Caramel Cake

Caramel Cake 

Caramel , caramel oh my love Caramel 

My dear cousin brother A's birthday is coming up and I just had to bake a cake. What else does a sister do?  So come Thursday and I was torn between Gateau au Chocolat and Butterscotch cake with a caramelized frosting. Swayed this way and that way and finally settled for the Butterscotch since I had made quite a bit of chocolates a few days ago.

The end result was a rich creamy , buttery goodness for the taste buds and spun sugar for the eyes , a brother who gobbled up a little less than half of the cake and a very happy cook.

The recipe is simple:

For the cake one needs

225gm of all purpose flour
225gm of unsalted butter
100gm of castor sugar
125gm of brown sugar
Half a heaped dessertspoonful of baking powder. Now here is a tricky business with baking powder. Here in Calcutta I use Wiekfield's baking powder which clearly states that one should use 2 tsp for every 450gm so adjusted accordingly.
5 eggs (I used 5 since the sizes in India differs from the ones in many other countries.)
4 tablespoonful of cream

For the icing :

250gm of whipped cream (Amul worked fine with its 25% fat)
300gm of butter
Caramel made from 500gm sugar
5 egg yolks

For decoration
Moist praline

Start a day ahead with your cake. Divide the ingredients and start with half of the ingredients for the cake. Cream the butter, add the eggs one by one. Sift flour and baking powder and then further soft it in bit by bit. Add cream and make a smooth heavy batter.

Preheat oven to 180 C and bake for 40 minutes. I use convection which requires extra time . When using OTG lessen the time to 30 minutes or till skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Make the batter again and bake away. Store at room temperature overnight in a plastic wrap whcih ensures that the cake does not loose moisture.

The next day begin with first softening the butter at room temperature and then making the caramel. Remember that caramel is a tricky affair and is a demanding item and needs your full attention like a little child. One moment you take your eyes off it and the next moment you have burnt caramel. once it reaches a nice dark brown colour quickly add cream and make a caramel sauce. Let it cool down.

Use the French butter-cream method but with the given amount of ingredients for frosting in this recipe.

Now begin by first using a knife which has been held under hot water and wiped down to make two layers of the two cakes. Then first put a thin coat of icing and refrigerate for 10 minutes . This helps in holding the frosting better. Then frost away and use piping to decorate things.

Make your moist praline with caramelized sugar and almonds and a wee bit water and make little balls to decorate.

For spun sugar it is not possible to write down and explain things. You tube has many helpful videos.

Important tip :

The size of the cake pan used was 6 inch to 7 inch