CARAMEL CAKE WITH CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

It's the end of another month and yet another Daring Bakers Challenge. This challenge marks my eighth challenge with Daring Bakers. I have learned so much about baking with making just one different recipe a month. These recipes have ranged from the Filbert Gateau, a really heavy decadent dessert, to lavash crackers and a vegan dip. I not only have gained knowledge from the challenges, but also confidence and about 3 extra inches on each thigh! (Time to start exercising!!!) This months challenge was to make a Caramel cake with a caramelized butter frosting! Yeah, if that doesn't make you run to the Weight Watcher's Meeting, I don't know what will! Since it was my 29th birthday (for the 6th time) just last week, I decided to treat myself to this cake.

This month's challenge was hosted by Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater featuring her signature Caramel Cake Recipe with Caramelized Butter Frosting. Co-Hosted by, Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo: http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/), Jenny of Foray into Food (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/). And since none of us know jack about alternative baking, we’ve once again turned to Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go (http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/).

I got all of my ingredients together and started in on making the cake. With doing so, I had to make a simple caramel syrup, which I burned because I had little distractions! (Have any guesses who and what they were?) Burning the caramel sauce/syrup proves to be my strong point with recipes...check out the Filbert Gateau post and you will see that I burned up the praline hazelnuts! I quickly made another batch and it came out just amber in color and not burnt. I creamed up the butter, sugar and salt. Next, I added the syrup, eggs and vanilla. At this point I encountered a problem, I poured all the flour/baking soda mixture into the Kitchen Aid bowl all at once.....needless to say I have a gooey mess flour ball. I got the milk out and redeemed myself..I thought it was a goner! I needed to follow the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method....I followed the hurried Lori method and I wouldn't recommended that!

I finally got the cake in the oven, a BUNDT for this recipe, and got started in on the frosting. I wonder how many WW points just a lick of this stuff is! 12 Tablespoons of Butter, 1 Pound Confectioner’s Sugar, 4-6 tablespoons heavy cream, 2 Teaspoons Vanilla, 2-4 Tablespoons Caramel Syrup and some salt to taste. I didn't think that I really liked the taste at first, but it quickly grew on me and I put away more than I am willing to admit! Now, you are wondering just where are the photos of this Caramel Cake with the fine Caramelized Butter Frosting? They are only in my mind....since leaving the camera at my son's school Turkey Day Party I only have mental images. It was yummy, I don't know that it is something that I would crave, but it was yet another challenge for me to defeat! I love ya, Daring Bakers! Bring on the December Challenge!!!
Here is the recipe~

CARAMEL CAKE with Caramelized Butter Frosting

10 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, room temp
1 1/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup*
2 each Eggs, room temp
splash Vanilla Extract
2 Cups AP Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 C Milk, room temp

*Caramel syrup recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350F
Butter one tall 9" cake pan.
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth.
2. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.
3. Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl.
4. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.
5. Sift flour and baking powder.
6. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dries.
7. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time.
8. Add another third of the dries, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dries. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}
9. Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds. making sure batter is uniform.
Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.
Cake will keep for three days unrefrigerated

CARAMEL SYRUP

2 Cups SUGAR
1/2 Cup WATER
1 Cup water for "stopping"

1. In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand.
2. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush.
3. Turn on heat to highest flame.
4. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.
5. When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and prepared to step back.
6. Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}
For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

12 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
1 Pound Confectioner's Sugar, sifted
4-6 Tablespoons Heavy Cream
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2-4 Tablespoons Caramel Syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

1. Cook butter until brown.
2. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.
3. Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.
4. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.
Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light.

List of NEEDED items by our Soldiers!

I have compiled a list of things needed by the soldiers from the website. www.anysoldier.com I was stay away from liquid products because of the chance of the container breaking during shipping. They also don't recommend highly scented items being sent with baked goods.

