A Spoonful of Sugar » Blog Archive

November 29, 2008 | Filed in: Baking & Cakes, Daring Bakers

Caramel is one of my all-time favourite flavours, so when I saw that this month’s Daring Bakers challenge was a sumptuous old-style caramel cake, I was thrilled. I even clapped my hands with glee. Really. Okay, so maybe I was a little tipsy when I read the announcement, but even stone-cold sober the next morning I was still v.excited.

This month, our lovely hosts Dolores, Alex, Jenny and Natalie have chosen Shuna Fish Lydon’s signature caramel cake. Shuna, of Eggbeater fame, is a San Francisco London based pastry chef with a wonderfully relaxed style of writing. Shuna has had a glittering career in pastry, having worked at The Gramercy Tavern, The French Laundry and Bouchon. Wow!

So, with that kind of pedigree in mind, I must admit that I was a little intimidated when I saw that Shuna considered this a difficult cake. When a pastry chef describes something as difficult, that’s just plain scary to a home cook. Nevertheless, I happily dived in headfirst.

So, let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start…

The caramel syrup was fairly easy to make, once I sorted out the horrendous crystalisation that occurred halfway through. I inadvertently knocked some crystals down from the side of the pan while stirring the pale gold caramel—I’ve never seen crystals seed so quickly! Turning out the heat and mashing the crystals until the syrup felt smooth under the spatula seemed to sort it out, and then I just turned the heat on full again and let the caramel boil until it reached a gorgeous dark amber, almost the colour of treacle. Because Shuna instructed us to cook the caramel until it was smoking, the house filled with the most gorgeous burnt caramel scent.

Once it was the right colour—and smell—I hurriedly pulled my sleeves down and threw on my oven gloves. With the heat off, and the pan lid on and slightly adjar, I poured in the extra water to “stop” the caramel from going any further. I expected the caramel to sieze but it all dissolved into a smooth syrup straight away. I boiled it for a further three minutes, checked the consistency on a spoon and let it cool to room temperature. Once cooled, the consistency was somewhere between maple and Golden syrup when it fell from a spoon. Sweet, slightly bitter, slightly burnt and quite irresistable.

One thing I’ve noted over the last month is that “dark amber” is a really subjective colour. I’ve seen syrups that are barely blonde in colour, and no one else’s seems to have been as dark as mine! But, I chose to take the caramel as far as possible until it really did smoke as I figured that it was the primary flavour of the cake so it had to be as intense as possible. I would have loved to have seen a picture of the syrup as prepared by Shuna, but then I would probably have wondered if my monitor was showing the true colour! So, yes. Colour is very subjective.

For the cake, I made certain to follow all of Shuna’s hints and tips. I even got Dave to adjust the head on my KitchenAid to make sure it was mixing properly—it’s been knocking for a little while, but apparently I’ve been trying to adjust the wrong screw. Ooops.

I loved trickling the dark, dark syrup into the creamed butter and sugar, changing it in an instant from ivory fluff to a sexy dark gold. I was so tempted to throw in more and more of the syrup, and I probably would, if not making this for a challenge. (I’d reduce the milk to compensate, though.)

The batter did break when I was adding the milk, so I stopped, scraped down the sides and then added the next portion of the flour which made it recover nicely. I went cautiously when adding the remainder of the milk and ended up leaving a couple of tablespoons behind as I felt it just wouldn’t recover if I added the whole amount. Sometimes you just have to use your intuition when baking, and the amount of milk you’ll need very much depends on the flour you use.

What I should have done, was make a slight well in the centre of the cake batter before baking it. When I turned it round, half-way through baking, it was very well risen in the centre with a cracked peak, so the oven was most likely too hot. I gnashed my teeth and tried to ignore it.

But, ignore it, I could not. It preyed on my mind all night and the next morning found me back in the kitchen whipping up a second cake. Which came out exactly the same, even though I went off-piste slightly and chose to bake the cake without a sheet pan underneath. Luckily, I’d been conservative and halved the recipe each time otherwise I could have been quite annoyed.

