This Salted Caramel Sheet Cake is going to take your sheet cake game to a whole new level. Deliciously moist sheet cake, cooked to perfection, and topped with an ooey-gooey blend of melted caramel, toffee bits, chocolate chips, and sea salt. You won’t want a regular sheet cake again! Try my Texas Turtle Sheet Cake for another one of my sheet cake recipe favorites!
Salted Caramel Sheet Cake
There is this store by my house that sells these individually wrapped chocolate covered caramels topped with sea salt. Every time I go there, I look forward to the checkout where I know they are sitting, patiently waiting for me to cave and buy one. I can barely make it to my car before its gone. They are seriously mouth-watering.
So that got me thinking. What if I paired the same thing with one of my favorite desserts, my best ever chocolate cake? The results were just as I expected. Glorius.
Salted Caramel Sheet Cake Recipe
To make this recipe you start with a traditional sheet cake base, my all-time favorite best ever chocolate cake recipe. That is the base for this delicious salted caramel sheet cake. This recipe also uses coffee (one of my favorite additions to a chocolate cake), but you can certainly use hot water if you prefer to leave the coffee out.
Chocolate Cake
- Brown sugar
- Brewed coffee
- Cocoa powder–I prefer Dutch-process cocoa for this recipe. Dutch-process cocoa will be labeled with something like, ‘processed with alkali’ and will have a less bitter taste.
- Butter
- Vanilla
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
Salted Caramel Topping
- Caramel candies
- Butter
- Milk
- Sea salt
- Chocolate chips
- Toffee bits
Looking for More Sheet Cake Recipes?
Make sure to check out some of my favorites!
Raspberry Cheesecake Sheet Cake
Salted Caramel Sheet Cake
Ingredients
CHOCOLATE CAKE–FIRST PART
- ⅓ cup (67g) brown sugar
- ⅓ cup strong coffee
- ½ cup (59g) Dutch-process cocoa
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
CHOCOLATE CAKE–SECOND PART
- 1½ cups (187.5g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup (1 stick or 113g) salted butter, warm but not melted
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (100g) packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup cold coffee
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
SALTED CARAMEL TOPPING
- 1 bag (10 ounces) individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
- ¼ cup (1/2 stick or 57g) butter
- 2 tablespoon milk
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup (68g) chocolate chips
- ⅔ cup toffee bits
Instructions
CHOCOLATE CAKE
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
FIRST PART
- Place the brown sugar, coffee, cocoa, butter, and vanilla into a saucepan over low heat. Stir until they are fully incorporated (5-7 minutes). Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit. It should be a little thick and similar to custard.
SECOND PART
- In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda together.
- Add warm butter, both sugars, eggs, cold coffee, and vanilla to the flour mixture and mix with a hand-held mixer until fully combined. Or, stir by hand.
- Add the chocolate mixture from the FIRST PART to the ingredients from the SECOND PART. Stir by hand until all ingredients are well combined.
- Pour onto a prepared (sprayed or lined with parchment paper) 10×15-inch baking sheet. Smooth out the batter and gently tap the pan on the counter.
- Bake for 16-22 minutes, or until the center no longer appears wet and an inserted toothpick is removed with a few crumbs.
SALTED CARAMEL TOPPING
- Melt caramels, butter, and milk together in a microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl in 30-second intervals, stirring after each melting, for 1 to 3 minutes (depending on your microwave).
- Pour caramel mixture over warm cake and top with sea salt, chocolate chips, and toffee bits.
- Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
your recipe header has Pretzel in the title…………..there are no pretzels in this recipe??
Hi, Coleene! I work with iambaker and am happy to help with questions. Oops! We were thinking of adding pretzels, but we didn’t. (However, they would be delicious to add.) I updated the title of the recipe. Thanks! Have a great day!
How do you make the toffee bits? It says to add but doesn’t mention how to make it.
You purchase them. HEATH brand. 🙂
Is there something that can be used instead of coffee? We don’t drink coffee, so it isn’t an option for my family
Hi, Kathie! I work with iambaker and am happy to help with questions. You could use water in place of the coffee, but we have not tried that in this recipe, so I can’t say how much it would affect the end result. Let us know if you do use water and how it turns out. Have a great day!
You are awsome!
I made this for dessert for dinner tomorrow, how do I store it?
If I’m short on time can I use a cake mix?
Of course!
Hi can I leave out the coffee, I don’t like it
My kids birthday cakes are yearly events. Every year is different based on their current favorite of ‘things’. My daughter has been obsessed with salted caramel this year and I had looked for months for a real ‘from scratch’ recipe. This cake was AMAZING. The whole family said it was the best cake ever. The cake itself, without the toppings, was incredibly moist and yummy. The toppings put it over the top. So glad I found your recipe and I’ll be trying more on your page now that I discovered you.