Daring Bakers Challenge #3 Caramel Cake

It's month three with the Daring Bakers Challenge and I'll admit I was really quite a little disappointed that the savoury recipes had stopped and we were back to the sweets. Don't get me wrong......I like sweets as much as the next person......well probably more.....maybe even a lot more....but that's another story. In any case..... this months recipe for Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, the signature cake of Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater, was on the agenda. This months hosts were Dolores, Alex, and Jenny with some gluten free input from Natalie from Gluten A Go Go.

As it happens, my disappointment was short lived as I can honestly say I LOVED both the cake and the frosting recipe. I did have trouble with the caramel syrup. I made it the day before as it needed to cool before it could be added to the recipe. It made up beautifully and with out incident.....but the next morning I could see sugar crystallization occurring in the syrup. I used it anyway.......and the recipe turned out absolutely beautiful. I chose to make the cake into cupcakes as I had seen a few people had tried this already and in the interest of sharing ease it was the best option for me. Well......the cake was spongy, moist with a nice fine crumb, and I will definitely be making this one again and quite possible again. I did not use the unsalted butter called for in the recipe as there was no way I was going to spend $6 for butter for a untried recipe, and given the how it turned out so well.....I still wouldn't. I cut back on the salt amount listed in the recipe and obviously I also used the same butter for the frosting and even found I needed to add a pinch more salt.....so it all turned out quite well. I loved the frosting! No question it is extremely sweet....but it had a delicious hint of caramel from the syrup and a wonderfully noticeable flavour from the browned butter. The icing recipe made just enough to frost the 24 cupcake the recipe made. The flavours of this recipe are sweet and subtle and I could not think of another add in that I wanted to add that would not detract from the its simple deliciousness. I brought a plate of cupcakes over to the neighbours. I'm sure I'll soon hear if I am alone in my love of these little cakes.

So, here it is.......THE RECIPE..... click on it, should you chose to try it....And I say "Alison you have got to try this"!