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This decadent chocolate cake is so luxuriously beautiful and delicious, you will feel like it came from a French patisserie! The classic flavours of chocolate and caramel come together with the satisfying crunch of honeycomb. To die for!
For a new twist on classic cake flavours, try this Spiced Pumpkin and Chocolate Cake!
Flashy layer cakes are the sort of desserts that none of us are going to make very often. But when we do, it is worth putting in the extra effort to make then stand out as truly special.
That’s why I came up with this decadent cake. It brings together two of my favourite flavours – chocolate and caramel – and adds in the satisfying crunch of honeycomb!
This cake works perfectly at all sorts of occasions. I have served it at birthday parties, at Christmas and when friends come over to say hello. A winner every time!
I kept the styling simple because it doesn’t need to be flashy to look gorgeous! And it’s the inside that will really make you catch your breath as the decadent black and brown layers are revealed with every slice!
Honeycomb Crunch Chocolate Cake
I often struggle to know what cake to make. There are so many options, each bringing their own special something.
But for this cake, I knew I wanted to bring together my favourite sweet flavours and textures. That meant I needed chocolate and caramel in a cake that is moist with a bit of crunch.
I started by making a chocolate stout cake, one of my favourite cake recipes. It produces dense chocolate sponge that stands up well to the rich caramel frosting.
The filling for this chocolate cake comes from my childhood, something every Russian child grew up with – caramel buttercream. A pinch of flaky Maldon salt gives it a modern update.
The much desired crunch comes from crushed honeycomb pieces, which are hard caramel bits, folded into caramel buttercream. Then I covered the entire chocolate cake into dark chocolate ganache and sprinkled with more honeycomb and salt flakes.
If honeycomb candy is not available in your supermarkets feel free to use Butterfinger bars. Although not exactly the same they will be a fair substitute.
How to make dulce de leche
Dulce de leche originated in Latin America as a confection made by heating sugar and milk together over several hours. It is an easily spreadable form of caramel and perfect for all sorts of sweet treats.
It is sometimes available ready made, which of course will save you a step. But if not, it is super easy to make your own with a can of sweetened condensed milk.
Take the label off the can of sweetened condensed milk and put it in a pot completely submerged in water. Bring it to a boil and continue cooking for 3-4 hours.
Make sure your can is completely covered in water throughout the duration of cooking or it will explode. Let it cool until it’s ready to use.
When you open it you will discover that your old plain can of sweetened condensed milk got transformed into glamorous and silky dulce de leche!
Salted caramel buttercream
The dulce de leche or caramel serves as the the base flavour for the buttercream icing. You’ll want to use a stand mixer to make this as easy as possible.
In the bowl of the This is an affiliate link.stand mixer, whip butter until it is light and fluffy, then tip in the dulce de leche or whatever caramel you are using. Throw in a pinch of flaky salt and keep mixing until it is all completely combined.
Now crush the honeycomb pieces in a This is an affiliate link.food processor or wrap the honeycomb pieces in a clean tea towel and crush them with a This is an affiliate link.rolling pin. Add the pieces to the salted caramel buttercream and fold them all together.
The buttercream icing can now be added between, on top and around the sides of the cake layers. The honeycomb pieces will add an amazing crunch to this cake!
Recipe Tips and Notes
- If boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk, ensure it is completely covered with water at all times. Cans that are not covered by water may explode.
- Flaky sea salt can be used as a substitute for Maldon salt.
- Use unsalted butter for the buttercream. You will be adding flaky salt, so salted butter is unnecessary.
- Leftover buttercream icing can be kept in the fridge in an This is an affiliate link.airtight container for up to a week. Before reusing, let it come to room temperature and beat it to loosen the icing up again.
- If you can’t find honeycomb pieces, try crushing a Crunchie bar. Although not the same, this will approximate the same effect and flavours.
- Using a This is an affiliate link.cake decorating turntable makes icing and decorating the cake much easier!
More chocolate cake recipes
- Black Forest Cake
- Chocolate Cake Truffles
- Christmas Chocolate Cake with Cranberries
- Black and White Chocolate Cake with Blackberry Compote
Honeycomb Crunch Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
For the cake
- 3/4 cup / 180ml Guinness or any other stout
- 1/4 cup / 60ml strong black coffee
- 1 cup / 250g unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup / 90 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 cups / 280g all purpose flour
- 2 cups / 400g sugar
- 1/2 tbsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2/3 cups / 160g creme fraiche or sour cream
For the salted caramel buttercream
- 1.5 cups / 350g butter, softened
- 14 oz / 397g Carnation caramel or dulce de leche
- 1 Pinch of Maldon salt
- 50g /2 oz crushed honeycomb
For chocolate ganache
- 1 cup /225 ml whipping cream/double cream
- 1/2 lb / 225 g dark chocolate, chopped
For decoration
- A handful of honeycomb pieces
- A pinch of Maldon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and butter 3 8″ cake pans and dust them with some flour to prevent the cakes from sticking.
- In a large saucepan heat stout, coffee and butter together until the mixture comes to a gentle simmer. Add cocoa powder while whisking continuously to avoid lumps until smooth. Set aside to cool.
- Blend flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a different bowl. Mix eggs, vanilla and creme fraiche with an electric mixer in bowl number 3.
- Now check on your chocolate mixture and make sure it’s cool enough to continue the process.
- Add the chocolate mixture to the egg and creme fraiche mixture and blend them together. Add flour mixture a little bit at a time and beat on low speed until combined. Divide batter equally among the pans.
- Bake cakes in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. (I baked mine one at a time.)
- Remove the cakes from the oven and cool on a wire rack. (Once cooled I usually wrap my cakes in a plastic wrap and chill my cakes in the fridge overnight.)
