Sunday, May 8, 2011

Southern Caramel Cake for a Sweet Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!  My own amazing mother is many miles away in Canada, but I got to spend this Mother's Day with my awesome sister, my husband, and my kids.  I love any excuse to bake a cake, and so I asked my sister what she would like for this special day.  We both love caramel, so I found this delectable recipe in my new Cook's Country Blue Ribbon Desserts book from Costco (amazing, buy it if you can!).

This cake is very easy to make.  The cake layers are a buttermilk yellow cake.  It was moist and tender with a light vanilla flavor.  But the crown jewel is the caramel frosting.  It is so freaking good.  It's more like fudge than frosting, and has a grainy sugary texture with a rich caramel flavor.  The one thing that is difficult is frosting the cake.  This frosting hardens really fast, like I barely got the cake frosted before it started sticking to my spatula at which time crumbs started to stick to it.  So get everything ready to go and frost at top speed.  You can always microwave the frosting for a few seconds if it does harden on you too quickly.

We enjoyed this cake thouroughly on this day to celebrate motherhood. 





Southern Caramel Cake
from Cook's Country

Cake
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (11/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c ups (10 1/2 ounces granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
16 TB ( 2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces and softened

Frosting
12 TB (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened
2 cups packed (14 ounces) dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) confectioners sugar, sifted
 
For The Cake:

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position ans heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two
9- inch round cake pans. Whisk the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla in a large measuring cup. In a large bowl, mix the flour granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Beat in the butter, 1 piece at a time, until only pea-size pieces remain. Pour in half of the buttermilk mixture and beat at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Slowly add the remaining buttermilk, mixture to the bowl and beat until incorporated, about 15 seconds.

Scrape equal amounts of batter into the prepared pans and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. cool the cake in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks.  Let cool completely, at least 1 hour.

For The Frosting:

Heat 8 TB of the butter, brown sugar, and salt in a large saucepan over medium heat until small bubbles appear around the perimeter of the pan, 4 to 8 minutes. whisk in the cream and cook until a ring of bubbles reappears, about 1 minute. Off the heat, whisk in the vanilla.  Transfer the hot frosting mixture to a bowl and, with an electric mixer on low speed, gradually mix in the confectioners sugar until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is pale brown and just warm, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 4 TB butter, 1 piece at a time, and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

To Assemble:

Place 1 cake round on a platter. spread 3/4 cup of the frosting over the cake, then top with the second
cake round. spread the remaining frosting evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Serve.

Note:  the cooled frosting stays soft and spreadable longer than most recipes, but will harden over time.
If frosting begins to stiffen, microwave it for about 10 seconds ( or until it returns to a spreadable consistency).

Linked to:
Melt in your mouth monday
Sweets for a Saturday
Sweet Indulgence Sunday 
Sweet Tooth Friday 
A Baker's Themed Sunday

20 comments:

  1. CARAMEL FROSTING?! Delicious! Happy Mother's Day!!!

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  2. Oh yes.....that caramel frosting calls to me. Nom!

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  3. Girl. . .I am absolutely making this cake!!! It looks amazing!!! I am a new follower of your blog and hope that you'll stop by ours soon!

    Lori

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  4. This week on THIS WEEK’S CRAVINGS we are looking for “brunch recipes”. We’d love for you to come link up this tasty looking recipe!

    http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/2011/05/this-weeks-cravings-28-brunch-recipes.html

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  5. Happy belated mothers day to you! THis cake looks really tasty, but I'm totally interested in the caramel frosting! Looks amazing!

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  6. holy caramel joy!!!!!! thanks so much for sharing, love you and your blog :)
    -meg
    @ http://clutzycooking.blogspot.com

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  7. Anything caramel must be wonderful!!!

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  8. Looks DELICIOUS! Thanks for sharing. Saw it on Sweets for Saturday. It's on my "to make" list!
    The South Padre Island Flip Flop Foodie
    http://spiflipflopfoodie.blogspot.com

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  9. This is one of my favorite cakes to make--the flavor is so amazing! And the frosting...oh my. Your cake looks GREAT! Yum...making soon!

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  10. Oh my goodness! This looks absolutely delicious. Caramel is my favorite flavor. I wish I had a piece of it right now. I would love it if you would stop by my linky party on A Well-Seasoned Life's Sweet Indulgencs Sunday.

    http://www.wellseasonedlife.com/2011/05/sweet-indulgences-sunday-4.html

    Kim

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  11. Wow! I think I may have to try this one. It looks fabulous!

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  12. Sounds like a wonderful and delicious cake, especially with that amazing caramel frosting! Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful weekend.

    Amy
    http://utry.it

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  13. Caramel cake, yum! Never tried one like this and boy does it look good!

    Just wanted to say hi, I'm your newest follower. Check me out sometime.

    http://pinchofthisthatandtheother.blogspot.com/

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  14. Oh, goodness gracious! I could do a whole lot of damage with this cake in my house. Oh my!!

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  15. Oh my gosh, just that frosting alone would make me swoon. Your irresistible cake made the Top 5 for last week's Sweets for a Saturday. Good job!!!

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  16. I'm from Mississippi and Caramel Cake is a constant at our Holiday tables! This one looks close to the one we buy! Will have to try this!
    Amanda

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  17. Join the linky party I'm hosting, where this week's theme is Cakes and cake pops!
    http://cupcakeapothecary.blogspot.com/2011/05/themed-bakers-sunday-6.html
    Alyssa

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  18. Hey my mom loves cake, and it is a best gift for here that I make cake for her as this mothers day sweets gift.

    Thank you for share with us.

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  19. Thanks for the recipe. I've been looking for the one Mama baked. I think the only difference is, Mama used granulated sugaring the frosting.
    Anxious to try your recipe. Thanks again.
    Future

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  20. Your photos are so pretty! I just made this today and LOVED it!!!!!!!!!!!!

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