Orange Olive Oil Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese & Salted Caramel

*Orange olive oil cake topped with brown butter cream cheese frosting and salted caramel.*

This cake is a mouthful, in many ways. I’ve been dying to try my hand at an olive oil cake so when thinking out my plan of [dessert] attack, I kept thinking back to the crepe suzettes we made in pastry school. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about fruit in a variety of desserts so when I first learned what crepe suzette was, I was pretty confident Madam Suzette wouldn’t be for me. If you don’t know, crepe suzette is made up of crepes (say WHAT?! I know.) that are dipped in an orange caramel and then plated with orange slices. Let me tell you, my confidence was incorrect. The blend of sweet and citrus between folds of yummy crepes - flavor perfection.

So, back to this cake. Since I couldn’t get Madam Suzette off my brain I thought, why don’t I inspire a cake from it? Thus, an orange olive oil cake topped with caramel (but ya girl needs a proper frosting or glaze so the brown butter cream cheese adds the perfect layer in between). The cake recipe in particular I found from Fig & Olive Platter, but the rest are ones I’ve inherited. I also was so excited to dehydrate orange slices - who doesn’t love a classy topping that is a relatively low lift? - basically, this cake was destined to be a showstopper. Just don’t be like me and dehydrate your oranges the same day as the rest of the cake (unless you are fancy and have more than one oven).

Get to baking!

Equipment:

Yields: 1, 9-inch cake

Ingredients:

DEHYDRATED ORANGE SLICES (optional)

1 orange

CAKE - I used this recipe (see my notes regarding baking time)

FROSTING

6 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
12 tbsp salted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp milk
5-6 cups powdered sugar

CARAMEL

133g caster sugar
30g water
118 g heavy cream
30g butter, small cubes (slightly softened)
¼ tsp sea salt

Directions:

DEHYDRATED ORANGE SLICES

Highly recommend making these at least a day in advance
Preheat your oven to 200F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
Slice your orange into ⅛” - ¼” slices and lay flat on your baking sheet
Bake for 3-4 hours until dry and no longer sticky to touch

CAKE

Follow the instructions here but key note: start checking your cake around the 25-minute mark. This is a dense cake with a lot of oil so you don’t want to risk it burning or overcooking.
Cool completely before assembly

FROSTING

Place your butter into a small pot over medium heat. Swirl the pan every minute or so. As the mixture begins to separate, the milk solids will drop to the bottom of the pot and begin to brown. Once lightly browned, remove from heat and pour into a bowl and place in the fridge.
Once your butter has firmed in the fridge, remove it and allow it to soften at room temperature until ready to use
Add your room-temperature cream cheese and browned butter to a mixing bowl and beat for a minute until smooth
Sift in your powdered sugar and carefully beat until all incorporated
Add the vanilla and milk and beat

CARAMEL

In a big pot, place sugar and water inside and use the back of a spoon or a spatula to gently cover all the sugar with the water. Should look like wet sand. Make sure no sugar is stuck on the sides of the pot (not in water) or it will burn.
In another small pot, add your heavy cream
Place pot with water and sugar on the stove over high heat. Do not stir!
When your sugar-water mixture starts to turn lightly brown (straw-colored) around the edge, place your pot with heavy cream on another burner over med-high heat and bring it to a scald (a rim of bubbles).
Keep a close eye on your sugar/water mixture as it turns lightly brown, once you see brown around the edges, keeping your pot flat on the stovetop lightly swirl it to move the browning around, and evenly color your liquid. Once it is the color of light wood, immediately remove it from heat (it will continue to brown in the pan) and place it on your counter.
Carefully stream your scaling heavy cream into your browned sugar/water pot. It will bubble so allow the bubbles to subside before continuing.
Add in one piece of your lightly softened butter at a time, whisk in, and repeat until all is incorporated
Sprinkle in your sea salt, whisk in
Cool slightly before assembly - can be lightly warm but no hotter or it will melt the frosting

ASSEMBLY

Place all of your cream cheese frosting on top of the cooled olive oil cake and smooth out
Using a spatula or the back of a spoon, make divots in swoops for you to pour your caramel into
Spoon caramel into the divots of the frosting
Decorate with dehydrated oranges and/or segments of fresh oranges, as desired

Notes:

This olive oil cake comes from Fig & Olive Platter, I highly recommend setting your timer for way lower (like 10 minutes) as you bake. This one bakes for a while but mine didn’t bake anywhere near 35 minutes (as their recipes states).
I received the recipe for salted caramel during my pastry course, from Chef Ash

Tag @accentgolden when you make this cake sensation!

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