Daring Bakers Carmel Cake

This is my first challenge as a daring baker and luckily coincided with a birthday party, so while that caramel cake was really lovely.. I didn't have to eat it for days!

This month's recipe comes from Shauna Fish Lyndon and can be found here. Read all about her cake here. Her co-hosts this month( Alex (http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/) and Jenny (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/) have also contributed some caramels, which I chose not to make as I'm not really a huge fan, but do check that out as well!

The cake baked up pretty straightforward.. perhaps if anything taking a little bit longer than expected.

The Carmel sauce was not so easy.. the first time I made it I followed the directions for 'dark amber/smoking'... i was ready for splatters but I think all of the sauce ended up on the tile surround and i was left with a thin water that tasted like burnt sugar.. i didn't want that taint in the cake and frosting so I tried again.. This time remembering the pointers for Dori's carmel pnut brownie cake I took the carmel off earlier and then whisked in the water.. the result as you can see if a very thin maple syrup for pancakes liquid.. but it definately gave things a carmel flavor. The butter cream came out easily and I did add salt to taste.. just enough to highten the flavor.

It was somewhat of a not so pretty cake- no doubt due to my own poor skills as icing (which is something we are not taught in cake decorating class.. apparently in the UK.. all buttercream/torting is considered confectionary!!!) So I ran a toothed icing comb over it and drizzled some of the remaining caramel syrup.

since the cake was going to a b-day party I don't have any pictures of it cut, but it was delicious and got many compliments!.. I stopped it off with a stensil in cocoa powder