So, what was meant to be a simple and conservative caramel cake turned into a four layer extravaganza. I really should have put more frosting between each layer, but I wanted to make the top all swirly and pretty, hence it only looks like a two layer cake until you cut a slice. I like to think of it as a stealth cake.

Four layers of caramel madness

The caramel flavour was intense, but with an edge to it which I can only attribute to cooking the caramel so dark. This was not a bad thing—we loved it! None of us found the cake to be too sweet, which is something I was really worried about after reading comments on the DB forums.

I can’t say enough good things about the frosting. Using browned butter was an absolute stroke of genius and you could control the thickness of the frosting by leaving the butter more on the liquid side or letting it set up again. So, glaze or buttercream. Like I said, genius. Before I started adding the caramel syrup, I knew this was going to be fabulous and I wasn’t wrong. To adjust the seasoning I used Maldon sea salt and crushed up the flakes randomly so that there would be the occasional salty hit in there as well as a gloriously slightly salted caramel taste. This was so incredibly, wonderfully, amazingly good! I’ll be happily slathering this frosting over pumpkin cupcakes in the future. I suppose it might be considered excessive to make a big bowl just for my own gluttonous needs? Shame. It’s seriously good.

I am so pleased to have finally tried out one of Shuna’s recipes. This is a wonderful cake that I will happily—oh, so very happily—make again. Perhaps even for my birthday…

Don’t forget to check out The Daring Bakers Blogroll to see the other amazing caramel creations!
Shuna Fish Lydon’s Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

Name of cookbook: Shuna Fish Lydon as published on Bay Area Bites
Author: Shuna Fish Lydon
Our hostesses: Dolores, Alex, Jenny and Natalie

Makes one 7″ cake

75g unsalted butter, room temperature
125g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
40ml caramel syrup (see recipe below)
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
140g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
125ml full-fat milk, room temperature

Preheat oven to 180C (fan oven 160C).

Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 7-inch cake pan. A 6″ tin will make for a taller, more dramatic cake, but it might look a little mean.)

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. 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.

Adding the caramel syrup

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. 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, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.)

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 20 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 10-15 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

CARAMEL SYRUP

200g caster sugar
60ml water
125ml water (for “stopping” the caramelisation process)

In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix 60ml water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When colour is achieved, very carefully pour in 125ml of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.

Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Note: 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

90g unsalted butter
225g icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons caramel syrup
coarse sea salt to taste (I used Maldon)

Cook butter over medium heat until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

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.

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month. To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light.

Share with your friends:

54 Comments so far
Leave a comment

Amazingly gorgeous cake Angela! I totally agree about the browned butter icing, it’s probably now my favourite ever And yes dark amber is quite subjective. My caramel looks so pale compared to yours! Perhaps mine is amber as opposed to dark amber?

A great cake! Very well done!

Cheers,

Rosa

A great looking 4 layer cake! Great looking swirls of frosting!

i love your roses! your caramel syrup is VERY dark. Mine didnt turn out have as pretty as yours! great job

I love the swirls on top. Very pretty! I was surprised how caramely the taste was of the browned butter. A great recipe.

Your four layered extravaganza looks wonderful. I think the frosting looks very pretty, like a lot of flowers on your cake.

Love your frosting swirls

Lovely cake and I’m amazed that you did a 4-layer one.

Wow, that cake looks so decadent! It came out really beautifully. Well done.

Your cake looks wonderful. I love how you made it into 4 layers.

Lovely rosettes. Your layers look great too

I love the color of your cake! Mine was so pale

Your cake is beautiful! Mine was really pale, too. Must’ve been the caramel syrup; I didn’t let mine get far beyond a pale gold.

Yours is the darkest syrup I’ve seen so far! I was too timid to push mine further.

Fantastic work!

I love the color of your frosting. I was one of those that got more of a golden color, though it was still good. We were right with you that this wasn’t too sweet at all.

I love the swirls on top of your cake. The color looks perfect!

Your cake is so pretty….I love the decoration, and it looks delicious!! - only a perfectionist would be driven to making two cakes in a row

beautiufl cake! Your family must be related to mine because we did not find it too sweet either…In fact it was part of thanksgiving dessert table which included cheesecake, and five kinds of pie..and people had three and four pieces.
Yours is darker than mine was..I think that would add a onderful complexity in the flavor. Nice job!

