Brown Sugar Sheet Cake with Salted Caramel Stove-Top Buttercream

I have had my “stuck on a deserted island with one food” scenario planned out for years ((um, Chick-fil-A original chicken sandwich)). But after taking the first bite of this cake, I officially changed my mind. This cake — no kidding. If I was stuck in a deserted island and could only eat one food for the rest of my life, I would choose this cake. Now, if I could just find that deserted island.

If you look closely at this recipe, you may notice it closely resembles the White Texas Sheet Cake ((aka White TSC)) recipe I shared last year ((and make every chance I get)).

The White TSC is a twist on the classic fudgy TSC ((if you have never enjoyed a square of TSC, feel sorry for yourself and promptly get to baking)). The key to a TSC ((whether almond, chocolate or brown sugar)) is both the buttercream and the cake batter are prepared on the stovetop.

With just a few simple tweaks to the my original White TSC, I believe I have created the best version yet.

For the brown sugar cake batter: Instead of the 3 cups of white cane sugar called for in the original cake batter recipe, I added 2 cups of dark brown sugar & 1 cup of white sugar.

Everything else stayed the same!

Isn’t the cake a gorgeous medium honey color?

For the Salted Caramel Buttercream:

I added 1½ cups of packed brown sugar & ½ teaspoon of kosher salt to the melting butter and milk, and brought the mixture to a rolling boil for about 2 minutes. Keeping the caramel at a roiling boil for 2 minutes causes the final buttercream to harden to a homemade fudge-like texture. I believe this is where the magic happens!

While the caramel buttercream mixture was boiling, I heated an extra cup of milk on the stove. Having very warm milk on hand when making this stove top buttercream is essential to obtaining the perfect creaminess. The milk, butter & sugar are turning into yummy, salty caramel candy while boiling. Once you add the powdered sugar, the mixture will thicken the buttercream too much. If you add cold milk to thin it to the perfect consistency, the cold temperature will affect the fudge-like texture we are going for. Hot milk with keep the temperature & texture perfect.

I poured the buttercream over the slightly warm cake. Be sure not to pour it in one spot or it will cause that part of the cake to fall. Oh, and there will probably be about a cup more buttercream than can fit on the cake. So, don’t pour it all out at once. Instead, pour out about 2/3 of the warm buttercream and add more to fill in bare spots as needed.

Let me pause and say, an extra cup of buttercream has never been a problem in our house. The kiddos are like a pack of hungry wolves at feeding time just at the mere mention of buttercream. An extra cup ensures there are plenty of licks to go around! (whew.)

PS – the edges and corners are the best part ((the icing oozes down the sides and pools, coating them in an extra thick dose of perfect salted caramel buttercream)).

Oh, and the center pieces are pretty awesome too. You know, the center always gives the most moist pieces of cake & let me tell you… moist, buttery brown sugar cake?? It is really as good as it gets.

Yes, I would say this cake is perfect for a deserted island.