Turtle Cake

Luckily this cake is made with pecans and caramel, not cute sea animals. :) My friend directed me to this recipe, and since I was tasked with providing dessert for Christmas I decided to give it a go. This cake tasted amazing, but it was one of the ugliest baked goods I've ever made. One of my layers broke coming out of the pan, so my cake ended up being a bit lopsided and the frosting was more like a ganache and it ran all over everywhere! I also only put pecans on half the cake (some of my family has problems with nuts) so that didn't help with the lopsided issue either! Oh well, I always remind myself it's only food, and it was eaten quickly enough and I didn't hear any complaints!

Cafe Latte's Famous Turtle Cake

Ingredients:
• 1 Egg.
• 2/3 cup Vegetable oil.
• 1 cup Buttermilk.
• 2 cups Flour.
• 1 3/4 cups Sugar.
• 1/2 cup Good quality cocoa.
• 1 tsp. Salt.
• 1 tbsp. Baking soda.
• 1 cup Hot coffee

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.

Directions:
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 coffee.

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 next 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-side up, frost with petal effect and finish with remaining pecans and caramel.