February 7: Caramel Cake, Take Two

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

- Oscar Wilde

And my second attempt at caramel cake, was quite the EXPERIENCE.  

I started with an admirable plan.  I had all of the requisite equipment.  I was in a good mood when I started baking.  Yet, I have created a monstrosity of a cake.  It is, in all honesty, the worst-looking  thing I have ever baked in my life.

After my first attempt at a caramel cake turned out poorly, I decided to approach my second attempt in a traditional way.  The only cookbook my great-grandmother, Mama Judy, ever used was Southern Cooking by Mrs. S.R. Dull, originally published in 1928.  Mama Judy's copy of the book had lost both of its covers before I was born.  She still used it and I suppose it worked better as a paperback anyway.  Mama Judy passed away during my gap year between high school and college.  When I left for college my mom tied up Judy's cookbook and its loose pages with a ribbon and gave it to me with a note saying "don't leave home without it."  I can flip through the book even now and see a bit of my Mama Judy on those pages that were baptized with flecks of extract or favored pages stained with greasy fingerprints.

Since my great-grandmother on my dad's side was famous for her caramel cakes, I figured that Mrs. Dull would be the place to find a contemporary recipe to the one that she used.  Nathalie Dupree's cake recipe that I used in January turned out smooth and firm enough to stand up to the heavy caramel, so I decided to use that again.  I made three layers instead of four this time.

The problem with my first caramel cake was the caramel filling.  So, I used Mrs. Dull's recipe for that today.  Her first step is to burn 1/4 cup of sugar in a cast iron skillet.  Cast iron is traditionally used for this task because it can take the high temperatures needed to melt dry sugar.  I learned today that sugar burns very quickly in a cast iron pan.  My first two attempts at carmel turned from lovely, light-brown caramel to bitter tar in a split second!  My third attempt was delicious.  I added the caramel syrup to the butter, milk and sugar and brought the whole thing to a rolling boil.  This time I had an operational candy thermometer, plus a spare, just in case.

Mrs. Dull says to get the caramel mixture up to 238 degrees; which is what I believed I had done.  Then I immediately took the pot off of the heat and set the pot in cold water to stop the cooking.  I started beating the caramel with a whisk to get it to the right consistency to spread on the beautiful cake layers.  I thought I had it right.  It looked good and tasted terrific.  It was so much better than my last caramel filling!

Then, I tried to spread it on the cake.

It immediately clumped up and became impossible to spread without tearing the cake.  I tried warming the knife to help it spread.  I tried gently warming the caramel (as recommended by Nathalie Dupree) to improve the viscosity.  Not one thing I tried worked.  I pushed. I pulled. I drizzled. I poured.

I ended up with the worst looking cake I have ever seen (and that is counting all those mud pies I made in the yard when I was five).  Now, for the sake of artistic integrity, I have posted the Franken-cake here for anyone to see.

The caramel cake has beaten me this time, but I resolve to get it right.  I just need some time off from caramel.

Next Saturday:  A Birthday Cake for Granna