Dessert: Chocolate-Caramel Cake with Sea Salt

Mayonnaise in the batter isn't as weird as it sounds—it's just eggs and oil, after all. It's also why this cake is so moist.

Ingredients

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups mayonnaise (not low-fat)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 °F. Lightly coat cake pans with nonstick spray and line bottoms with parchment paper; spray again. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat eggs and sugar until pale and doubled in volume, about 4 minutes. Add mayonnaise and vanilla and beat until just combined. With mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with 1 1/3 cups lukewarm water in 2 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Scrape batter into pans, dividing evenly.
Bake cakes, rotating halfway through, until a tester inserted into the centers comes out clean, 25 –30 minutes. Transfer pans to wire racks and let cool 20 minutes before turning out onto racks. Let cool completely.