Saturday 29 November 2008

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


15 comments:

Isabelle Lambert said...

ton gâteau a vraiment un look superbe ! magnifique :)

Engineer Baker said...

Welcome to the Daring Bakers! Wonderful job on your first challenge, and I'm sure it was appreciated at the party.

Shaheen said...

Congratulations on your first challenge. You've done so well. :) And I'm so happy to hear that everyone loved it. Go bake-rellaa!

Beryl said...

Great first challenge, I love the stencil. Welcome!

vibi said...

WOW! What a steady hand you must need to make such nice swirls on top!
Very well accomplished challenge!
BRAVO!

Speedbump Kitchen said...

Congrats on your first challenge! It looks wonderful!

TeaLady said...

Actually, I thought your cake looked lovely. I like the spiral design. Great job.

Shelby said...

Looked better than mine ;-) I didn't get to make one. Great job and I think it looks lovely!

Dewi said...

I think your cake is very pretty!

~Amber~ said...

Your cake looks awesome. Welcome to the Daring Bakers.

Unknown said...

This is a beautiful cake! I love the decorations.

BC said...

Your cake frosting looks fantastic! Don't be too hard on yourself. Mine was so stiff it had to be forced to "plop" on the cupcakes. Oops.

Madam Chow said...

It looks pretty good to me - I have virtually no icing skills at all!

Cakelaw said...

I think it's a pretty cake - nice job.

Unknown said...

I have some good mania for caramel cake. And I love it as a summer time treat. I will make it for my family and give them a surprise .