Chocolate cake for a birthday

It was my dad's birthday a few days ago and I was in charge of making the cake as usual(not that I mind).I wanted to make a larger cake to give the day a bigger sense of occasion,so I settled for a three layer chocolate and caramel cake.I have had my eye on this recipe for a while now and have been only waiting for a reason to make it,so this seemed like the perfect oppurtunity!The recipe comes once again from The Hummingbird Bakeries new cook book,Cake Days.I only recently bought this book and so at the moment most of my posts are based on recipes out of the book.The recipe in the book is actually for a salted caramel chocolate cake.Now I've heard a lot about salted caramel and what an amazing combination it is and I have been dying to try it.However,my family thought it sounded like an odd combination and seen as I didn't want to have a whole three layer cake to eat for myself,I decided to leave out the salt this time and make a caramel and chocolate cake instead.The description in the book says that "the cake is worth the time spent in the kitchen".I have to say I couldn't agree more.Don't get me wrong;this cake takes quite a while to get finished,but it is a lovely,rich,moreish cake that also looks fantastic once iced.The first stage of the recipe involves making up the caramel filling.This is pretty easy,the only thing you have to watch is to make sure you don't boil the sugar syrup for too long as the caramel can quickly begin to burn(which by the way,burning sugar is the most awful smell!).This is set aside while you make the chocolate frosting.The frosting is probably the most lengthy process in the whole recipe.Firstly,a sugar syrup is made and mixed with bolied cream to make a caramel.Then a massive 450g of chocolate is chopped(my arm was practically falling off me after this)and added to the still warm caramel.This is stirred until it is completely melted.The mixture is then whisked for about ten minutes until the bowl feels cool,after which butter is added.The mixture is whisked again and then put into the fridge to set.Then the chocolate sponges are made.This part of the recipe came together very quickly.The book states that the cakes should be cooked in about 25 minutes.Now usually my fan oven cooks everything about 5 minutes quicker then what the stated time is.However,when I went to check the cakes after 25 minutes I found the the top of the cake were barely set and still completely raw underneath.As a result of opening the oven when the cakes were so raw,I think my cakes fell a bit but that's fine as you wouldn't notice once they are iced.I'd say I gave my cakes an extra 7 or 8 minutes to cook completely.The sponges are then left to cool completely.Once cool 2 tablespoons of caramel are spread over one of the cakes followed by a couple of tablespoons of the chocolate frosting.The remaining layers are placed on top and covered with the caramel and chocolate frosting in the same way.Once this is done a crumb coating is given to the cake,followed by another layer of the frosting.I then swirled the top of my cake with my palette knife and sprinkled chocolate curls on top et voila!Chocolate cake with a caramel filling and chocolate frosting.If anyone would like the recipe please feel free to leave a comment and ask! :)