Caramel Cake, Daring Bakers Style

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Brown Butter Frosting
Cynthia's Daring Baker Challenge number 6

Shuna Fish Lydon adapted this recipe from a Flo Braker recipe. You can link to the Shuna Fish Lydon recipe from HERE. Shuna is a noted chef from the Bay Area who is also a Daring Baker, and we are thrilled and honored to have her expertise with this month's challenge.

Helping with co-host duties are Delores , Alex and Jenny who were key contributors while Shuna was moving to London during this challenge, Natalie also helped with the gluten free versions.

We also had the option of making Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich, Artisan Press, Copyright 2007, ISBN: 978-1579652111

There.... the housekeeping business is out of the way, now I can get down to the nitty gritty of this recipe. I give this cake 2 forks up..Even though only one fork is in the photo.

Why?
Two Big Reasons....
I did NOT need to go to the store for exotic ingredients,
and It was REALLY good.We made an awesome caramel syrup with 2 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup water. Then we stopped the caramelization process when the sugar became a dark amber color, by adding 1 cup of water to the dangerously hot caramel, (We were cautioned to wear long sleeves and keep ice water handy as first aid. I however had an incredible Home Ec. teacher in high school who was a master confectioner, and we did a candy making unit, so I knew this already. Thanks, Mrs. Lemmon;-) The mixture was beaten and reduced to a syrup, shown in the forefront of the picture below.

Take your time and make a nice batter as shown below. We used the caramel syrup to flavor the cake. The instructions were very clear on how to add the ingredients, dry,wet,dry,wet,dry. Kids, there is logical, chemical, scientific reason for this method...if you care about that...link to the recipe.

Shuna's recipe was a really tender crumbed cake that relied on the bakers knowledge of fat, liquid, dry ingredients, and how to make this cake rise. Because I live in high altitude, I added 1/4 cup extra flour, and a pinch of extra baking powder. I did not have a problem with a fallen cake as you can clearly see. Because of the caramel, it baked into a glorious color.

The frosting was a simple buttercream using browned butter, and more of the caramel syrup. I found it very flavorful, but a bit too sweet for my taste. But that's just me, as I vastly prefer savory flavors. My family loved it. Yes, I will make this again.

My local grocer Smith's is stocking these jeweled plastic plates for 1 dollar each! In gold and green too. I will be running back for more of those now that I can see they photograph like a dream.