Caramel Swirls

Cake #1... Salted Caramel Cake with Caramel Buttercream (with caramel filling). This cake was both successful and not so successful. Per Kevin's request I first made Salted Caramel Cupcakes for Easter this year and they were AWESOME. I decided to use the same recipe but double it and make a cake for my cousin's birthday. 

 Visually the cake came out just like I wanted, the flavor was there, but the sponge was DENSE. I have a couple of theories as to why this happened... First, somewhere in the doubling process I may have "over-did" an ingredient (FOLLOW THE RECIPE WHEN BAKING).  This is possible, but I am really confident this was not it. More likely it was the water bath that I cooked the sponge in. A little trick I have learned with box mix cakes... cook the cake in a water bath and the cake will not rise in the middle making it easier to decorate and eliminate the trimming process to achieve a flat sponge. This is the first time I tried baking a scratch cake with the water bath...and it was DENSE, almost like a pound cake. Half of the party liked it and the other half was very polite :) I think I am going to have to use the same recipe and try it without the water bath (so hope you all are hungry and ready to eat more cake!).

I always like to try new things when decorating and this time around the fun part was the caramel swirls. So easy too! I boiled sugar and water (2 to 1) until it turned into a caramel (deep amber color). As soon as the caramel colors, the secret is to immediately dip the pan into a water bath to stop the cooking so you don't end up with burnt sugar. I then drizzled the caramel on a greased parchment sheet with a spoon. This time I just did circular drizzles but with more practice I think I could do shapes.


All in all, this recipe is a keeper... definitely as a cupcake and I am determined to convert it to a fluffy cake recipe too!







Tip of the post: Parchment Paper Base. I picked this up a few months ago... instead of just oiling your pan (butter, canola etc) use a parchment paper base. First you butter the pan, then cut a piece of parchment to place in the bottom of the pan. MUST BE PARCHMENT... Wax paper will burn! Another technique is to dust the buttered pan with flour, but when you are baking a chocolate cake, or doing any sort of naked cake you will be stuck with flour residue on your sponge that will be visible. The parchment makes for EASY removal from the pan. Keep the parchment on the cake while it cools...it keeps the moisture in the cake before you decorate or moisten the sponge simple syrup if you so choose.