Ingredients

For the Cake:
3 cups cake flour (Or substitute with all-purpose, but subtract six tablespoons from the three cups, replace with six tablespoons of cornstarch, and mix it thoroughly with the flour.)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature (I used Land O’Lakes)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup of finely chopped toasted pecans, or whole pecan halves, optional

For the Caramel Icing:
2 cups of granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 tablespoons of white corn syrup
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

I went with the first icing choice that Deep South Dish recommended, as I thought it was still fairly traditional while still being fairly simple to put together. The link to the full recipe also includes a recipe for SUPER-easy caramel icing, if you need something even simpler and don’t mind the icing being non-traditional, and also a recipe for super-traditional burnt sugar caramel icing. I am sure that the burnt sugar icing would be heavenly, but it looks rather labor-intensive to me, compared to the other two icing recipes. Oh, and I thought that the chopped pecans added a nice texture contrast to the firm but smooth caramel and the ultra-fluffy cake (I also just happen to like pecans), but if you or your fellow eaters are not fans of chopped nuts on cake, you can leave them off, no problem. Enjoy!

Thanks to Deep South Dish for this delicious Southern caramel cake recipe.

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