Stroopwafel Cake: A Layered Caramel and Cinnamon Cake Built on Stroopwafels

A stroopwafel is already a small cake of sorts: two thin, cinnamon-scented waffles around a layer of caramel. A stroopwafel cake takes those three ideas and builds them up. The sponge is made with brown sugar and cinnamon so it tastes like the waffle, the caramel is made by melting stroopwafels into cream, and the waffles themselves go between the layers as crumb and on top as decoration.

In the Netherlands, stroopwafeltaart often means a no-bake tray cake with a crushed stroopwafel base. That version is at the end. This one is the baked layer cake: two 20 cm sponges, a stroopwafel caramel and a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. It serves 12 and takes about two hours, most of it waiting.

Ingredients

For the sponges (two 20 cm round tins):

• 225 g soft butter
• 200 g light brown sugar
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 225 g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Half a teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons milk

For the stroopwafel caramel:

• 6 stroopwafels, chopped
• 150 ml double cream
• A pinch of salt

For the frosting:

• 200 g soft butter
• 250 g icing sugar
• 250 g full-fat cream cheese, cold
• Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt

To finish:

• 4 stroopwafels, chopped small, for between the layers
• 6 to 8 stroopwafels for the top

That is 16 to 18 stroopwafels in all. For the caramel and the crumb, any pack will do, and a slightly stale one is fine. For the top, use the best you have: fresh ones have more caramel and a softer bite, and they are what people will actually taste. Our post on supermarket stroopwafels versus fresh goes into the difference. A Salted Caramel or Biscoff waffle from our flavours on top needs no other decoration.

Bake the sponges

1. Heat the oven to 180 °C (160 °C fan). Grease the two tins and line the bases with baking paper.
2. Beat the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer for 3 to 4 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Brown sugar does not go as light as white, so judge it by texture rather than colour.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each and adding a spoonful of the flour with the last two if the mixture starts to look curdled.
4. Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt, sift them over the bowl and fold them in with a spatula. Stir in the vanilla and the milk: the batter should drop off the spoon slowly.
5. Divide it between the tins, level the tops and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden, springy to the touch and shrinking slightly from the sides. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then on a rack until completely cold. They can be baked the day before and wrapped.

Make the stroopwafel caramel

Put the chopped stroopwafels and the cream in a small pan over a low heat and stir until the pieces melt into a thick, glossy sauce, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the salt and let it cool: it thickens to a spreadable caramel as it does. It is the same sauce we use in our stroopwafel ice cream post, and it is the reason this cake tastes of stroopwafel all the way through rather than only on top. Keep two tablespoons aside for the drizzle at the end.

Make the frosting

1. Beat the butter for 2 minutes until pale. Add the icing sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt and beat for another 2 minutes.
2. Add the cold cream cheese and beat on low only until it is smooth, 30 seconds or so. Cream cheese frosting goes loose when it is overbeaten or warm, so stop early. If it feels soft, chill it for 15 minutes.

Assemble the cake

1. If the sponges have domed, slice the tops level with a serrated knife. Put the first one on a plate or board, cut side up.
2. Spread a thin layer of frosting over it, then half of the caramel, leaving a centimetre bare at the edge. Scatter the chopped stroopwafels over the caramel and press them in lightly.
3. Set the second sponge on top, cut side down, and press gently. Spread the rest of the caramel over it, then chill the cake for 20 minutes so the filling firms up.
4. Cover the top and sides with the frosting. A thin coat with the sponge showing through looks right for this cake; a thicker, smoother one works too if you have made enough. Chill until you are ready to serve.

The top, and when to add it

This is the one rule: stroopwafels on frosting soften within a few hours, so add them in the last hour before serving, not the night before. Cut the stroopwafels in half and stand the halves in the frosting in a ring, or lay whole ones overlapping like roof tiles, or pile broken pieces in the middle. Warm the reserved caramel for a few seconds and drizzle it over. If the cake has to sit out longer, put the waffles on the slices instead of the cake.

The no-bake stroopwafeltaart

This is the version many Dutch families know, and it needs no oven. Crush 250 g of stroopwafels in a food processor, mix in 50 g of melted butter and press into a lined 20 cm tin; the caramel in the waffles binds it. Chill for half an hour. Whip 300 ml of cream with 50 g of icing sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon to soft peaks and fold in 250 g of mascarpone. Spread it over the base, chill for at least four hours and top with stroopwafel pieces and the caramel from above. Softer and cooler than the baked cake, and the better one for a summer table.

Cupcakes and a sheet cake

The same batter makes 18 cupcakes, baked for 18 to 20 minutes. Pipe or spoon the frosting on, press a quarter of a stroopwafel into each and add a drop of caramel. For a crowd, bake the batter in a 23 by 33 cm tray for 30 to 35 minutes, spread the caramel and frosting over it in the tin and cut into squares, with a piece of stroopwafel on each.

When it goes wrong

• The sponge is dry. It was overbaked. Check at 25 minutes, and brush the cut sides with a little milk or coffee before filling if it has already happened.
• The caramel set hard. It cooled too far. Warm it gently with a spoonful of cream and stir until it loosens.
• The frosting is runny. The cream cheese was warm or beaten too long. Chill it for half an hour and beat in a little more icing sugar if it needs it.
• The stroopwafels on top went soft. They went on too early. Next time add them in the last hour; this time, they still taste fine.
• The layers slid. The caramel was warm when the cake was stacked. Let it cool to spreadable, and chill the cake between steps.

Storing it

The cake keeps covered in the fridge for three days. Take it out half an hour before serving so the frosting softens, and add the waffles on top then. The bare sponges freeze for a month, wrapped, which makes this an easy cake to split over two days.

Make the stroopwafels first

The cake is better with waffles you made that morning, and that is something you can do in Amsterdam: in our stroopwafel workshop you bake them on the iron, fill them with caramel and take them home. If you are not in the city, the stroopwafel pack ships across the Netherlands, Europe, the UK and the US, and a pack covers the whole cake. For more stroopwafel desserts, the trifle and the tiramisu are the next two to try.