- Make salted caramel buttercream by whipping butter in a bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy and then adding prepared caramel or dulce de leche with a pinch of flaky salt until completely incorporated.
- Wrap honeycomb pieces in a clean tea towel and crush with a rolling pin or process in a food processor. Fold in crushed honeycomb pieces into salted caramel buttercream.
- (If Carnation caramel is not available in your supermarkets you can make your own by boiling a can of sweet and condensed milk in a pot of water for 3 hours.)
- Fill the cake layers with salted caramel buttercream, then cover the entire cake with a crumb layer and chill in the fridge for 30-40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make a chocolate ganache. Bring heavy cream to a boil and take it off the heat immediately, then add your chopped chocolate into it and stir until melted! Cool it and whip it with an electric mixer until paler in colour and fluffy.
- Cover the chilled cake with chocolate ganache and decorate with more honeycomb pieces and flaky salt.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this cake for a friends birthday. The whole crowd could not stop raving about it. They all declared it the best cake they ever had. Plus it was gorgeous! For some extra dazzle, I sprayed gold mist on the swirl.
In the US most desserts and cakes are too sweet, this one is perfect. I now realize I must like Russian cakes! Any Russian cake cookbooks you recommend?
Oh this makes me so happy, Debra! I love that cake too and I absolutely have to make it again. There are not many Russian cookbooks published in the States but there are 2 I really like “Please to the table!” and “The Art of Russian cuisine”. They are not exclusively dessert books and they have no photos in them but they do have some cakes in them. One day I will write a cook book with all lovely desserts and photos. 🙂 Until then feel free to explore my blog for more cakes.
Hello, firstly let me say how amazing this cake sounds. There’s one issue I have though before I can even think about attempting it – the person I want to make this for hates any type or stout, or alcohol in general in things she eats, it doesn’t matter if the alcohol is cooked out she claims she can still taste it, and I can’t express enough how much she hates stout! Tedious I know, but can I replace it with anything? More coffee, perhaps? She doesn’t mind coffee. Thank you in a advance!
Emz, I would just not tell her, honestly it tastes nothing like stout and an important ingredient. You can try to replace it with coffee but stout does more than just provides liquid in this recipe, the fermentation also acts as a raising agent here. I hope this helps.
Hi, could you please clarify with the cup of coffee? Do you just mean a teaspoon of coffee grounds in a cup of hot water?
Karlee, it just means 1/4 cup of prepared coffee. You can use instant coffee if you like or you can brew it in a coffee maker. I hope that helps.
Thanks!! I’m making it this weekend I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Loved this recipe and decided to try it out… All went smoothly (literally) until I made the buttercream. I’ve made two batches now and they’ve both curdled… None of the lovely silky texture pictured above but a horrible lumpy grainy consistency. I’m so disappointed… Any ideas why this has happened? Followed the recipe and directions to a T.
Thanks
Cat
Cat, I am sorry it did’t work out. The cream/butter-based frostings separate when they come in contact with liquid and if your dulce de leche was not thick enough (wasn’t cooked long enough) it could react strangely with butter and cause separation. Sometimes the butter itself could be the culprit if it’s not the highest quality. It does happen and it doesn’t look very pretty but you can still use it to fill your cakes. You are covering it with chocolate ganache and no one will be able to see that your frosting separated or taste it.
Thanks so much for the swift reply. After googling some home remedies I put the mixer back on and added a little bit of milk and icing sugar.. This seamed to do the trick! I’ve assembled the cake now and it’s waiting to be frosted with the ganache later tonight. 🙂 super excited! Thanks also for the explanation- im happy to know the science behind it and will keep that in mind in future.
Cat
I am so pleased to hear you managed to fix it!! Enjoy and Happy Easter!
Does this cake taste more like an American or Russian cake? I want to make it for a shower next weekend but all my Russian family aren’t fans of American cakes.
Nadya, it tastes European, it doesn’t taste American at all. I am not a fan of American cakes myself.
Is it necessary to put the cakes in a fridge overnight?
Irina, it’s only necessary if you assemble your cake the next day and wrapping it in plastic wrap and refrigerating keeps it fresh.
Thank you! I made it once before the cakes crambeled for some reason but I still put it together and everyone loved it! I making it again and so far it looks great))
Amazing! This was the best cake I’ve ever had/made!
Yay! Thanks for sharing, Teah. 🙂
looks amazing in the process of making it now!
Only point is the ganache is disappointing it’s far too thin
Looking at other recipes this one seems to have double the amount of cream!
I’m going to leave it overnight to see if it thickens but I think I’ll end up remaking the ganach with half cream or double choc
Tasha, the ganache recipe is always the same-equal amounts of double/heavy cream and chocolate. It’s always thin at first. If you use it just to cover the cake you can use it immediately, it will be runny but will harden very quickly and will look like a glaze. In this recipe, however, you need to cool it completely, preferably in the fridge and then whip it to make frosting.
I take my ganache comment back, the next morning I woke up it was perfect and ready to wip, I just tried to rush it too much.
This cake is great!!! Can’t wait to take it into work today!
Hahaha, I am exactly the same way! I hate the fact that baking can’t be rushed but learning patience with each cake I bake. Let me know what you think once you taste the cake, Tasha!
AMAZING!!!!
People at work couldn’t stop raving about this and the depth of flavours
Can’t wait to make it again!!
Wouldn’t change a thing next time I remake it which is rare for me!
Thank you for a great recipe 🙂
Brilliant, Tasha! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Oh my goodness, honeycomb crunch chocolate cake looks delicious! I’m definitely making this! thanks for sharing!
What a gorgeous cake! I love the salted caramel buttercream! Perfectly done! Pined!
Thank you so much, Mira!