In between baking

Or maybe baking in between... I don't know.  Either way, I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen this week.  I promised the kids and some friends cake this week, so I baked nine cakes (2 tres leches, 2 chocolate cakes and 5 devil's food cakes) total between Wednesday and Thursday nights.  I probably would have made so many, but I'm really trying to figure out caramel sauce.

lots of ugly, but delicious chocolate cake

I charred the bottom of these guys- surgery was necessary

To say that I have a bad relationship with trying to boil sugar is the understatement of the century- it's like heading into a tsunami wearing floaties.  The stove and I have a bad relationship in general: there was that towel and my eyebrows in college and those weren't even from molten sugar.  There was the peppermint hard candy that we made growing up that sliced tongues and don't even get me into that Spanish project from el infierno.  The cauldron has taken it's share of victims, so I approached caramel sauce with respect and awe.

I got free organic eggs from our chem teacher-- they're blue!

I also should mention that caramel makes my top three of favorite sauces ever... I can't keep the jarred stuff in the house- it's like sweetened condensed milk for me: I'll add it to my coffee (or should I say add my coffee to it), put it on crackers or eat spoonfuls.  In other words, it's my crack.... wait that didn't sound right.

So like I said, I made some Wednesday and some Thursday.  I should mention that the tres leches recipe is the same from before.  The chocolate cake came from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  He has a section on cake in the 910s and caramel and frostings in the late 9-teens/early 20s.  On Wednesday, I did a classic buttercream frosting from his book and on Thursday, I tried the caramel.  His recipe called for 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of water and a pinch of salt.  I was tripling the recipe- and instead of asking around or checking online, I just tripled each ingredient.  Not the brightest thing I've ever done.  The recipe said 3-5 minutes for the sugar to incorporate and 15 minutes until soft ball stage (345 F on the candy thermometer- which I have).

 It took an hour and a half.  I took the first pic at 9:54 and turned the stove off at 11:20.  A fudging hour and a half for this sludge to remotely resemble anything like caramel.  I cleaned the counter and did all the dishes while I waited for the thermometer to go up--note, you should never leave caramel unattended, but since this was sugar water and I didn't leave the kitchen, no harm done.

 The kids commented on how it tasted caramel/ sugary, but soaked into the cake and made it all sticky.  I caught Lisa on the way out and begged for advice- she explained that it needed to be like wet sand.  I'd done far too much water and told me not to walk away from the stove.  I did the second pass last night to make caramel frosting- it took me twenty-seven minutes... not perfect, it seemed gritty, so I will try again tomorrow- if I don't have it by the week's end, I'm going to bring in an apron and have Lisa show me.

It's been a couple of late nights with the baking and the early morning class today.  I've felt a little like this:

But now it's Saturday night, so I'm feeling more like this:

And now you know what outfit I'm wearing out tonight! Don't you love the shoes!

I'm taking a break from cake this week.  I have grad work to do, but I will be making three kinds of pusties tonight and tomorrow and posting on those early this week.

The cake grand total is up to 31 types of cake and 68 cakes made... no worries, I'm not calling it quits yet.  I have molten chocolate, hummingbird, marble cake with bavarian creme, black forest cake and lemon marshmallow fondant left to conquer... as well as creme brulee and tiramisu and only 5 weeks left!  It should be exciting.

Have a good one!