There is this slight nip in the air in the early morning when I go for a walk with my buddy. The weather seems all so perfect and we feel more energetic and motivated to walk some extra miles. And that keeps me rejuvenated all day long. And if I talk about food especially during autumn and winters, it gets even more delicious and rich. We get to eat so many different varieties of greens which are very traditional to our family. The usual whole wheat chapati gets replaced by Makki ki roti (Indian style unleavened cornbread). And also, the amount of ghee going into daily food increases owing to our Punjabi background. Evening snacking is generally about hot comforting soups. Nonetheless, the richness of desserts and sweets also increases proportionally. All in all, food becomes so important while weather starts to get colder. And this kind of weather calls for some spicy sweet treats like this chocolate peanut butter salted caramel cake. The flavors and the aroma of sweet spices like cinnamon and nutmeg in this cake sing autumn so beautifully that you just can’t stop at having one slice. The fragrant waft of sweet spices coming out of the oven while the cake is baking is good enough to make your morning shiny and brilliant. And the salted caramel is the icing on the cake, which shines through the flavors.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 110 gm salted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 85 gm dark chocolate, melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, melted and cooled
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 25 gm butter
- 100 ml low fat cream
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/2 tsp flaky sea salt
- Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Lightly grease a bundt pan and keep aside.
- In bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon and keep aside.
- In large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in yogurt and vanilla extract. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.
- Divide batter into two bowls. Stir melted chocolate into half the batter until well combined. Stir peanut butter into remaining half until well combined.
- Alternately drop spoonfuls of batter into prepared pan. Use a knife to gently swirl the batters together.
- Bake in preheated oven 35 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let cake cool for 15 minutes in pan and then invert onto a wire rack to let cool completely.
- While the cake is cooling, prepare salted caramel. Melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat. Stir in both the sugars and whisk regularly to boil. Stir in the cream and let simmer for 2 minutes. Add half of the sea salt.
- Drizzle the caramel on cooled cake and sprinkle some more sea salt on top.