I’m chuckling at you needing to adjust the beater height on your Kitchen Aid… I’m forever fiddling with that too, and sometimes have to get my husband to fix it for me.

Your caramel syrup looks perfect! Congrats on getting it such a lovely shade. Mine was too light, I think.

Oooh, your cake looks amazing! I love the layering =D.

Fabulous job on the challenge yet again Angela! Love the caramel swirls on top. You’re right..the frosting would be decadent on pumpkin cake!

Beautiful cake! I could just scrape that frosting off right now and have it for breakfast. It was my favorite part. I loved how the caramel came out a deep amber color.

Your cake turned out fabulous. I thought the caramel syrup was very much like golden syrup when it was finished. I adored this cake. I could eat the frosting with a spoon just like a pudding!

I was of the very light amber caramel camp… but it was totally fear-driven! Your cake looks amazing… well done!

Your cake looks amazing! I was afraid to let my caramel get too dark lest it harden like some people had problems with. Next time I make caramel I’ll try to do it like you did.

I love the little rosettes. So cute.

I was a bit intimidated by the description, as well. I kept envisioning myself creating a sad, dense rock of a cake… but, it seemed to turn out just fine.

Also, your blog theme is adorable.

you did a great job with the cake. you obviously got the right shade of dark amber right! fantastic!

Yum! Delicious! That gorgeous burnt sugar smell–gosh I love it too. But it drove everyone else out of the house! Nice job!

Your cake looks fantastic! I wish I had let me syrup get just a bit darker…

Extravaganza indeed! Nice.

Beautiful cake! The four-layer surprise was fantastic. Now if I could only get someone to bake this for ME for my birthday…

Your caramel frosting and cake do seem much darker than the others I’ve seen, but I think I would have preferred it that way! I didn’t have the patience to cook the syrup for so long, but that might have been why my first cake was so bland, too.

I love the way you decorated your cake! Very pretty

Beautiful cake! Your frosting looks great and I love the decorations!

ooo my… that whole swirly, studded effect is so mesmerizing. Such rustic beauty!

What a colour it is so dark, I love the way you describe the process of making the caramel syrup. Thanks for the comments on my blog. Yours Aduax

Thank-you all so much!

Hi Lorraine! Thank-you! (Although I think your cake is far prettier.)

Hi Rosa! Thank-you!

Hi John! Thanks! I didn’t intend on the four layers in the beginning but it all worked out nicely in the end

Hi Leslie! Don’t do yourself down! Your cupcakes are very pretty indeed!

Hi Megan! Yes, it really tasted of caramel, even before I started adding the caramel syrup to the frosting mixture. Browned butter frosting is my new favourite (and I’m sure I’m not alone n that )

Hi Aparna! I hadn’t noticed until you mentioned it, but it does look a bit like a bouquet of flowers. I just wanted to make pretty swirls

Hi Lesley! Thank-you!

Hi Jo! Purely unintentional! But once I realised that the cake had come out as it was supposed to—both times— it seemed silly not to use both of them. I also remembered seeing 12-layer caramel cakes in various cokbooks, but there was no way that I was going to try and cut each cake into 6!!

Hi Diana! Thank-you so much.

Hi Katie! Thanks!

Hi Ma Baker! Thank-you! I’m glad you like it

Hi Marija! Ahh, but yours was so pretty….

Hi Nichole! Thank-you so much!

Hi Mary! I figured that sugar is cheap, so if I burned it, it wouldn’t matter too much

Hi Kat! Yay! Another sweet-tooth

Hi Renee! Thank-you!

Hi Marika! I don’t know about perfectionist… I’m just stubborn. No cake will defeat me!

Hi Marye! Your dessert table sounds incredible!

Hi Candice! Oh god, the bloody KitchenAid. Apparently I have been twiddling the wrong thing for years. No wonder I’ve gone through two paddles and a dough hook since I’ve had it. I should read the manual more often, I suspect

Hi Lauren! Thank-you!

Hi Helen! Thank-you so much!

