Turtle Cake - Cafe Latte

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I'm not a person that picks cake. I prefer cheesecake, ice cream, crepes... However, I think this is a great chocolate cake recipe and if my children ever want a chocolate cake for their birthday, this just might be my go to. This recipe & image is from Cafe Latte, a local restaurant out here that makes fabulous desserts.


Cake Ingredients:
• 1 Egg.
• 2/3 cup Vegetable oil.
• 1 cup Buttermilk.
• 2 cups Flour.
• 1 3/4 cups Sugar.
• 1/2 cup cocoa.
• 1 tsp. Salt.
• 1 tbsp. Baking soda.
• 1 cup Hot coffee *see note below

Frosting:
• 1/2 cup Milk.
• 1 cup Sugar.
• 6 tbsp. Butter
• 2 cups Good-quality semisweet chocolate chips.

• 3/4 cup Caramel.
• 1 1/2 cups Toasted pecans.

Prepare oven and pans: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 (9-inch) cake pans. Cover each bottom with disk of parchment paper.

To make cake: In bowl, combine egg, oil and buttermilk. In large separate bowl, mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Gradually add wet ingredients to dry until well mixed. Gradually add hot coffee. Scrape batter into prepared pans.

To bake cake: Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cake rest in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool.

To make frosting: Mix sugar and milk in saucepan. Add butter. Bring to a boil.
Remove from heat. Add chocolate chips to pan. Using wire whisk, mix until smooth. If frosting is too thick or grainy, add 1 or 2 teaspoons hot water.

To assemble cake: Place one cooled cake layer, top-side down, on cake plate. Spread with one-third of frosting, pushing it out gently from edges to make a petal effect.
Sprinkle with 1/2 cup pecans, Drizzle with 1/4 cup caramel. Add nest layer, again top-side down. Repeat frosting and sprinkle with 1/2 cup pecans and drizzle with 1/4 cup caramel. And final layer top-

*Note: I had this cake a few times, only to find out later that it is made with coffee. Never tasted it when I ate it. But you could probably guess, I don't have coffee so I didn't add it. Instead I used hot water with an extra tablespoon of chocolate. In one batch I added a tad cinnamon and thought that was very good. I think the Cafe Latte slices tasted better, maybe it was the coffee, but in any case, this was still good without.

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