Caramel Cake

After a few savory challenges, I was pleased to see a sweet cake recipe for the month of November. However, many people began to report that it was overly sweet with the combination of the cake a frosting. Generally in Peru, the cakes are not overly sweet and I worried about the cake being eaten by others, besides me.

I toyed with the idea of making it for Thanksgiving but for some reason, the step of making the syrup was overwhelming me. It was not that I hadn’t done it before. It had to do with making, then cooling, then making the cake. I was trying to get pies, stuffing and other things done in my kitchen all at once. Suddenly I had a brilliant idea…use Manjar Blanco instead of the caramel syrup! Manjar Blanco is made by cooking down sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk until thickened (don’t worry, I am working on a post to share this). I thought it would be a perfect substitute, and a way to Peruvianize things.

Yes, I did also make some adaptations from the Martha Stewart recipe, who took it from Maya Angelou. It seemed that Shuna’s version reduced the baking powder and added more caramel syrup and called it more difficult. I took the best of both by keeping in the amount of caramel syrup (replaced by manjar blanco) and increasing the baking powder.

What did the Peruvians think? They all politely ate the slice of cake, but I definitely heard more compliments on the other dessert recipes. I thought the cake seemed a little dry. At room temperature, the frosting seemed to be addictive. The day after it was all assembled, it seemed to blend flavor-wise a bit more than the first day. I wonder how a yellow cake with this frosting might taste. Probably yummy!

CARAMEL CAKE WITH CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING
From Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater as seen on Bay Area Bites
with adaptations from Martha Stewart

10 tablespoons of butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups of rubia sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup of manjar blanco
2 eggs, at room temperature
splash of vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 cup of whole milk, at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare 2 8-inch cake pans by spraying them with cooking spray. Line each with a parchment paper round, and spray again. Set pans aside.

2. In a medium bowl, cream butter, sugar and salt, then cream until very light yellow and fluffy. Add the manjar blanco and mix on medium speed, scraping down the bowl. On high speed, add the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat the mixture until light and uniform.

3. Sift together flour and baking powder. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and half the dry ingredients, milk and the remaining dry ingredients; mixing between each addition. Divide the batter between the cake pans.

4. Place cake pan on cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes, or until the cake springs back when gently touched in the center and a skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake for 10 minutes in pans. Invert cakes and remove parchment paper round. Cool cake completely before icing it.

5. Place the first layer on the cake plate (cut top if needed for leveling). Spread the top of the first layer with manjar blanco. Top with the remaining layer. Spread entire cake with frosting.

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

3/4 cup of butter
400 grams of powdered sugar
3 tablespoons of evaporated milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of salt, or to taste

1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium high heat until nut-brown in color, about 8 minutes. Pour butter into the mixing bowl, leaving behind any burned sediment; set aside to cool. (This bubbled over and made a mess. I guess I assumed it was a “don’t stir” type of thing. I think I was wrong.)

2. Combine butter with the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt, mixing on medium speed until the mixture is chunky. Slowly add evaporated milk and beat until smooth. Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.

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Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting is being served up for the November Daring Bakers Challenge. The crackers were chosen by this months hosts, Dolores of Culinary Curiosity, Alex of Blondie and Brownie, and Jenny of Foray into Food. Please visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see what other wonderful Caramel Cakes are being served up!