November DB: Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

For our Daring Bakers challenge this month, we baked Shuna Fish Lyndon's recipe for caramel cake, which can be found here. This recipe was definitely a challenge! You have to first make a caramel syrup over the stove, which was new to me. I don't think I let it get dark enough, but it was still very tasty. The cake itself is apparently a little tricky according to Shuna, but I didn't really have problems with it. It was dense, very moist, and really delicious! Although it has a lot of sugar in it, I didn't find it all too sweet, especially sans-frosting, which was how I most enjoyed the cake.

The frosting was another story. I expected to love it--it has caramel sauce, brown butter, and whipping cream, all of which ought to make for a great frosting. I also added the seeds from a fresh vanilla bean for good measure. But ultimately it was just too sweet for me. However, other tasters (thanks Nina and Jessie!) loved the frosting, so give it a try. I think if I made this cake again, I might try to incorporate brown butter into a lighter frosting like a meringue buttercream (which I prefer to the American-style buttercream in this recipe anyway).

Finally, I am hoping to soon try the "real deal" at Poulet here in Berkeley. I stopped in earlier this month, but got there right after they had closed! :( The folks at Poulet said that they do often have the caramel cake, so I will try back and see if I can try Shuna's original caramel cake.

Thanks to the hosts this month: Dolores (http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/), Alex (http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/), and Jenny (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/). You can find the recipe for Shuna's caramel cake on any of their blogs. This was a great challenge so thanks to them for an excellent choice! Be sure to check out all the other entries in the Daring Bakers Blog Roll, linked to at the right.