Products to stay awake during missions
Blank greeting cards
Paper
Toothpaste (Colgate) & Toothbrushes
100 calorie snacks
power bars
Lip balm ( chap-stick)
Envelopes
Deodorant
Blank cards
Notecards
Stationary
Laundry powder
Gatorade singles or ANY beverage drink powders
Cd's of country or rock copies are fine
Cheese and peanut butter crackers
DVD movies
Beef jerky
Magazines
Books
Board games or anything to keep us entertained
Tinactin foot spray/powder/ointment
AA batteries
Microwave popcorn
Splenda
Hand Sanitizer clothes
Nail Clippers
Razors & Shave Gel
Ink pens

Beanie Babies!
No kidding! A really good excuse to get rid of those things (don't buy new ones, collect them from your house and ask your friends)!! Send some in every package to ALL units as they are really easy for the Soldiers to carry with them and give to the local kids who love them. These are better then small plastic toys which will break easily and are not as easy to carry in a pack. There is NO more effective ambassador for our country than a Soldier helping the local folks. This is done far more often then the press shows, and quite probably the most important thing a Soldier will ever do.

More info on Operation Baking Gals

I am posting this letter that I received from Val over at Just Add Nuts. This is the "Team" that we will be working with on the Operation Baking Gals website. Go to Operation Baking Gals and click Join a Round 4 Team Here then click Join a Round 4 Team (26) and then select the Team Just Add Nuts. You can see the other members of the team. If you want, you can sign up on the site or I will just let them know the number of bakers that we have that will be sending packages. Or, I will let them know the number of packages that we are sending, make sense? Here are a few emails that I have had with Val:

Hello,
That's great that your friends want to get involved! The way Baking GALS works is that each team sends to a different soldier. That soldier receives 10+ boxes, depending on the number of people participating for his host's team; he or she then distributes the stuff to the other soldiers around him. I have a thank you letter that I just received from Alex's wife saying he had begun getting boxes and was sharing with other soldiers. I'm going to ask her if I can post the letter on my blog so all of you bakers can see it.

As for a team having too many people, Susan tries to keep it to around 20 bakers per team. We had about 10 on our team this round who actually baked, so that would leave 10 slots to fill. I do have a couple of bakers who do the actual baking as pairs or groups but only sign up as one baker and send one box. That tends to work nicely for some because a lot of people want to bake but the shipping costs can get out of hand if you send too many boxes. The first round that Randy and I baked, we filled five boxes (one on our own to a friend of his), so we joined four separate teams, that way different soldiers got our variety, rather than sending all the boxes filled with the same stuff to the same soldier. So if you're all sending the same goodies, that's another option for you...not that I want to lose you from my team!!!!

Keep me updated as far as how many bakers you're getting and how you and they wish to handle it and I'll work with you. If we end up with too many bakers, I have more than one soldier who would love to receive boxes, so maybe I could give you two addresses kind of on the side. After the December round, if your people want to continue to bake, you might consider becoming a team host yourself. It's a little bit of work and organizing, but since you have a blog already (one of the requirements) you'll be half way there already. If you decide to go that route, let me know and I'll put in a word with Susan for you. If you think your people will only want to bake once in a while or if you don't feel like being a host, feel free to stay on my team and we'll just work it out each round.

Round five's mailing will be taking place from December 5-18, just in time for Christmas. I know the soldiers do like other things besides the baked goods, especially letters from home or just things to remind them of home. One of our team's bakers included some strings of Christmas lights in Alex's package this round and his wife mentioned in her letter that he especially enjoyed those. For ideas, check out www.anysoldier.com. They list soldiers who ask for the things their unit needs. If you read a few requests, you'll see that most of them ask for the same kinds of things, so you'll have a good idea what to include. The only thing is, don't send anything scented (dryer sheets, air fresheners, etc) or anything liquidy that could break (shampoo, hand cream, toothpaste) along with baked goods because it contaminates the cookies no matter how well you pack it according to reports. And with the any soldier site, they don't let you send home-baked goods to the soldiers there. It's all about keeping our soldiers safe...they aren't supposed to accept baked goods from people they don't know. That's why Baking GALS hosts have to come up with their own soldiers, so they can write ahead and let the soldier know the goodies are coming. That's also why I ask my bakers for their own address before I give them the soldiers....I don't want anything funny going down!

