Spice Cake with Caramel Frosting

I made this cake for my Mother's Birthday recently. I have had some pretty good spice cakes in my time and have wanted to find a great recipe. This was a pretty good cake but what I think made it even better was the delectable caramel frosting. I didn't really follow all the directions on the recipe so I didn't get a perfect, uniform cake, nor did I spend a lot of time perfectly dividing the layers or making sure the frosting didn't have any crumbs. It was delicious still the same. Although, I may have to try increasing the frosting recipe or something next time, because it seems I barely had enough to fill and cover the cake. Also, I noticed there were a few crunchy bites here and there. I think it was due to the Real brand Sea Salt I was using. It has minerals in it that tend to be crunchy at times. Also, I did not use the 'special grease' to grease the pans and it still turned out just fine. My Mom, thought it was a nice springy cake, which it was. All in all, I give this recipe two thumbs up but I would like to give some other spice cake recipes a try at some point. This recipe comes from"The Blue Ribbon Country Cookbook" by Diane Roupe. It has some great recipes besides cake and has great detailed instructions.

Spice Cake

2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (sift before measuring)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup (1/4 pound) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 extra-large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 recipe Caramel Frosting
3 tablespoons chopped hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 350* F. Using Special Grease, grease two 9x2-inch ro und cake pans; set aside. Place 2 bake-even cake strips (from Wilton) in cold water; let stand. Onto waxed paper, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; set aside. Extract the excess water from the bake-even cake strips. Wrap and pin the strips around the prepared cake pans; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, place he butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar; using an electric mixer, beat on medium-high speed until creamed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well on medium-high s peed after each addition. Add, alternately, the flour mixture in fourths, and the buttermilk in thirds, beating on low speed after each addition only until blended.

Using a large mixing spoon, spoon the cake batter equally into the 2 prepared cake pans. Using a small, narrow spatula, lightly and quickly spread the batter evenly in the pans. Bake the cakes for 30 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and place on wire racks; remove the cake strips. Let the cakes stand to cool 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans; let stand on wire racks until completely cool.

Then, frost between the layers, and the top and side of cake with the Caramel Frosting. Srinkle the chopped haxelnuts over the top of the cake. Let the cake stand until the frosting sets. Then, place the cake in an airtight container.

Note: Although not as satisfactory, the pans may be greased and floured in substitution for using Special Grease.

MAKES ONE 9-INCH, 2-LAYER ROUND CAKE; 12 SERVINGS

Caramel Frosting

3/4 cup (1/4 pound plus 4 tablespoons) butter
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup half-and-half
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

In a medium-small, heavy saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the brown sugar; stir to combine. Over medium heat, bring the brown sugar mixture to a boil, stirring continuously. Remove from the heat. Add the half-and-half; stir vigorously to blend. Return the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat.

Leave the brown sugar mixture in the saucepan and refrigerate it until the mixture is cooled to slightly warm (about 40 minutes), stirring intermittently. Then remove the mixture from te refrigerator; set aside. Place the powdered sugar in a medium mixing bolw. Add the brown sugar mixture; using an electric mixer, beat on medium-high speed only until blended and smooth.

MAKES ENOUGH TO FROST ON 2-LAYER, 8 OR 9-INCH ROUND OR SQUARE CAKE, OR THE TOP OF ONE 9X13-INCH SHEET CAKE

**Special Grease**

1/2 cup vegetable shortening, softened
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Place the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat on high speed until perfectly smooth. Place in an air-tight container; store in the refrigerator. Special Grease will keep in the refrigerator for several months. *Special Grease replaces both the grease and flour when used to prepare a pan. (Do not flour the pan after applying Special Grease.)

Skor Cake

I got this recipe from a neighborhood church cookbook. This is one of the easiest cakes I've made. It's not a cake that will get you points for presentation (unless maybe you're creative?) but sure to be a crowd pleaser every time. It's just a good, moist cake with a delectable flavor. And it has Skor candy bars sprinkled on top. How can you go wrong with that? I made this cake a little while ago for a friend's Birthday party and someone else brought a beautifully decorated chocolate cake. It was gorgeous. A little girl that was there saw the two cakes and instantly decided the chocolate cake was going to be the most delicious because my cake was just plain ugly. She enjoyed the chocolate cake, but after having a taste of mine, learned what might have been her first lesson in judging a book by its cover. It's always great making food everyone can enjoy. Especially when it's super simple!

