Daring Bakers – caramel cake

First let’s take care of Daring Bakers business, then we can get to the cake.

This month’s host – Dolores of Culinary curiosity

This month’s co-hosts – Alex of Blondie and Brownie and Jenny of Foray into Food with a gluten free assist from Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go

The recipe is courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater, as published on Bay Area Bites.  You can find her complete recipe here.

Now for the sweet stuff -

caramel cake with caramelized butter frosting

The recipe starts with making a caramel syrup that is in both the cake and the frosting.  For me, the instructions were a little vague on how to properly caramelize the sugar.  I looked around and found a cheat sheet on how to do it.  It took two attempts, but I made it. 

It took a while for the color to change, but once it did, it didn’t take long to get from light amber to dark amber.  In fact it was about the same amount of time that it took for me to turn away from the stove to rinse my spoon.  When I looked back, I had a pan of bitter burnt coffee colored caramel syrup.  The second time I kept watch and stopped it at dark amber.  I feel it necessary to point out how careful one needs to be when pouring in the water to stop the cooking.  It really does splatter every.  If you aren’t careful, someone could get hurt.  Make sure the kids are nowhere near the kitchen when you do this.

The cake went together quickly without any surprises.

The frosting recipe was also a little vague.  It says to cook the butter until brown.  I just heated it in a saucepan over medium heat stirring until it darkened.  It tastes great so I guess I must have done something right.  I only made half the recipe of frosting.  It made enough frosting for the cake.  I even had a bit left over. 

The cake has nice flavor.  The syrup is an interesting way to add flavor to a cake.  I have plenty left over, so I will have to find some new uses for it.  This cake was quick to make, but I think I prefer the taste of my usual caramel cake. 

Be sure to check out what the other Daring Bakers came up with.

Tags: cake, caramel, caramel cake, Daring Bakers, dessert