Holy Sweetness!! The Daring Bakers Do Caramel!!

This month the Daring Bakers are on the sweet track and our lovely hosts Dolores, Alex and Jenny have challenged us to make Shuna Fish Lydon’s signature Carmel Cake as published on Bay Area Bites.

For this challenge we had to make both the Caramel Cake and the Caramelized Butter Frosting everything else beyond that was completely up to us.

This recipe sounded very very sweet and though I do love my sweets, I was a little worried that this would be just too much!! I made this cake to bring as a dessert to my sister-in-laws one day. And it was a total hit!! It was absolutely to die for. Was it sweet? Heck yes!?! (Luckily for me, I am now a few pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight so I could afford to eat a few extra slices   hehe). I also added some apple slices to the cake.. mmmm… so that definitely balances all of the bad right?!?…

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting – Shuna Fish Lydon

Caramel Cake

10 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
1 1/4 Cups Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (recipe below)
2 Eggs (at room temperature)
splash Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Cup Milk (at room temperature)

Preheat oven to 350F
Butter one tall 9″ cake pan (I used 2 regular round cake pans… and adjusted the cooking time as necessary… Also I buttered and then floured my pans and had no problems with the cake sticking)

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth.
2. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.
3. Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl.
4. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.
5. Sift flour and baking powder.
6. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients.
7. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time.
8. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, drry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}
9. Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds. making sure batter is uniform.
10. Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. (As I mentioned above, because I did not use the cake pan this recipe called for I had to adjust the baking time. In total my cakes baked for around 20-30 minutes)

(Burrying a few apple slices in the cake)

Cool cake completely before icing it.

Caramel Syrup (sorry no pictures of this… I completely forgot to take them.. check out other Daring Bakers blogs for pictures of this though, there are sure to be some good shots!!)

2 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup Water

1 Cup Water for “stopping”

1. In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand.
2. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush.
3. Turn on heat to highest flame.
4. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.
5. When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and prepared to step back.
6. Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. Wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.

For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

Caramelized Butter Frosting

12 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
1 Pound Confectioners Sugar, sifted
4-6 Tablespoons Heavy Cream
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2-4 Tablespoons Caramel Syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

1. Cook butter until brown.

2. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.
(ok so, I do not have a fine meshed sieve <adding to Christmas list lol> so I first ran my cooked butter through a pasta strainer with relatively small holes, however a lot of browned bits got through… Its 10pm and I am not about to run to a 24 hours store to find one so whats a girl to do???… improvise!!!! I grab my tea strainer, hold it open and ever so carefully pour the boiling butter through (I had to get my busband to take pictures of this since it was a two handed job!). It worked pretty well, granted probably not as well as an actual fine mesh strainer would, but good enough for me!)
3. Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.
4. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner’s sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner’s sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

I used this icing as the filling between my cakes and then applied a thin layer of the icing on top. I would have like to pipe the icing nicely, but I didn’t want too much on the cake and by the time I got around to icing the cake it was nearly 11pm and my 6 month old daughter had already woken up a number of times! I sprinkled the top of the cake with some cinnamon to cut the sweet and I think it did a fabulous job! It complimented the caramel really well.

My review: this cake was delicious! Sweet, yes but not overpoweringly so. Would I make it again? I think I probably will. Would I recommened you give it a try? Absolutely!

Cheers!!

Nicole

~ by mixbyhand on November 29, 2008.