Daring Bakers: Sweet tooth beware!

We were back to baking with butter and sugar this month, something I have no complaints about (and have plenty of on hand still.)

I mean, really, how horrible can it be to be making a Caramel cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting? And having the option of making homemade caramels, which, I admit, I opted to not make (not when there were two different bags of yummy caramels in my baking pantry for chewing away at.)

This months challenge came to us courtesy of Dolores, Alex, and Jenny, who chose this recipe from Shuna of Eggbeater.

Writing this now, and finally following the link to Shuna's original recipe, I realize I should have followed that link on the first day, rather than just printing the recipe, reading the recipe several times, and then making the recipe. I might have been a bit less disappointed with the final results. Now, looking at the pictures there, I see I was indeed supposed to have a fairly dense, one layer only, cake with a thick icing on top. Which is what I had. I simply think I had something else in mind when I read the words "caramel cake with caramelized butter frosting." Something with layers. And lighter.


Not to say the cake wasn't good. It was tasty. But sweeeeeeeeeeet! Actually, no, the cake wasn't overly sweet. It was just the frosting. Make your teeth ache, give your kids a sugar high, send a diabetic into shock, kind of sweet.

For a change, I had no problems at all with making the caramel for this. I have been known, in the past, for burning my first batch of caramel since it had this nasty habit of going from light color to black and billowy in an instant. This time, I stood on guard, I watched, I showed patience I was not feeling, and I was rewarded with a nice amber colored syrup that made the house smell sweet (instead of the usual burnt sugar smell) And it was nice making a caramel without the sound of the smoke detector going off.

Now that this challenge is done, I'm anxious to find out what next month's challenge will be, the December challenge. Will the DB's be making something sweet, or savory? Will I need to wait until I can unpack my baking pans, or is the one flat pan I left out going to be enough? Will I need to replenish my spice cabinet, which I took the opportunity to clean out while packing up all but my most frequently used spices? I may have been patient making the caramel for this months ultra sweet confection, but I'm certainly not feeling patient about next month's challenge!

So while I wait, I will be attempting to read some of the 1000+ other posts about this months cake, though please don't take it personally if I don't leave a comment on yours. With that many cakes, and my limited free time right now, comments will be few this month. So in case I can't comment on your challenge.... "Your cake looks amazing, I can't believe what you've managed to do with it! Did we make the same recipe?!?!"