Thursday 26 July 2012

Caramel Cake!

I really really love caramel! The taste, the smell, the whole process of making it...

I found a recipe for caramel cake on "The way the cookie crumbles".
It is amazing! You cannot believe the smells!!!!!

It may seem a little tricky, but it is so worth it! I was eating the buttercream with a spoon....


Caramel Cake with caramelized butter frosting
(very slightly adapted)

Caramel Syrup:
2 cups sugar - 1/2 cup water - 1 cup water

Caramel Cake:
144gr butter - 280gr sugar - 1/2 tsp salt - 1/3 cup caramel syrup - 2 eggs - vanilla extract, if you want - 240gr all purpose flour - 1/2 tsp baking powder - 225gr milk
* everything must be in room temperature

Caramelized buttercream:
170gr butter - 450gr confectioner's sugar sifted - 3 tbsp heavy cream - vanilla extract - 4 tbsp caramel syrup - a little salt

For the syrup you place sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and mix. Cook on high until it is brown, brushing down the sides with a wet pastry brush. Very carefully add the 1 cup water. It will bubble a lot! Whisk over medium heat until the quantity has reduced a bit.





For the cake grease and flour a loaf pan. Preheat the oven at 180o C. Cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt and cream until fluffy. Slowly with the mixer working pour the syrup. Mix ans scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time and mix. Add the vanilla and mix.
On low speed add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and 1/2 the milk. Mix. Then 1/3 of the dry ingredients and the rest (1/2) of the milk. Mix. Then the last of the dry ingredients (1/3).
Turn the mixer off and using a hand spatula do a few folds until the batter is uniform.
Put it in the loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes. Rotate pan and bake another 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let it cool completely before you put the buttercream on it!

For the buttercream you start by melting the butter and cooking it until it is brown. Pour through a fine sieve and let it cool. When it is cool, put it in the mixer and start adding the confectioner's sugar. When the mixture looks chunky add a little syrup and cream and mix. Repeat this process until all the sugar is added and the buttercream is smooth. Add some salt and mix again.

Now you are ready to assemble the cake.
You can frost the cake all around or you can cut it and fill it, as I did.

As you can see it will not rise much.

This yellow colour is natural!
I cut the loaf in half.
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Using a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (not shown) I filled the cake and made dots on top.


I drizzled it with some caramel sauce!

As this cake was going to Ioanna's godmother, I had to bake a smaller one, a sample if you will, to taste make sure it is nice and OK to offer.

I baked a couple of cupcakes in cups (!).
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I just love this golden colour. It is a very tender cake and it is moister inside that I expected. No need to say that we all went crazy for it.

Everybody enjoyed it!

I am definitely making it again. In fact I will make this my go-to caramel cake and stop looking for another recipe.

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