Saturday, November 29, 2008

November Daring Bakers Challenge 5



This month's challenge is Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting by Shuna Lydon. I had made a caramel cake once, but the cake itself is not Caramel. It was a hot milk cake that I just frosted with some caramel. I told myself back then that I would make a real caramel cake one day, and I just totally forgot about it.


The challenge had 3 components - the cake, the frosting and the caramel syrup.





The caramel syrup was a combination of cooked sugar and water, brought to a boil with amber color, then later on poured with a cup of water to stop the caramelization. It was quite tricky, and scary because of the spatter from the smoking caramel. This caramel syrup once cooled will be a common ingredient that will be used for both the cake and the frosting.

We were free to decide what size of cake to make for the caramel cake and I decided to make it using a 6x2 inch pan. With the full recipe, I was able to make 3 layers of cake. Making the cake was fairly easy, starting with creaming the butter and sugar, then adding the caramel syrup, eggs. Then the flour was added 3 parts with milk added in between. The cakes cooked for 30 minutes.

The frosting is new for me, in that it uses cooked butter. I had to cook the butter until it was brown, then add the confectioner's sugar, heavy cream, caramel syrup, vanilla and kosher salt.


To assemble the cake, I just stacked it one after the other with a thin layer of frosting in between. I crumb coated the cake, and then added rope weaves all over the cake. I then decorated it with a few pieces of leftover gumpaste flowers and butterflies that I had.


I had quite a few expectations about the cake because I made it later on when I had read comments about it being too sweet from fellow DBers. I even made a concious effort in adding a little more salt to the frosting to cut back on the sweetness.

So how was the final cake?

First of all to note, the smell of the final caramel cake was just divine. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I sliced a small piece of it to try and yes, the frosting was really a little sweet to my liking. Or maybe I'm not just used to frostings using confectioner's sugar. The cake, however, was very good. It was moist and the texture was fine. And the caramel flavor was wonderfully infused in the cake. Overall, it was a tasty cake and the challenge had been fun.



Special Thanks to:

13 comments:

Jo said...

I can only drool at your cake and the beautiful decorations. Too lovely for words.

iTink said...

Wow that is one pretty cake.
Well done!

Gretchen Noelle said...

What a beautiful cake. I am terribly impressed by the basket weave. Wow!

nikkita said...

So intricately made! *cheers* I have no reservations about the sweetness though (hehe)

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats said...

Oh how absolutey gorgeous! Almost too beautiful to slice into.

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats said...

Oh how absolutey gorgeous! Almost too beautiful to slice into.

Fran Z said...

Lovely cake! I haven't done basketweave since my Wilton class- It does look so pretty! YUM!

hanne said...

The colour of your frosting is lovely. It's so nice and brown! Mine wasn't as dark as yours, I think because I didn't brown my butter enough, and I wouldn't have minded a step darker in the caramel as well.

Alana said...

Beautiful piping job!
I also thought the frosting was too sweet when I first tried it so I added a lot more of the caramel syrup- I had cooked mine really dark so the bitterness compensated for the overly sweet powdered sugar and it turned out delicious.

Megan said...

Smart making the little cake! i thought a 9 inch was to big. Beautiful cake!

chef_d said...

Oh wow, your cake is beautiful!

Lyra said...

Send naman via UPS so we can have a taste of your cake!

raquel said...

hello fellow DBer....OMG! this cake is impressive!! looked really gorgeous and yummy (and yes we know it's yummy as my hubby ate up the ones I made). odette...your cakes and cupcakes look marvelous. i will be stopping by often just to drool at your creations.

 
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