A moist and fluffy cake topped with a thick layer of creamy brown sugar fudge; this Brown Sugar Fudge Cake is an indulgent and insanely delicious dessert.

Man, it sucks being a food blogger, sometimes. Here I am, staring at this Brown Sugar Fudge Cake, trying to think of ways to describe to you just how insanely and amazingly delicious it really is. Yet, my head feels just like one giant field of extreme fuzziness today, so I can’t even come up with a single thing to say.

NOTHING!

Not that the cake isn’t good, far from there. Only, I apparently caught this terrible cold or flu, or ailment of some sort, that seems to have sucked all the life out of my body and leaves me wanting to do nothing but go to bed.

Well, at least I managed to lay down (no pun intended!) the most important elements for you: the pictures and the recipe. That way, you can make your own and then find out for yourself just how crazy indulgent and insanely delicious this cake truly is.

‘Cuz really… it is! You’re looking at a moist and fluffy cake topped with a thick layer of rich and creamy Brown Sugar Fudge.

If you asked my daughter to describe this Brown Sugar Fudge Cake to you, she’d tell you that, simply put, it’s beyond divine and that it’ll make you want to drop to the floor and breakdance for an hour or two. She’ll tell you that it tastes like you were just catapulted to a remote paradise Island, and then died and went to heaven and were instantly named deity of cloud 9.

Or something like that anyway. My foggy brain may have gotten a few things backwards, or sideways…

But you get the idea! I think you should take her word for it and make the cake.

I can guarantee you one thing: you’re not gonna regret it — Brown Sugar Fudge aka Sucre à la Crème = Food of the gods!

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STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS & PICTURES

TO MAKE THE CAKE – First, preheat your oven to 350°F, butter a 9″ x 13″ baking dish and set it aside.

Then, in a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix very well with a whisk until fluffy and thoroughly combined; reserve.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the butter, brown sugar and sugar. Beat on high with the paddle attachment until light and creamy, about 5 minutes.

If you didn’t have a stand mixer, you could very well do this with a hand mixer instead, only it may take a little bit longer…

Next, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl as needed, until each egg is fully incorporated.

Once all the eggs have been added, beat on high until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

At this point, you want to add about half the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until barely just incorporated, then add the sour cream, buttermilk and vanilla extract.

Resume mixing on low speed until just combined.

Finally, add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

Transfer the batter to the prepared baking dish and spread lightly to the edge.

Bake the cake for 28-32 minutes, or until the top is beautifully golden and appears completely set.

Once the cake is done baking, take it out of the oven and, using a wooden skewer, poke holes all over the top of the cake, going all the way to the bottom.

TO MAKE THE MAPLE SYRUP – While the cake is still in the oven but is almost done baking, combine the maple syrup, water, rum (if using), butter, vanilla extract and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, simmer for 1 or 2 minutes and kill the heat.

After you’ve poked a bunch of holes in your cake, slowly pour that warm maple syrup over its entire surface and then let the cake rest and cool down a bit while you work on the brown sugar fudge icing.

TO MAKE THAT BROWN SUGAR FUDGE ICING – In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, heavy cream, corn syrup and salt. Cook over medium heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, then increase the heat slightly and bring to a boil.

Continue cooking, without stirring, until the sugar mixture reaches 238°F on a candy thermometer. That’s pretty much right at the “soft ball” mark on my thermometer.

As you can see, it’s not only the temperature that’ll rise in that pan: the sugar will boil pretty violently and will rise quite a lot, too, so make sure that you use a saucepan that’s large enough to accommodate that.

As soon as the thermometer reaches that 238°F mark, promptly remove the pan from the heat and add the butter and vanilla to the pot, but do not stir them in just yet.

For now, simply let the hot sugar sauce rest on the counter undisturbed until that sugar mixtures gets down to 110°F on the candy thermometer. This should take about 20 minutes.

Once the sugar mixture has sufficiently come down in temperature, delicately stir in the butter and vanilla…

Then beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes thick and creamy and the fudge gets lighter in color and starts to lose its sheen.

This will take what will probably feel like forever-and-then-some and you’ll most likely have to switch arms a couple of times in the process but don’t give up. It’ll all be SO MUCH worth the effort in the end, I swear.

I mean seriously. Just look at the picture. Can you imagine? It’s even BETTER than that!

As soon as (Hahaha, SOON? Really? Who am I kidding?) Let me start that again…

As “OMG FINALLY! THAT WAS ABOUT TIME!” as the brown sugar fudge has reached the right consistency, pour it directly over the top of  your cake…

…and then spread it delicately all the way to the edge with that wooden spoon, creating all kinds of beautiful decorative swirls in the icing as you go.

Garnish the top of your cake with chopped walnuts, if you want to, and then let the icing set for about an hour at room temperature before serving.

Any leftovers will keep at room temperature for about a week. But I can guarantee you they’ll never last that long…

Not a chance!