Caramel Cake. (June 2001)

When Stephen returned from Mississippi he told me that everywhere he went they served caramel cake, which he loved. I had never heard of caramel cake before, but i was certainly intrigued. So I tracked down a recipe (on the web, actually, because I couldn't find one in any of my books) and made it last night.

This is actually a pretty nice cake, and one of the few recently that I've made from scratch. The batter makes 3 9-inch round layers, so I ended up having to run down to Fante's to get another cake pan. (The pan is actually much better than the ones I've been using, which are from Ikea. I think I'll just buy 2 more next time I'm in South Philly).

The caramel is extremely sweet, but the cake itself is much less so, and it has ground almonds in it to boot, which add a slightly bitter quality which really balances out the caramel quite nicely.

Problems: Since I was using 2 different types of pans, the layer I baked in the ikea pan didn't rise as much and wasn't level, so i had to shave some off the top to keep the cake flat because I was afraid the layers would slide off the caramel if everything wasn't straight. When I went to ice the cake, the caramel was running everywhere because it's so hot in my kitchen, so I popped it in the fridge overnight and that solved the problem just fine.

Father's Day Cake. (June 2001)

Teddy Bear Cake. (June 2001)

I have been wanting to make this cake for the longest time, and I finally broke down this weekend and bought the pan at Fantes. I managed to contain my enthusiasm for 2 more days, and then I made the cake. I ended up finishing at 3:00 in the morning. Ugh. I stored the bear in the fridge overnight, uncovered. I trusted the icing to keep the cake moist, and it didn't let me down. I somehow transported the cake to work the next day via the bus, and put a paper bag carefully over the cake to prevent curious people on the bus from poking it.

The cake itself is a yellow cake mix and a pound cake mix combined. (The bear pan holds 6 2/3 cups, and a normal mix only makes about 5 cups.) I was afraid the combination wouldn't taste very good, but it turned out to be just fine. The fur is chocolate buttercream, and the eyes and nose are the same, but with black food coloring.

Problems: Yes, I had a few problems with this cake. One of them should be obvious from the photo--his leg started to fall off. (Adela amputated the leg at work the next day and ate it. I'm told it was scrump-diddly-umtious. That's my word, not hers.) I tried plastering it back on with icing, but it didn't hold, and I didn't want to stick a toothpick in it to hold it in place because I was afraid I'd forget to tell people it was in there and then someone would accidentally eat the toothpick. So I did my best to cover the gap with icing. The head started to fall off too, and it was attached rather precariously, but it ended up surviving.

I also had a problem at first being consistent with the length of the "fur", but I got better at that as I went along. It's also hard putting fur on the bottom parts of the bear. I'm going to get an angled coupler and try that next time. The only other problem I had was figuring out how to transport it safely. I'm going to look for a cake carrier that will hold extra-tall cakes.