Because I have a lot of respect for D.C. Chef Ann Cashion (former owner of Cashion's Eat Place, now at Johnny's Half Shell), I had faith that her recipe for "Revelatory Caramel Cake" in Food & Wine would be a winner. I decided to give it a try for Muscaday.
The mixing method for the batter is a bit unusual. You put all the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) into the bowl of a mixer; add softened butter and milk; gradually add a mixture of egg whites, more milk, and vanilla; and then fold in heavy cream that has been beaten to stiff peaks. You divide the batter between three parchment-lined pans and bake.
To make the caramel icing, you dry burn some sugar until it turns amber; add a warm mixture of milk, sugar and corn syrup; cook the mixture until it reaches 235 degrees; add butter, vanilla, and heavy cream; cool the mixture; and then beat in more butter. I had a lot of trouble with the icing. First, I had a boil over when I was trying to get the mixture to 235 degrees on the stove. Second, even though I made sure that my icing was completely cool, it was thin and I made a huge mess trying to fill and frost the cake.
I had assumed that the icing would set up quickly because the recipe instructs you to work quickly while you frost the cake. Plus, the photo that accompanies the recipe on the Food & Wine website shows a slice of cake neatly covered in a thick layer of beautifully set caramel icing. But my icing refused to stay put and kept puddling around the bottom edge. I spent at least a solid half hour dedicated to the Sisyphean task of icing wrangling -- continually scooping up the puddled icing with an offset spatula and depositing it back on the top and sides of the cake, only to have it slowly roll back down again. Eventually, the rate of icing migration slowed, and after an hour or so, I was able to finally call it a day.
To make things worse, I didn't level the cake layers before frosting the cake; I had eyeballed them and thought that they were even enough. They weren't. Because of the doming in the cake layers and the lack of body in the icing, the top layer flexed a little and a few fissures opened up on the top of the cake. I tried to fill the cracks -- which were obvious -- with icing. But the thin icing not only failed to hide the cracks, it also seemed to magnify every single lump and bump on the sides of the cake. This cake looked like total crap and I was horrified at how ugly it was. Because the recipe says the cake is better the day after it's made, I baked and assembled it a day in advance and kept it under a dome at room temperature.
Fortunately, after I sliced the cake, the individual slices looked a lot better than the hideous whole. Still, my horrible experience with the icing had eroded all of my confidence in this cake. That is, until I served it and party guests starting coming up to me to tell me how wonderful the cake was. I honestly through they were just being polite until I finally tried a piece. The cake itself is amazing. It is so light and delicate and one of the finest white cakes I have ever baked or tasted. The caramel icing was good -- but honestly, I was so focused on the cake that the icing didn't even matter that much to me. And I'm not sure that I would ever want to make the icing again. But the cake -- absolutely. Wow.
Recipe: "Revelatory Caramel Cake" by Ann Cashion, recipe available here at Food & Wine.
The mixing method for the batter is a bit unusual. You put all the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) into the bowl of a mixer; add softened butter and milk; gradually add a mixture of egg whites, more milk, and vanilla; and then fold in heavy cream that has been beaten to stiff peaks. You divide the batter between three parchment-lined pans and bake.
To make the caramel icing, you dry burn some sugar until it turns amber; add a warm mixture of milk, sugar and corn syrup; cook the mixture until it reaches 235 degrees; add butter, vanilla, and heavy cream; cool the mixture; and then beat in more butter. I had a lot of trouble with the icing. First, I had a boil over when I was trying to get the mixture to 235 degrees on the stove. Second, even though I made sure that my icing was completely cool, it was thin and I made a huge mess trying to fill and frost the cake.
To make things worse, I didn't level the cake layers before frosting the cake; I had eyeballed them and thought that they were even enough. They weren't. Because of the doming in the cake layers and the lack of body in the icing, the top layer flexed a little and a few fissures opened up on the top of the cake. I tried to fill the cracks -- which were obvious -- with icing. But the thin icing not only failed to hide the cracks, it also seemed to magnify every single lump and bump on the sides of the cake. This cake looked like total crap and I was horrified at how ugly it was. Because the recipe says the cake is better the day after it's made, I baked and assembled it a day in advance and kept it under a dome at room temperature.
Fortunately, after I sliced the cake, the individual slices looked a lot better than the hideous whole. Still, my horrible experience with the icing had eroded all of my confidence in this cake. That is, until I served it and party guests starting coming up to me to tell me how wonderful the cake was. I honestly through they were just being polite until I finally tried a piece. The cake itself is amazing. It is so light and delicate and one of the finest white cakes I have ever baked or tasted. The caramel icing was good -- but honestly, I was so focused on the cake that the icing didn't even matter that much to me. And I'm not sure that I would ever want to make the icing again. But the cake -- absolutely. Wow.
Recipe: "Revelatory Caramel Cake" by Ann Cashion, recipe available here at Food & Wine.
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