Chocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche Frosting

It's April 20! The husband and I are celebrating 12 years of togetherness - not marriage though. Time flies when you're having fun, indeed. :) I made this Chocolate Cake inspired by Beatty's Chocolate Cake from Ina Garten. I love love love the cake - dense, chocolatey and very moist. If I remember correctly, this is the first chocolate flavored cake that I made. Haha 

I only made half of the recipe because I didn't want to have a big cake and I think the dulce de leche I made might not be enough to cover the entire cake. So there, I hope you guys can give this a try and holler at me if you liked it :)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa (I used Bensdorp)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 cup coffee
• 1 cup fresh milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing/Filling:
Dulce de Leche

Dulce de Leche

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 160 degrees Celsius. Grease two 9-inch baking pan. Set aside. 
2. Sift together dry ingredients in a bowl. Add oil, coffee and milk; mix at medium speed for 1 minute. Add eggs and vanilla; beat 2 more minutes. (Batter will be thin.)
3. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans.
4. Bake at 160°C for 30 minutes. Cool cakes for 10 minutes before removing from pans. Cool on wire racks.
5. To make the dulce de leche, use a deep pot that you can submerge the condensed milk can fully in water.  According to my research online, water should be at least an inch above the can. You can put the can sideways if it's more convenient for you. Let it simmer for 1.5-2 hours. Check the water level every 20 minutes or so. Add more if the water level is lower than the height of the can. Cool the can in ice water for 20-30 minutes. Let it sit in the fridge for an hour or two before opening. You wouldn't want to burn yourself and mess the whole kitchen. You can do this a day ahead of making the cake. Reheat and adjust consistency of the dulce de leche by adding milk over low fire while whisking continuously.
6. Frost the cake according to your liking. Cut up the cake and serve with coffee.

Greased pan

Heating the dulce de leche

The one layer cake with dulce de leche icing