Daring Bakers Challenge - Caramel Nemesis Cupcakes

Like it says
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

I am actually in Miami getting ready to board a cruise ship for a week but did not want to miss posting when I had actually completed the challenge! I am typing from an iPhone though, which doesn't allow copying and pasting, so for now I am afraid I will have to omit links to the hosts and recipe. Upon my return I will remedy it all as well as more pics and my own experience. I will say that this recipe was sweet, incredibly sweet!


ETA: Okay, I'm back and wanting to add to this post. I renamed the caramel cake "Caramel Nemesis" for one reason at first, and then added another. The actual name of the recipe is Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting. Throughout the Daring Bakers challenges, caramel has been my great nemesis. So I had to approach this challenge with courage and the will to succeed. :)

I like to wait a few weeks before doing a challenge because I like to benefit from others experience. As a result I made sure the butter that goes into the icing was really browned, and I decreased the amount of sugar in the cake by 1/4 cup, just to try to cut back on the sweetness. I'm not sure it helped. These were sweet, sweet, sweet.


The point that I thought my nemesis had defeated me was when I added the caramel syrup to the cake batter. I had let it sit overnight to cool and it was too solid, so I heated it a few seconds in the microwave, putting it back to magma stage. At the point I added it, it made the batter seize up. As a result my cake was not purely caramel, more of a vanilla with caramel pieces.

The recipe comes courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon, as published on Bay Area Bites. This Daring Bakers challenge was posted by Delores from Culinary Curiosity, assisted by Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo, and Jenny of Foray into Food.

Categories: Cake, Caramel, Cupcake, Daring Bakers