caramel and chocolate toppings. 

The recipe below shows how I make my base for brownies (and also kladdkakor).

The rest of the spelt brownie cake was just stirring salted cashews into the dulce de leche and melting some milk chocolate.  The stunning end result defies the simplicity of the actual recipe. 

Decadent and rich, this chocolate salted cashew caramel brownie cake is certainly not going to help with your diet. But, it’s not supposed to. It’s a treat and we all need them. A little bit of what you fancy always does you good. Don’t you think?

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Chocolate & Salted Cashew Caramel Spelt Brownie Cake

This simple spelt brownie cake recipe has gooey salted cashew caramel, a soft spelt flour brownie layer and a milk chocolate topping.

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword Spelt Brownie Cake

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Fridge 4 hours hours

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Ingredients

Brownie:

• 100g (3½ oz) dark chocolate
• 100g (¼ cup + 3 tbsp) butter
• 50ml brewed coffee (or milk, if you prefer)
• 60g (¼ cup + 1 tbsp) brown sugar
• 60g (¼ cup + 1 tbsp) white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 40g spelt flour (see note 1)
• 15g (2 tbsp) cocoa

Filling:

• 400g (14 oz) tinned caramel (dulce de leche)
• 50g (1¾ oz) salted cashews

Topping:

• 200g (7 oz) milk chocolate

Instructions

Brownie:

• Pre-heat the oven to 175°C (350ºF) and grease a large spring-form pan (mine was 26cm / 10¼".
• Slowly heat the chocolate and butter in a pan until just melted.
• Add the coffee (or milk, if that's what you are using) and give the mixture a quick stir.
• Set to one side while you prepare the next step.
• In a large bowl, whisk the sugars and eggs together, followed by the vanilla.
• Finally, pour in the cooled chocolate mixture. Stir until combined.
• Combine the flour and cocoa (you can sift it, if you like), and stir into the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined.
• Pour into the prepared tin and bake for around 20 minutes. The brownie is ready when the top is spongey but firm to the touch. Set to one side to cool for a while (leave the cake in the pan).
• Stir the cashews into the dulce de leche and spread evenly over the top of the brownie. 
• Melt the milk chocolate in a Bain Marie (double boiler), or carefully in the microwave.
• When melted, pour over the caramel, spreading it with a knife to achieve an even coverage.
• Place the cake in the fridge for at least four hours (preferably overnight) to set (see note 3).
• When ready to eat, cut the cake into slices. Because the topping is just milk chocolate, it will set really hard. Therefore, it's possible it might crack (mine did). To try to prevent this from happening, use a sharp knife that has been run under the hot tap.

Notes

 

 

This recipe originally appeared on my first blog, The Culinary Jumble. The recipe has been updated to include spelt flour.

 

I have converted grams to cups/ounces/tablespoons using online converters. Although I have no reason to believe they are inaccurate, please be aware that I have not made this recipe with imperial measurements.

1. I've made this recipe with gluten free, spelt and regular all-purpose (plain) flour with similar results. You can use any flour you like with very little effect on the cake.
2. Because the caramel is tinned, the filling won't harden or set and remains pretty much the same as out of the tin.