Skor Cake

1 yellow cake mix ( I use Pillsbury, dry)

1 sm. pkg. chocolate instant pudding, dry

2 c. water

2 eggs

1 cube softened butter

2 egg yolks

1 c. powdered sugar

8 oz. Cool Whip

2-3 Skor candy bars

Combine cake mix, pudding, water and eggs. Bake at 350* for 35-38 minutes. Top cooled cake with mixture made of butter, egg yolks, powdered sugar and Cool Whip. Top with 2-3 crushed Skor bars. Refrigerate after making.

Luxor Loaf

Ok, I decided its high time I get this thing going. I baked a couple cakes weeks ago but never got around to blogging about them. I tried out an old sponge cake recipe from my grandma's collection and it was quite the task! I've decided either spongecake is not my forte or it's not for beginners. It was definitely a spongy cake, but just didn't seem like the right texture. It turned out pretty tasty, but seemed a bit small. I haven't figured out how to get it to rise more. I thought I hadn't beaten the eggs enough, then I tried beating them more a second time and I think I beat them too much and the cake fell. Then I made another and I think I under beat the eggs again and got the same smaller cake! Ugh! The lemon cream filling turned out great both times and is just divine! The Marshmallow frosting was pretty good too. Although, I think I need to invest in a candy thermometor because the second time I made it, the frosting was a bit grainy. Not sure if it's because I cooked the sugar too long or not long enough. All in all, this is a great cake. A little rich, but yummy.

Luxor Loaf Recipe

½ cup egg yolks
½ cup lukewarm water
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup fine granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups cake flour
2 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 recipe Lemon Cream Filling
1 recipe Marshmallow Frosting

Place egg yolks in large mixing bowl: add water and baking soda, beat with egg beater until very foamy. Add sugar slowly, beating in well. Add flavoring. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Fold carefully into mixture; pour into large ungreased tube pan. Bake in moderate oven at 350* F. about 45 minutes. Invert pan and let stand until cold. Remove from pan; remove all crumbs and moist crust from surface; cut in three layers. Spread Lemon Cream Filling between layers. Cover top and sides with Marshmallow Frosting. Makes 1 ten-inch cake.


Lemon Cream Filling

3 tablespoons cornstarch
¾ cup cold water
¼ cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter
Grated rind 1 lemon

Mix cornstarch with water to make smooth paste. Cook in double boiler until thick, stirring constantly. Add lemon juice and continue cooking. When thick and smooth, add sugar which has been mixed with egg yolks. Cook 3 minutes longer. Add butter and lemon rind; beat until smooth. Cool.

Marshmallow Filling and Frosting

1 ½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup water
6 large marshmallows
whites of 2 eggs
2 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder

Boil sugar and water to 238* F. or until syrup spins a thread. Add marshmallows cut into small pieces; do not stir into syrup. Pour slowly into stiffly beaten whites of eggs, beating until smooth and thick enough to spread without running. Add baking powder and lemon juice. Sufficient for a large loaf or a two-layer cake.

Intro

I love cooking and have enjoyed the reward of making cakes on random occasion for family members' birthdays or get-togethers. It's not something I do very often or make a lot of time for, but the desire to bake amazing cakes has been in the back of my mind for quite some time. The most experience I have is with premade mixes, but I have tried my hand with recipes from scratch and want be able to whip up something impressive for special occasions. So I've decided to start a blog about my experiments with recipes and improving my cake baking skills.

I recently dug into a stash of my mother's cookbooks and found some vintage cookbooks of my grandmother's. I have always been facinated by anything vintage. Yes, even vintage recipes. In the old collection, I discovered a couple of small books filled with various cake recipes. As I've read through these recipes I realized there's a lot more to cakes than I imagined and I became excited about all the different types of cakes I could try to create. I have a few other books and recipes on cakes and cake decorating I've aquired over the years that I can use as reference, as well as a small collection of equipment that I will add to as needed.

In this blog you will find, favorite recipes, new recipes, old recipes, successes and failures, stories, pictures, reference, and hopefully.....wonderful cakes! Stay Tuned!