Daring Bakers November: Caramel Cake

Last month I didn't participate in the Daring Bakers challenge. Well, I tried the recipe for pizza dough, but it was an enormous flop! So bad I didn't even bother with photos.

But this month, after the last 2 challenges for crackers and pizza dough, I was so glad to see DB had gone back to a very sweet challenge with a caramel cake. You can't really go wrong with cake. Looking at the recipe I was a little concerned this cake might have too much of an overpowering caramel flavor, but it actually didn't.

The recipe was easy to follow, and I had all the necessary ingredients already in my kitchen, which was another added bonus.

To make the cake, you first need to make the caramel syrup as one of the ingredients required in both the cake & the frosting. Here's my caramel sauce still hot right after I poured it into this bowl to cool.

The cake itself is a very wet, very liquidy batter, but it cooked just fine without any problems. We decided to use our flower shaped pan to bake the cake.

And once I flipped it out of the pan it turned out wonderful. You can easily see just how moist the cake was.

On to decorating, the frosting was also an easy recipe to follow. The only ingredient I didn't have on hand was heavy cream, so I used milk instead. The cake was still a little warm when I put on the frosting, so it melted just a little. I made some quick swirls and called it good.

Everyone really loved this cake and I received some huge praise on how delicious it turned out, esp. from my pickiest eater.

With SD, myself, and 5 children in the house (IK had a friend sleeping over), the whole thing was gone in a matter of minutes.

Thanks DB for a fun and very yummy challenge!

If you'd like to give this recipe a try you can follow the instructions below. And if you'd like to see how some of the other Daring Bakers cakes turned out you can find them here.

The Daring Bakers Recipe Source info.:

Recipe author: Shuna Fish Lydon
Original recipe source: click here
DB November challenge hosts:
Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity
Alex of Blondie and Brownie
Jenny of Foray into Food



Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 each eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk, at room temperature


Preheat oven to 350F

Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.
Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

CARAMEL SYRUP

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process)
In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.

Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.
To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light.

Daring Bakers Sept.: Lavish Crackers & Toppings

So here it is, my very first, incredibly exciting Daring Baker's challenge! I've been so excited to blog about this ever since I joined the group this month, but of course I had to be patient and wait until the day when every DB member blogs the new monthly recipe, and finally today's the day!

And after seeing so many wonderful, mouth watering, truly yummy challenges recently, such as the chocolate eclairs, opera cake, and cheesecake pops, I couldn't wait to learn what September's challenge would be...and finally I found out what is was...crackers. Crackers? Really? I was so excited, assuming it would be some sort of delicious cake, pie or fabulous cookie recipe, but crackers? What's so exciting about crackers?

So, needless to say I wasn't exactly excited from the start, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a fun & exciting challenge this actually was for me! Because I've baked countless cakes, pies, and cookies of all kinds, but I've never actually baked anything remotely close to crackers. Once I thought of the challenge in that way, it really became a fun project.

Okay, so let's see how it turned out. Here's my cracker dough as soon as I put it in the bowl to rise. So far so good.

As far as the shape for these crackers I thought it would be really fun, in honor of fall and the beautiful pumpkins I just picked from our garden...

To cut my crackers in the shape of tiny little pumpkins using some new cookie cutters! Aren't they cute going into the oven?! Still, so far so good.

But then...what happened here?! I actually cooked these for about half the time to recipe suggested, so what went wrong? Well, part of the problem was I sprayed too much water on them before baking, instead of "misting" the crackers as the recipe said.

Okay, no problem, I'll make some simple rectangles instead and just focus on the recipe itself and save the fancy shapes for another time.

And this time, it worked perfectly! Since this was my first DB challenge, I didn't go too crazy on the cracker creativity, just a little salt baked on top.

Now the second part of the challenge, the creative topping for the crackers had to be vegan friendly, meaning no dairy ingredients. Hmmm...okay, that rules out any cheeses, or dips with sour cream, so what to make?

Well, I decided to make up a dip from the ingredients I had floating around in the pantry. Most of it was a modified version of an apple crumb cobbler recipe I had recently made, with a few variations.

The Verdict:

We had 4 taste testers around when the crackers were ready and everyone agreed the crackers were REALLY yummy, and that we could all sit around and eat several handfuls of them!

The topping, well, only 1 person in the group really like the topping. I thought it was a little too sweet & didn't seem to fit quite right with the crackers. But these crackers would go perfectly with just about any kind of cheese spread...mmmm!!!

Thanks DB for such a fun and different challenge. Despite my initial reactions to this recipe, I really enjoyed trying to bake something so new and different from what I normally bake. And coming up with a topping without using any dairy ingredients was a really fun challenge too. I can't wait to see what we bake next month!

Daring Bakers: Lavish Crackers

Makes 1 sheet pan of crackers

* 1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz) unbleached bread flour or gluten free flour blend (If you use a blend without xanthan gum, add 1 tsp xanthan or guar gum to the recipe)
* 1/2 tsp (.13 oz) salt
* 1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast
* 1 Tb (.75 oz) agave syrup or sugar
* 1 Tb (.5 oz) vegetable oil
* 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature
* Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, yeast, agave, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.

2. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

4. Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

4. Lay out two sheets of parchment paper. Divide the cracker dough in half and then sandwich the dough between the two sheets of parchment. Roll out the dough until it is a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. Slowly peel away the top layer of parchment paper. Then set the bottom layer of parchment paper with the cracker dough on it onto a baking sheet.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt - a little goes a long way. If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).

6. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.

Topping: Apple Cranberry Nut Dip

Topping:
4 apples
5 tbsp of sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup Craisins
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

1. Peel, core and coarsely dice apples. In a large skillet, combine apples, sugar and cinnamon. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 5-7 minutes, until apples are tender but still firm. Add craisins and nuts. 2. In a small cup, combine cornstarch and lemon juice.
3. Add to the apple and stirring constantly for 3 minutes or until thickened. Dish out and set aside to cool.