I think the thing besides baked goods and letters that they most like to get are fun things or things to fill their down-time. The services do a half way decent job most of the time of getting them the necessities like socks and soap, it's just the "extras" that they're missing. I like to send Holiday items, joke books, pictures from my four year old niece, toys (they hand them out to the kids there), games, DVDs, magazines, stationary (another favorite, so they can mail letters home), small sporting equipment, nail files, little posters, chap sticks (I'm iffy on that one but I think it would be safe to send with the baked goodies)...whatever you send, someone will appreciate it. Oh, and if you can find a good deal on those little packets of drink flavors to add to water bottles, they LOVE those! I'm trying to figure out how to make them.

As for suggestions for things that ship well, we're probably both in the same boat there. I'm doing guess-work at this point too. I have found a recipe for an oatmeal bar cookie that I've been making. They contain a lot of oil, so I figure they'll stay moist. The first round, we individually wrapped them; this round we cut them and reconstructed them as one sheet and packed each batch on top of the other. I got four batches in the box that way and we packed the sides with boxes of Christmas cards and some individual drink mixes. I'm trying to do some research on the net to find recipes that travel well, so I'll post my findings on my blog. I'll also ask Alex's wife for his input about what came over to Iraq in the best condition. If you come up with any good ideas in the meantime, please share. I'm thinking things that are dense and moist will be good. We sent some pumpkin pound cake to Randy's friend this month, so I'm waiting to hear how that turns out.

And another one:
Hi,
The cost varies a little depending on what you send, but the postage would be $10.95. That's the cost of sending a flat rate priority mail box (12 by 12 by 5 1/2 inch size) to an APO address. The boxes are free from the post office and you can just stop in anytime to pick one up. Also, grab yourself a customs form while you're in there. The forms are easy to fill out, but we'll include instructions with the soldier's address just in case.

I will have to ask Randy how many cookies we got into each box, since he did the counting (and hopefully the remembering since I didn't!), but I think we got about 75 cookies in each box and also we put in some old DVD's from my dad and a few magazines from Randy.

I hope that helps!
Val

So, I am ready to start planning!!! I thought that I would kit the dollar store for little puzzle books, water bottle flavorings and whatever little things I can get. Let me know if you are interested!!!

OPERATION BAKING GALS

Have you heard of Operation Baking Gals? They are a group of bakers who bake goodies and send them to soldiers who are serving our country. After finding out about this group, I was very interested in joining. Most of my family members have served in the Navy, Army & Air Force and most actually served while a war was taking place. I would love to get a group together to do this for their December Round. I thought that December would be a great month since these soldiers are away from their families during the holidays. Please take a look at the Operation Baking Gals website for more information and please let me know what you think. I was also thinking that maybe we can all bake one type of cookie and then exchange cookies amongst ourselves so that each of our soldiers would have a variety of cookies. Please let me know what you think and if you can help out in any way if you are not interested in baking. I was told that they also appreciate Magazines, Cd's, Movies, Personal Hygiene products and other things that they might not be able to get while in another country.

Have I yet again lost my mind? What have I gotten myself into???

My creation up above~
Her Frankenstein is below~

OK, I tend to find all of these crazy fun things that I want and feel the NEED to do. Here is one of the things that I decided to do for G2's Halloween party. I told G1 that he could take one of these to each of his teachers and he would take chocolate dipped pretzels to his classmates. He agreed to this deal until he saw the finished product. I had to stick to my guns because my girlfriend and I had a heck of a time making these. I found these in the Paula Dean's Halloween Magazine. Yeah, OK Paula please let me know HOW yours turned out so perfect.....well, she probably didn't do them at all! That is what I think! Anyhow, they turned out so very cute I sure hope that the kiddos will love them tomorrow.

The Flour Garden Pizzeria- October Daring Bakers Challenge

That's right, I turned my kitchen into a pizzeria last night! This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was to make Peter Reinhart's Pizza Dough. This recipe comes from his book, "The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread". The challenge was hosted this month by Rosa from Rosa's Yummy Yums and in honor of a past Daring Baker, Sher at What Did You Eat, who suddenly lost her life to a massive heart attack in July. Never in Daring Bakers history have they made Pizza Dough, so let the challenge begin!

