Before I baked a Turtle Cake, I was curious as to how the term “Turtle” came to be associated with chocolaty, nutty, caramel goodness. According to the DeMet’s website, “TURTLES® are chocolate confections that are shaped like Turtles. They consist of milk chocolate, caramel and some variety of nuts.” And according to the Wikipedia page:
Turtles brand candy were developed by Johnson’s Candy Company (which became DeMet’s Candy Company in 1923) in 1918, after a salesman came into the commissary’s dipping room and showed a candy to one of the dippers, who pointed out that the candy looked like a turtle. Soon after, Johnson’s Candy Company was making the same kind of candy and selling it under the name “Turtles.”
Kind of a cute story, right? I decided to adapt this recipe from Cooking Light to yield a half recipe. Here’s the mise en place for the cake, but not the frosting. I’ll explain why in a bit.
The first step was to dissolve the cocoa powder into hot water.
The cake recipe called for 3 tablespoons of butter. I hate baking cakes with butter because they sometimes result in cakes with butter chunks in them (not that that is necessarily the worst thing to happen to a cake). So I let the butter soften at room temperature and then creamed it with the hand mixer so it was loose and would easily mix with the rest of the ingredients.
I then added the sugar and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.
Next I added the egg, mixed and then came the cocoa mixture.
I then sifted in the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
After everything was incorporated, it was time to prep the pans with parchment paper, oil spray, a sprinkling of cocoa powder (in place of flour), and my hand-dandy pan wraps. I was using these heart-shaped pans because they’re quite small and perfect for a half recipe of layer cake.
And in went the batter.
They baked up in about 22 minutes. I rotated my pans halfway through.
Having become a little gun-shy about flipping cakes out of pans after last week, I let the finished cakes cool in their pans for 10 full minutes.
And… it worked! Success!
It was time to make the frosting, but I was having a little bit of a brown sugar situation. You see, when dark brown sugar sits in the cupboard it has a tendency to turn into one, rock hard piece of sugar. I tried several techniques to soften the sugar. I microwaved it next to a mug of water and let it sit in a bowl with a damp towel draped across the top, but neither was very effective. In the end, I guesstimated the amount of dark brown sugar I needed by eyeballing approximately 1/4 cup in chunks. Was that the smartest idea? Maybe not.
Butter, dark brown sugar, vanilla, and milk were heated in a small saucepan on low-medium heat.
Once the sugar melted, I let the saucepan cool a bit before transferring the mixture to a medium bowl. Into the bowl I sifted about 1 cup powdered sugar. I like to use the measuring cup to work the sugar through the strainer.
After I used the hand mixer to mix the powdered sugar into the brown sugar mixture, it was a pour-able consistency. The original recipe called for 2 cups of sifted powdered sugar, which would have resulted in a much thicker frosting. But I tend to shy away from adding a lot of sugar to frosting. I prefer to sweeten it to taste. The original recipe also called for a caramel sauce drizzle on top of the frosting. I was hoping to achieve a hybrid of the two. I’m not sure how successful I was as the final product turned out lumpy. Was it lumps of hardened sugar? Traces of milk that hadn’t fully incorporated? I’m not sure. In retrospect, looking at the photos, it was caused by the hardened sugar. In the moment, it tasted okay so I pressed on.
It was time to assemble the cake. I placed one of the cooled layers on my cake stand.
I spread half the frosting on top.
On top of that went the second layer.
Next came the rest of the frosting plus 1/4 cup chopped pecans.
Eventually the middle layer of frosting was absorbed by the cake layers. The cake itself was really moist, airy, and delicious. The chocolate cake recipe is definitely a keeper. I’d like to make it again and throw some chocolate chips in the batter.
The frosting on this left something to be desired. As I mentioned earlier, it was meant to be a hybrid between frosting and pourable caramel. It turned out to just be a runny glaze and didn’t add much to the overall flavor of the cake.
| Turtle Cake |
- 3/4 cups hot water
- 1/4 plus 2 tbs cup unsweetened cocoa
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 3 tbs butter, softened to room temp
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- FROSTING:
- 2 tbs butter
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 3 tbs milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Coat 2 small cake pans with cooking spray. Line bottoms with parchment paper. Coat parchment paper with cooking spray. Dust with cocoa powder.
- Combine hot water and cocoa, stirring well. Set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, cream 3 tbs room temperature butter with hand mixer, about 1 minute.
- Place sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy, a few minutes.
- Add egg and mix until combined.
- Sift cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into wet ingredients.
- Add cocoa mixture and mix until just combined.
- Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake at 350° for approximately 22 minutes, rotating pans halfway through.
- Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack. Flip cakes out of pans and cool completely on wire rack.
- To prepare frosting, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over low to medium heat. Add brown sugar and 3 tablespoons milk.
- Cook 1 minute or until sugar melts. Remove from heat and cool slightly, transferring to a medium bowl.
- Add 2 tsp vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat with a hand mixer at medium speed until smooth.
- Place 1 cake layer on a plate; spread top with half of frosting. Top with other cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top of cake. Sprinkle with pecans. Enjoy!
Next time you open a bag of brown sugar put a piece of bread (it doesn’t matter what kind) in the bag before you store it again. Bread will loosen clumped brown sugar in a few hours or overnight.
Love you!
Looks yummy!!