Flipping through the book, this cake caught my eye. That caramel frosting spoke to me. Though it was delectable in the end, I had some trouble with this one. Surprise! A recipe from the sea-level land in the humid Delta region didn’t translate well to the dry mountains of Colorado!
This cake comes from the chapter “1946 to 1962: Tupperware, Bake-Offs,® & a new domesticity.” The frosting is described as difficult, but completely worth it.
Things started off ok. Beautiful batter, two greased tins, and a preheated oven. Sam-interference was minimal.
The cakes puffed up, over-browned on the edges, then deflated while cooling. Dang it.
Then I tore the cake while getting it out of the pan. My bad. I rushed extraction to get to school-pick-up on time. Also, Sam was thrusting Duplo’s in my face while I tried to flip the racks. At this point I let the cakes completely cool and started the frosting later. Frosting can cover many sins.
Hmm. The frosting. So you make a milk and sugar mixture on the stove. Then take it off the heat and melt sugar into caramel in “4-5 minutes.” Mine took over 15 minutes. I don’t know if that was because of the altitude, the pan choice, or my stove’s burners. Either way, when I added the caramel to the milk mixture it clumped into solid gobs. “Stir until smooth” wasn’t going to happen. I think my milk mixture cooled too much while I made the caramel.
Feeling like a participant in the GBBO technical challenge, winging it on a recipe with only a vague idea of my target, I put the pan back on low heat and stirred until the caramel re-liqified and could blend.
The recipe said to put the pan in a bowl of ice water and stir constantly until it thickens to a consistency almost as thick as peanut butter. I had no idea how long it would take to set up. I thought I reached the right thickness when it ribboned on itself and didn’t reabsorb easily. The instructions warned about needing to reheat the mixture if it sets up while frosting the cake. My cake was so fragile, I decided to err on the soft side. Wrong decision:
I spent the rest of Captain America: Winter Soldier scooping the icing off the sides and back on top. Eventually it solidified. I swirled the icing to try to cover all the crumbs, broken edges, and sunken top.
I made some more caramelized sugar to fill in the crater. It ended up quite nice considering all my struggles.
I served the cake to friends and it was well received. Jack particularly liked the frosting. I agree! For all its trouble, that caramel icing is a new favorite of mine. I’ll definitely be putting that on more cakes. The cake was buttery and delicious and I thought it had a faint caramel flavor to its crumb. But I’ve been eating salads and I quit dairy,* chips, fries, and candy, so the slice I ate tasted AMAZING.
In summary: Two thumbs up, with experience would recommend.
*Turns out I’m lactose intolerant. Was having a lot of GI problems, getting worse over the last year. Tried Beano, Devrom, Activia, etc. Finally tried a week of no dairy/taking Lactaid with small servings. Symptoms completely resolved! I feel so much better. Aging sucks.
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