Go Back
Print Recipe
5 from 4 votes

Pretzel Praline cake

A sweet and salty cake with praline sauce and pretzel crust
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cake

Equipment

  • mixer with whisk and paddle attachments
  • bowls
  • spatula
  • kitchen scale
  • 3 6 in cake pans
  • cake board
  • sifter
  • food processor or blender
  • baking sheet

Ingredients

Salted Praline Sauce

  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cups brown sugar
  • 3/4 cups heavy cream
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp course sea salt

Pretzel Crust

  • 150 g original pretzels
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted

Cake Layers

  • 325 g all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2.5 tsp Baking Powder
  • 475 g sugar
  • 3/4 cups butter, softened
  • 3 eggs, room temp
  • 295 g buttermilk, room temp
  • 1 TBS Vanilla extract

Faux Swiss Meringue Buttercream

  • 6 oz carton egg whites
  • 24 oz confectioners sugar
  • 18 oz unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 TBS vanilla extract

Instructions

Salted Praline Sauce

  • Put chopped nuts and butter into a small-medium sauce pan.
  • Allow the nuts to toast and the butter to melt over medium high heat for a couple minutes.
  • Once the nuts are toasted and the butter is melted add the brown sugar, cream, and vanilla and stir to combine.
  • Turn the heat down to medium and allow it to come to soft roll. Continue stirring while it softly rolls (you may need to adjust temp) for 3 minutes.
  • Remove it from the heat and let it cool completely. As it cools it will thicken.
  • Once cool, add the course sea salt and stir to combine.

Pretzel crust

  • Preheat the oven to 330 degrees.
  • Put the pretzels in a blender or food processor. Process until uniformly small and crumbly, like a thick sand texture.
  • Add in the melted butter and sugar and stir well to combine.
  • Using three 6 inch cake pans, prepare them with baking spray and parchment in the bottom.
  • Scoop 1/2 cup of the pretzel mixture into each cake pan and press it flat into the bottom of the pan with the bottom of a cup.
  • Prepare an extra tray with parchment and put the rest of the pretzel mixture on it and press it flat. Bake it for 8 minutes.

Cake Layers

  • Combine the room temp buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla in a bowl. Mix it to break up the eggs and set it aside.
  • Put the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder in the bowl of your mixer. Let that combine in your mixer with the paddle attachment.
  • Add the softened butter and turn it on low for about 1 minute or until your dry mixture looks like a coarse sand texture.
  • With your mixer on low add about 1/2 of the wet mixture (just enough to make the whole mixture wet and look like a cake batter, not cookie dough). Let that mix on medium for 2 minutes. This is a part of the reverse creaming method. Don't go over or under 2 minutes. You want to develop structure for your cake but not develop the gluten because that will give you a tough cake.
  • After 2 minutes stop and scrape your bowl, turn it back on low and add the rest of the wet mixture. Let it combine 10-15 seconds or until combined. Scrape your bowl and make sure it's mixed evenly.
  • If the sides of your baking pans look like the baking spray ran down from sitting, quickly give them a spritz of baking spray trying not to coat your pretzel crust with it.
  • Divide your batter evenly among your pans, about 15 oz each.
  • Make 4-5 divets in the batter with a spoon and quickly spoon in some of the praline sauce. Marble that with a butter knife going back and forth a couple of times.
  • Add a bit of the left over pretzel crust and push it down a little into the batter with a spoon or knife.
  • Cover your cake pans with aluminum foil, and bake them at 330 degrees for about 60 minutes, or until done. Check to see if they are done by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out dry it is done.
  • Once the cakes are done allow them to cool on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes or until the pans are cool enough for you to handle.
  • The pretzel crust will stay together best if removed earlier (so they don't steam). Once the pans can be handled, carefully run a knife around the edge (the sauce can cause it to stick some). Be careful when running your knife along not to break up the crust on the bottom. Carefully remove the cake from the tins and allow them to come to room temp on cooling racks. It's ok if a little of the crust on the edge breaks off, it's bound to happen. The cake must be fully cooled to move on to the next part. You may want to wrap them in plastic wrap and decorate the next day or freeze, then decorate when you're ready.

Buttercream

  • Weigh out the egg whites in the bowl of your mixer
  • Sift the sugar into the bowl.
  • With the whisk attachment on, start on low and slowly increase it to high in your mixer. Mix for 6 minutes.
  • Change your whisk attachment out for your paddle attachment.
  • Turn the mixer on low and add 1 stick of butter at a time. Don't worry if it looks strange to start out it will all come together after it mixes for a while.
  • Add your salt and flavoring.
  • Let it mix on low for 10 minutes.

To assemble

  • On a cake board, put a small dollop of buttercream and put the cake crust side down on the board.
  • Smooth buttercream on the top, and make a well with your offset spatula. Put some praline sauce in the well making sure not to put too much, you do not want it to seep out.
  • Add another cake layer and repeat.
  • Add the last cake layer, seal the sides and coat the whole cake in a thin layer of buttercream to lock in any crumbs. Refrigerate that for about 15 minutes before your final coat of buttercream.
  • Add your final layer of buttercream, smooth and decorate it as you wish. I chose to make a well on top and put more praline sauce and pretzels on mine. I used wilton tip 4B to make a scallop rim on the top and bottom.