chocolate + salt + caramel = cake

Pinterest is good for many things. Not the least of which is fantasizing about clothes you can't afford, houses much nicer than any you'll ever live in, stuff you don't have time to sew and recipes that you're probably never going to make. Now, those first three seem valid for various reasons, but every time I look at my recipe board on pintrest, I feel ever so much more hope. Because I could dangit, I could totally cook that! If I a) weren't so lazy and b) wasn't worried about the health implications of that much butter and sugar. 

But this weekend, I had a special occasion. A very special occasion. A girl's night. I know, I know, that seems fairly, um, suburban and painfully common, but NOT FOR ME PEOPLE. Because I have two kids under four, live at least an hour away from any of my dearest friends, and have less free time than... hunh, I'm looking for a hyperbolic way to say that I don't have any free time that is not hackneyed or insensitive. Nope, I've got nothin'. My point is that free time has gone the way of discretionary income in my life. That is to say, there is not much of it. And I cannot tell you how stoked I was about this girls night. 

The plan was to spend the night at my older sister's house. She who lives almost a couple of hours away. Whom I NEVER get to see unless we are celebrating family birthdays/holidays at which point we never get to talk, unless you count "Have you seen the purple bag with the bathing suits?" as conversation. And since I was going to be at her house overnight and my small children were not, I'd get to sleep for the whole. damn. night. That's right, the only person who would be getting up during the night to use the potty would be ME. Hallelujah.

And the third member of our party would be my University room mate/best friend/hillarious story teller and honorary sister. She of the belly laugh, and the awesome guacamole. The only person who loves home made salad dressing as much as I do. So it was shaping up to be an awesome night. 

We had a very loose plan. There would be dinner. There would be drinking. There would be more eating after that. And we'd talk until we fell asleep. And maybe paint our nails, but only if we were still sober or ran out of things to talk about (so probably not). 

Anyhow, I'd offered to bring Sangria and Dessert. I knew for sure that I'd be using The Pioneer Woman's recipe for Sangria, because it has four kinds of alcohol in it and I appreciate that kind of extravagance. I halved it, (because there were only three of us, and I'm not insane) and swapped the pinapple for strawberries. Though next time I will also throw in plums and peaches because I think that'd be awesome. And you guys, it was really, really good. We called it fruit salad with an alcohol dressing, just to make ourselves feel better. 

But I had to look around for a bit to find out what I'd make for dessert. I have kind of a cake rep to uphold, so I really wanted to knock their socks off. Though really, after a couple of glasses of that Sangria, we'd have happily eaten a Deep and Delicious freezer cake with our hands. But whatever, I still wanted to bake something. And then I saw what I was looking for. Perfection summed up in six words: Salted Caramel Six-Layer Chocolate Cake.

This is actually a Martha Stewart Recipe which does not surprise me at all. That woman knows what she's doing in the cake department. But man, I thought my Lemon Poppy-Seed Charlotte was kind of a lot of work, but compared to this behemoth it looks like a walk in the park. Also, check out the ingredient list. There are 7 and a half cups of sugar in this puppy, when you combine the sugar in the cake, the caramel and the icing. Really, its ridiculous. My hand did waver as I chopped a pound of chocolate for the icing. And added half a pound of butter to the caramel after there were already two cups of cream in there. Yikes. But I had set my hand to the plow and I would not look back. 

And after two days, the cake was ready (made the layers on Friday, made the caramel and icing on Saturday, assembled it at my sister's house). And I have to say, that cake was ridiculously good. Even though I managed to screw it up. The most stressful part of this cake was making the caramel. The directions tell you to combine the 4 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of corn syrup and 1/2 cup of water, put it in a saucepan over high heat and DO NOT STIR it for 14 minutes, until has turned a deep amber colour. Boy, was it hard not to stir it. High heat, people, how the heck is that not gonna burn? I compromised and set it to 8 instead of 10. And watched it as anxiously as a pot has ever been watched. And pulled it off the heat the second the timer dinged. It appeared to be fine and I added the cream and the butter and let it cool. But when all was said and done and I tasted it, I felt it had the aftertaste of burnt sugar. Hubs assured me it was not so. And I was not about to use another four cups of sugar and two cups of cream and half a pound of butter when I'm told it is fine. But still, next time I'm only giving it ten minutes. 

Anyhow, after our delicous appetizer courtesy of Sara (as seen in the above photos) ... and lovely dinner courtesy of my sister, 

and more Sangria and a good long walk......we hit that cake like a ton of bricks. 

Next time I will cut very small pieces though. 

Because this is one of the richest cakes I've ever eaten. None of us could get through our entire pieces. At least not in one sitting. 

Would you look at that caramel. My sister said it tasted like eating a huge gooey Skor bar. You know, next time I make this cake, I will do it as cupcakes. Because that way it'd be more manageable, and you'd have a chance at least at getting through a whole cupcake. 

My favourite thing about this cake is the fleur de sel that you sprinkle on top. I'd put more on next time. And I'd put it on the sides too. The lovely little melty saltiness in each dense chocolatey bite is really incredible. As my sister put it "Its the icing on the icing on the cake." Indeed.

 

Comments

[Marcia Van Drunen]

I'm in awe of your cake.
And LOVE for you the night away you had with the people you were with. Amen -- how awesome! I will savour your posting.
Til next time ...

[Laura]

Crazy! I just made that cake for my sister's birthday (which was Tuesday)! I chickened out & didn't cut the layers in half so it was *only* 3 layers and then there was a bunch of caramel leftover but still major deliciousness! It may have to be a yearly thing now. Totally hear you on adding the butter, sugar & cream. A bit scary, isn't it?

[finger thumb]

What a crazy coincidence Laura! And that recipe makes SO MUCH caramel its ridiculous. I did split them into 6 layers and I still have a jar full of caramel in the fridge. So good on ice cream, but I should be honest and say that I mostly just eat it off my finger.
And Marcia, I need you to be at the next girls night.

[Laura]

Thanks for the idea... I'm now eating it out of the jar with a spoon! (Because I can gorge more out with a spoon then with my finger!)