This mocha caramel pound cake is chocolate, but more. Enjoy. I list sugar in two places. That's because of some it ends up as caramel. Please read all the Rules before getting started making this amazing, subtle mocha caramel pound cake.
Preheat your oven to 350F. Set an oven rack to one-below-the-center.
Spray and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan (or a 10 cup swirly pan plus a small cake pan to hold the extra batter). Set aside.
In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, bring the 4oz of sugar and the water to a boil.
Cover the pan and let boil for 2 minutes to wash any sugar crystals off the sides of the pan.
Uncover and cook without stirring until the sugar starts to get some color. Swirl the pan gently to keep the color even.
Once the caramel is a deep amber color, remove the pan from the heat and carefully stir in the cream. Stir until smooth. Let cool to just warm.
Whisk the cocoa powder and vanilla into the coffee.
Whisk the coffee mixture together with the caramel mixture. Set aside.
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and baking soda.
Set aside.
Cream the butter and the cream cheese together until smooth.
Add the 8oz each of granulated sugar and brown sugar along with the salt and Baker's Brew.
Cream until very light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as necessary. This will take about 10 minutes.
Very slowly drizzle in the beaten eggs just a bit at a time until they are all incorporated. Scrape the bowl as necessary. This should take about 5-7 minutes.
Alternately add the flour and the coffee-caramel mixture like this:
half the flour
half the liquid
half of the rest of the flour
the rest of the liquid
the rest of the flour
Allow maybe 5-10 seconds of mixing on low speed between each addition. Don't worry if one addition isn't completely incorporated before adding the next. Scrape bowl as necessary.
Once everything is incorporated, scrape the bowl well, reaching all the way down into the bottom. Fold gently a few time.
Beat on high speed for 3 seconds to make sure everything is well mixed.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan/s.
Bake for about an hour until well risen and a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Turn out onto a rack and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Freeze or refrigerate until just barely warm and apply the glaze.
For the Glaze
Place the melted butter, sugar, salt and vanilla in a small-ish bowl. Whisk together, adding just a tiny splash of milk at a time until you have a thick, smooth and glossy glaze.
Pour attractively over the cake.
Notes
Since this is a darker batter, rather than dusting your pan with flour, dust it with cocoa powder.The cake is done when the internal temperature reaches 195-200F.