Daring Bakers Challenge – Caramel Cake

This month’s Daring Bakers Challenge was Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting. The recipe is from Shuna Fish Lydon as published on Bay Area Bites.

The rules for this challenge were simple – make the cake and the frosting. I am STILL further challenged by a kitchen with no lighting. My electrician did finally show up and we resolved issues in 4 of the 5 rooms, and parts for the kitchen fixture are on order, so you won’t have to hear me complain for much longer. And I have been further FURTHER challenged by having the flu or whatever you call it when you have 102 fever and ache so bad you can’t get out of bed. I only had energy to make one component at a time, starting on Wednesday, and I just now completed the cake.

I began by making the caramel syrup, the key ingredient in both the cake and frosting, and the hardest part of the challenge for me. It took me a couple of tries to get it the right consistency.

Here’s what you start with:

Here’s what I ended up with the first time:

Oops, obviously not syrup! Here’s the second try:

This syrup hardened too and I had to cheat and add milk to it to make it pourable. I also added in vanilla extract because it tasted bad as just sugar and water.

The cake recipe was easily made vegan. I used EnerG egg replacer and almond milk to substitute the eggs and milk. I figured many bakers would opt to make cupcakes with their batter instead of the 9-inch round, so I chose to make two 6-inch round layers. Interestingly, the recipe stated to place the pan on a baking sheet, so that’s what I did.

You can tell by the way the edges baked that my pans were a little small. Why don’t two 6-inch pans substitute for one 9-inch pan? Oh, well, nothing a little frosting won’t hide.

The frosting was also easily made vegan. I made a half recipe because I don’t like my sweets too sweet. Earth Balance browned just fine, and I used coconut milk for cream. Ready to make frosting – syrup, browned EB, and coconut milk:

I haven’t tasted the cake yet, but here’s what will be served after Sunday dinner. I thought some toasted pecans would help balance out the sweetness. And a frosting shot is available if anyone wants more frosting. This cake is nearly as tall as it is wide!

I’ll take a shot of a slice tomorrow and then let you know how it tastes.

Thanks to this month’s host, Dolores, and co-hosts, Alex, Jenny, and Natalie. Another fun challenge!

Time for more Tylenol and another nap.....