Hi Judy! Oh, don’t tempt me… I could quite easily go and whip up a batch just now. Must resist…

Hi Marie! I’m amazed that the frosting has divided people so much. I’m definitely in the ‘love it’ camp!

Hi Michelle! Thank-you!!

Hi Joeli! Thankfully I didn’t read about people having problems with the syrup hardening until after I’d made the syrup. It did thicken up on cooling, but it was still really easy to work with.

Hi Cody! Awww… thank-you! I’m really pleased with how the design turned out

Hi Aran! Thank-you so much for dropping by!

Hi Bumblebutton! Really? Wow, it attracted Dave and Lucas like bees to nectar.

Hi Jillian! Thank-you!

Hi Dana! Definitely an extravaganza. Good thing that I took it to a party and shared the calories

Hi Amy! I love baking my own birthday cake. It guarantees me a peaceful couple of hours doing something that I love. Plus, it’ll taste exactly how I want!

Hi Hannah! Thank-you! Your second cake was absolutely spectacular, though.

Hi Jessica! Thanks! Very kind

Hi Fit Chick! Thank-you!!

Hi Nikkita! What a lovely thing to say–thank-you! I don’t think I’ve ever mesmerised anyone with my cakes before

Hi Audax! Thanks for stopping by!

Darling rosettes & a lovely cake!

wow thats an impressive cake. Love how you made it 4 layers. The piped rosettes on top are fab

This challenge wasn’t as simple as it seemed, indeed. Caramelization and dry/wet/dry batter were 2 important things to succeed.
I love your decoration and the little silver pearls, lovely

looks great! what a lovely color too. well done!

Stealth cake, indeed. Wouldn’t it be fun if every cake, upon slicing into it, suddenly multiplied its layers?

Hi Fruittart! Thank-you so much!

Hi Katie! So good that you commented twice Thanks for liking it so much!

Hi Marion! Definitely more complicated, but the results were totally worthwhile.

Hi Meeta! Thank-you!

Hi Regina! It would be! And it would be even more fun if the cake would cut its own layers. I really suck at cutting even layers

Wow, this sounds delicious and I love the new look of the blog

Margot

Great looking cake. love your thoughts on the process of making it too.

I think that you did EXACTLY the right thing in cooking it that long! My caramel was too light but still tasted good. The color of your cake is absolutely beautiful! Wonderful job!

Nicely done, Angela! I love how you decorated the cake!

I love the idea of flake salt in the icing, that might have just taken the edge off of the sweetness for me. Nice job.

Hehe.. i love the fact you clapped your hands with glee when you found out about about November’s challenge. Your resulting four layer cake looks craaaazy .. in the best way possible

Hi Margot! Nice to see you! And thanks for the compliments

Hi Esther! Thank-you!

Hi Claire! I was beginning to think that I’d taken completely the wrong approach to the caramel colour after almost everyone else’s caramel was so light! So thank-you

Hi Ivonne! Thank-you so much!

Hi Erik! The occasional crunch and burst of salt from the salt flakes was just gorgeous. I’d totally recommend it if you make this frosting again (which I will be.)

Hi Y! Thank-you! Yeah, the four layers was just madness, but tasty, tasty madness

Your cake looks amazing! Mine too came out darker but my frosting ended up more like icing, not as pretty as your lovely rosette! Beautiful!

Pretty cake! Well done!!

Ang,

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE SWEET COMMENT AND WELL WISHES. Ooops, caps, but I’m too lazy to retype lol.

Anyway, I won’t know when I can weight bear and bend my knee until I see the surgeon on the 12th. Crossing my fingers that I get some good news, although I’m so afraid something will tear when I do put weight on it!

Oh..btw..your caramel cake came out beautiful. but so does everything you create/bake

Hi Lisa! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you on Thursday! I’m sure you’ll be fine, but it’s totally understandable that you’re scared of tearing it. The therapists will keep a close eye on you, though, and before you know it you’ll be up to all sorts of wacky hijinks again

And thank-you! You made me blush

RSS feed for comments on this post.

TrackBack URI

Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Search

Recently...

Categories

Archives

Blogroll

Meta

Search

Subscribe

Daring Bakers

Design