Old-Fashioned Caramel Cake

I found this recipe on Martha Stewart's website and it is a recipe from Dr. Maya Angelou's cookbook, "Hallelujah." I believe it is her grandmother's recipe. There is a video of Dr. Angelou making this cake with Martha. It's kind of fun to watch. The interesting thing about this caramel cake is that it doesn't contain any brown sugar. The caramel flavor comes from the burnt sugar caramel syrup and from the browned butter frosting. This cake was a big hit when I made it for a dinner party.

Caramel Syrup

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Heat sugar (by itself--no water) in a sauce pan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar liquifies and comes to a boil. Continue cooking, with light stirring, until sugar turns a golden amber color. Immediately remove from heat and add 1 cup of water. BE CAREFUL, it is really hot and some water may splatter. The caramelized sugar will harden when it is cooled by the water. Return to medium heat and continue stirring until the sugar redissolves. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before using.

Cake

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar, separated
• 1/4 cup Caramel Syrup (from above)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.

With mixer on low, beat butter and sugar together for several minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in Caramel Syrup.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt.

With mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture and the milk, alternating with flour mixture being added first and last.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs until foamy (whisk attachment or normal beaters will work for this). Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar to the eggs and continue beating until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir into the cake batter until well combined.

Pour batter into the two round cake pans and bake for 25-35 minutes, until cake springs back when gently touched in the center. Cool cakes for ~15 minutes and then invert to remove from pan and continue cooling on wire cooling rack. When completely cooled, frost the two-layer cake with Browned Butter Caramel Frosting (see below) and serve drizzled with remaining Caramel Syrup.

(If you baked the cake ahead of time, you can wrap the cake in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator until you are ready to frost it. I find that keeping cake overnight in the refrigerator makes frosting it much easier.)

Browned Butter Caramel Syrup

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 16 oz. (1 package) powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, plus more if needed
• 1 T. pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Add butter to saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until nut-brown in color, ~8 minutes. You'll want to watch it closely and continue stirring it to prevent burning it. Once it begins to turn brown, it goes fast! Remove pan from heat and pour browned butter into a heat-proof mixing bowl. Allow to cool.

Once cooled, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt to the browned butter. Mix on low (with paddle attachment or standard beaters). Continue to mix on low while adding the cream. Beat until smooth. If frosting appears too thick, add more cream until the correct consistency. Generously frost the cake with this delicious frosting.