Toffee Cake

This is an easy cake to make, but I made it difficult. Why? The original recipe uses Cool Whip, but I wanted to make a fresh whipped cream frosting. That's not all, I wanted the toffee to be nut-free, so I made a batch of homemade toffee. The first batch of toffee I tried was a disaster. The butter and sugar separated, but I tried a different recipe that worked out great for me. I made the toffee a couple of days before I made the cake so I didn't have to bake everything on the same day. I at least used a packaged cake mix and kept that simple.

Toffee Cake

1 package devil's food cake mix
Whipped Cream Frosting (recipe below)
1 1/2 - 2 cups Toffee broken up into small pieces, prepared before hand (recipe below)

Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Prepare and bake cake according to package directions. Cool on wire rack completely. Cut each layer in half horizontally. Fold about 1 1/2 cups of the toffee into the whip cream frosting. Place one layer on serving dish and spread with about 1 cup frosting mixture. Repeat with remaining layers. Use remaining frosting mixture to cover top and sides of cake. Sprinkle top of cake with remaining toffee. As decoration, top cake with big wedges of toffee.

Whipped Cream Frosting

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 c heavy whipping cream

Beat together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Slowly pour whipping cream into mixture, scraping sides and bottom often. Mix until soft peaks form.

Toffee

1 lb butter
1/2 c water
1/4 c light corn syrup
2 1/2 c sugar
2 c chocolate chips

Butter a 12"x18" baking sheet, set aside. In heavy saucepan, combine butter, water, corn syrup and sugar. Place over high heat and stir with wooden spoon until mixture begins to thicken. Reduce heat to low and remove wooden spoon. Clip on a candy thermometer and cook syrup to 290F. Remove from heat and carefully pour in buttered baking sheet. Cool for 1 hour. Melt chocolate chips and spread over toffee. Allow to set for 24 hours. Break into pieces and store in airtight container.