Samoa Bundt Cake with Caramel Frosting

Samoa Cake tastes like the beloved girl scout cookie in bundt cake form with a tender cake full of chocolate flavour covered in a caramel frosting and lots of toasted coconut. A drizzle of caramel sauce and chocolate sauce makes it even harder to resist. Each layer of cake is light and fluffy, with a rich chocolate flavour that melts in your mouth.

Chocolate Cake:
1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
½ cup butter, softened
1 (16 oz) pkg light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. sea salt
1 (8 oz) container sour cream
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup hot water

Homemade Caramel:
1 cup granulated sugar
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup cream
½ tsp. sea salt

Caramel Frosting:
¾ cup butter (1½ sticks)
¼ cup Caramel Sauce
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1½-2 Tbsp. heavy cream

Toppings:
1½ cups sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
Caramel Sauce
Hot Fudge Sauce

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C/160°C fan, Gas Mark 4). Grease and flour a bundt pan.

For the Chocolate Cake:
Melt chocolate chips in a double-boiler until smooth when stirred. Set aside.

Beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until blended well, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in melted chocolate just until blended.

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to batter, alternating with sour cream, beating at LOW speed just until blended after each addition.

Slowly, with mixer on LOW speed, add hot water. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes in pan then remove cake from pan to cool completely.

For the Caramel:
In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, heat the granulated sugar on medium low heat until its completely melted, swirling the pan gently every 20 seconds or so. The sugar will start to form clumps before melting slowly. Be patient and keep an eye on it to make sure it does not burn.

Once melted, remove from heat immediately and stir in the butter. The mixture will violently bubble. You're doing it right. Next, pour in the heavy cream and ½ tsp. of the sea salt. Stir until everything is combined. Taste a spoonful of cooled caramel. If it needs more salt, feel free to adjust to taste.

Pour ½ cup of the caramel into a medium mixing bowl with the shredded coconut. Stir to combine. Set the other ½ cup of caramel aside to use for the frosting. Make sure that you let your caramel cool completely before using in the frosting.

For the Frosting:
Beat butter and caramel sauce until creamy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat in enough heavy cream to get to desired consistency.

Assemble:
Spread frosting on cooled cake. Sprinkle toasted coconut on cake and drizzle with caramel sauce and hot fudge sauce, if desired.

Makes 16 servings.