Caramel Whisper

For John's birthday extravaganza, I decided to make his cake. I almost always plan on making everyone's cake and then there are kids everywhere and I get overwhelmed and then buy a cake.

But this year, I saw a chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting, and, well, it's over.

I had a list of everything I needed to make the Ina Garten style chocolate cake, but then decided to make a cake from a box.  I ended up with a fancy cake mix that came with a separate packet of ingredients to swirl into the batter. Whatever, cake mix.  I sort of adapted that cake mix into the Ina one by simply substituting brewed coffee for some of the water. I'm hoping it'll add a bit of depth to the chocolate flavor. We'll see. The cake is currently within my reach, but not within my mouth until John gets home.

Did I mention I made 3 eight inch cake layers? No? Well, so, I did. I just divided the batter into three bowls and then baked two, washed a pan, baked the third. I really wanted to use the 6" cake rounds, but I didn't want to have to buy the pans. I liked the way 3 thin layers worked better anyway. So there.

Then I started making the salted caramel. It was waaaaay easier than I thought it would be even if the recipe was written by someone who made it all the time. "Amber color" can mean many things. My first batch had a distinct burnt sugar flavor, which works, but it came from waiting until the sugar was amber. I would say wait until the sugar starts to color a little bit, a light amber, then take it off the heat. In my mind it needed to be as amber in color as that dude's walking stick in Jurassic Park.  And I remembered it being a rich, brownie-yellowish color. And then I remembered the door handle slowly moving up and down. Clever girl.
This is the light amber color:

It also told me to be careful when adding the cream to the hot sugar mixture because it will bubble up. Ah. I prepared for that with a terrific pot. But the steam that shot up as I tried to stir, I was not prepared for. So, yeah, hot, bubbling steam tries to attack you like that goo in Ghostbusters 2 as soon as you add the cream to the blazing hot sugar. And no amount of Jackie Wilson is gonna stop it.

After all that you kind of stir and stir until it cools. Then you put it in a jar and give some to Deborah.

The icing was kind of magic. It started like any other frosting and then WHAM! caramel. So delicious. I'm trying to think of something better than caramel and cream cheese together and I just can't.

 

Speaking of waking up before you go-go, the coffee really came through in the final cake.  Hartwell took a bite and exclaimed, "Coffee cake?!" I asked him how much coffee he's been drinking and he said, "Two. But on the weekend."

The cake was delicious and we still have a bit of the caramel left for ice cream next week. It worked out perfectly because John didn't get a cake at work today. So the cake overload will be tomorrow. Morning, probably.

Coaster Child

The problem with being a night person, (I am not an "owl," too hipster-ie), is that I feel inspired, (or have inspiration emailed to me), so I set forth bringing it to life and then I have to wait until morning to photograph and/or write about it. The best lighting in my house is 10am in my kitchen nook. People keep telling me "Light Box!," but these people probably have a bigger house than me. Or don't live with wild monkeys bent on destruction.

Today I asked for ideas for my next project and I got one response, "cake!" which, it turns out I actually made. Without realizing it until just now. (Good use of "the secret," Deborah!) And then later I was reminded about my coffee melting my new bedside table situation. It seems a hot beverage placed on a ModPodged nightstand sort of melts the glue making it fog up again. So I made this:

 

A little coaster! The fabric was in my scrap bin and it's one of my favorites. I only had a little left but couldn't throw it away. I'm so glad I figured out something to do with it.

 

See what happens when you photograph at night? So dark. With weird shadows. But don't you love my mug? It makes me happy just to look at it.

If anyone else has an idea of something I can make, let me know. But remember I'm lazy and have limitations.

Everything in my cabinets Cake

I bought two cake mixes for Bee's Party. Somehow I had convinced myself that 24 cupcakes wasn't enough. So for John's birthday, I made the extra chocolate cake. (He likes cake).
The middle is marshmallow fluff. The frosting is malted cream cheese frosting with the leftover Oreos pressed into the sides. It was a little bit like eating a spoonful of stevia. But sweeter.

Banana Cake!

For his birthday I made Bee a Monkey Cake. But I made a few changes. I used a smaller bowl to make a mini-cake. I thought it would be cuter, not to mention easier. I also substituted cream cheese icing for the buttercream. Buttercream always tastes like I'm eating a spoonful of grease so I hardly ever use it. And I used brown M&Ms for the eyes instead of the licorice drops,(Really, Martha, licorice drops? An entirely different store for one item?). I also piped the mouth and nose for the same reason. Which,...scary as hell. I was sure I would mess it up and ruin my 2 days worth of work.
The most amazing part of the whole thing is that after working for two days on this cake, I actually let Bee attack it with both hands. Or just one.