November Daring Bakers
posted by joeli under Daring Bakers, cupcakes
My first Daring Bakers challenge! I decided to sign up to be a Daring Baker because I like the idea of being challenged to bake something that I wouldn't normally do. They've done thing like éclairs and pretzels, and so to be honest, I think I got off easy for my first challenge. This month the challenge was Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting. The recipe comes care of Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater. The recipe can be found here. The only hard part was making the caramel and luckily enough I mastered that on the first try!
I decided to make 6 giant cupcakes instead of a three layer cake. I baked them for around 25 minutes and they came out great. The cake was not too sweet, dense, and moist as well. The frosting was sweet and really balanced nicely with the cake. Other bakers found the cake and/or frosting too sweet, but none of the people who tried my cake thought that. Even one my testers who has the opposite of a sweet tooth really enjoyed these cakes (in fact, I've never seen him scoff down a cake so quick! I gave him and his wife one cupcake to share and I wasn't sure she was even going to get a bite).
A lot of people also had problems with the caramel syrup but I had beginners luck on my side. I thought I would detail how I did it though just in case it helps anyone.
In a cast iron pan I combined the sugar and water:
It started to boil with little bubbles:
Then bigger bubbles:
And finally it turned nice and amber:
I did not touch the pan or syrup the entire time. I then put the cover on and poured the rest of the water through the steam hole. It is important to be careful when adding the water because apparently the caramel likes to jump around and cause severe burns. For this reason I kept the lid on until all the noises died down. I then took off the lid and gave the syrup a stir. I kept stirring and let the syrup return to the boil.
As soon as it began to boil (it was still runny at this point) I shut the heat off and put the pot in a bowl full of cold water. I did this because cast iron pans do not cool down quickly and I didn't want my syrup to keep cooking. As my syrup got cooler it began to thicken and turned into a nicely thick goo. At no point did my syrup ever harden like some people had problems with even though it was left out in a pretty cold kitchen for a few hours.
Each month the challenge is hosted by a different person and this month the host is Dolores and helping her this month are Alex and Jenny. And helping with the vegan/gluten free alterations is Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go. I'd like to thank them for introducing me to such a great cake recipe! I am really pleased with how these turned out and will definitely be making them again!
Comments
Congratulations on completing your first DB Challenge! Very nice looking giant cupcakes.
GREAT job on your first challenge, congrats :) Your layered cupcakes look delicious!!
Lovely job on your first challenge! Welcom to the DBs--we didn't find the cake layers overly sweet either---but that frosting was another story (delicious nonetheless). Nicely done!
Great job on your first challenge! Welcome to the DB!
Congrats on completing your first DB challenge and great job with the syrup!
Yummy ... looks great :-)!! It was also my 1st challenge :-)!!!
Welcome to The Daring Bakers! Your cupcakes look fantastic :)
Great job on your first challenge! Glad you also found a safe way to pour the water into the caramel syrup.
My first challenge too, so congrats from one newbie to another! Yours look fabulous.
Welcome - you did a great job on your first challenge!
Welcome to DB! Great job on your first challenge :)
Great job especially on the caramel which so many people had problems. And welcome to DB!!!!!! Happy holidays to you and your ken. Thanks for the comments on my blog.
It looks like your caramel turned out perfectly! Good job!
Ooo, your cupcakes look awesome! Congrats on your first challenge!
Your cupcakes look great!
Wonderful that your friends so enjoyed this cake! Great job on your first challenge & welcome to the Daring Bakers!
Congrats on your first challenge! You did a great job. I love your big cupcakes.
I'm so glad your syrup was such a success. Way to go!
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