I printed the recipe and directions and carefully planned the perfect toppings for my family and their pizzas. I decided for my pizza I would like to recreate a BBQ Chicken Pizza from a Gourmet Cafe that I just loved when I lived at home. For my kids, that was an easy decision, sauce and cheese for the one; and sauce, cheese and pineapple for the other kiddo. They are not quite the food critics that I would like, but the oldest is starting to appreciate the finer things. The husband likes his pizza just as boring; sauce, pepperoni and cheese. So, I just needed a few toppings that I didn't have in the pantry and I had everything for the pizza dough since I have been the bread Nazi lately.

This recipe is a little time consuming since you have to let the pizza dough rest over night. This is not something that you just decided to do 15 minutes before you want the pizzas going into the oven. But the recipe is straight forward and very basic. If you can operate a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer, you can make this recipe.

Day One: I broke out the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and made the dough. This dough consists of Chilled Flour, Salt, Instant Yeast, Olive Oil, ICE Water and Sugar. Very basic! I was all ready to put the ingredients together and had completely forgotten to chill the flour. Chilling the flour makes the dough blend better from what I understand. I tossed the measured flour into a Ziploc and then into the freezer to chill. About an hour later, I had chilled flour to work with. I mixed the ingredients and then put the dough hook on the mixer and "Kneaded" it for about 6 minutes until the dough was smooth. I pulled the massive dough ball out of the mixer bowl and then divided it into 3 large balls. Then, I transferred it to a greased pan covered with plastic wrap and tossed it into the fridge to chill overnight.

Day Two: The FUN begins. I took the dough out exactly two hours before I planned on making my kitchen a complete mess! A mess that surely made even the Husband want me to clean it up! (That is something that doesn't often happen) I placed 2 of the dough balls onto my floured counter top and pressed the dough into disks and then had to wait for two hours so that the dough was able to rest. About 45 minutes before I was going to make the pizza, I had to preheat the ovens (Yes, I used both ovens) to 500 degrees with the baking stones in the ovens. This is where the story becomes interesting. The little guys starting screaming, the house is on fire. The smoke alarms were going off and the smoke was thickening the air. Ok, I only like putting my oven on "SELF CLEAN" in the winter so that it also heats my house. So, here you find that I obviously have had some boil overs and maybe some fallen crusts that didn't take well to the 500 degree oven. The Husband rolls into the house complaining to whomever will listen, which wasn't any of the three of us, that the house is smokey and the alarms are still going off. Yeah, like we didn't realize that....need I say more? MEN, they just don't get what a woman will do to try new things, they just don't get it! The windows had to be opened, 34 degrees here now, the fans were put on and smoke alarms stripped from the ceilings...yep, the man took control.

Shortly after the smoke settled, we continued on with making the pizza's. The kids gathered their toppings and were all excited about making their own pizzas. I was also excited. I got the camera out to capture the moment when the pizza dough would land onto my head after attempting to toss it, this actually didn't happen, but did come very close! I put the dough onto my knuckles and started trying to stretch it. I then got up enough guts to toss it into the air. It went sideways and folded into an unknown shape that didn't resemble anything I had even seen at a pizzeria! I smooched the dough back into a disc shape and let it rest for about 15 minutes and reattempted. This time I was successful! It wasn't a toss that was 5 feet into the air, but it did stay into the shape that I desired. Next it was time for the kids....did you think that they weren't going to be involved? Oh yeah, this is when the fun really began! My little guy, G2 we will refer to him as, threw his dough in the air and it came right down on his face. We all couldn't stop the laughing! G1, our oldest son, had a great laugh once his turn came around. He was successful and it didn't take him as much time to get the nak of it as it took me!

G1 and his attempt to toss the pizza

G2 just before his dough landed on his face!

After we got our dough all stretched and spun, we were ready to add the toppings. The directions told us to flip over a jelly pan and then cover it with corn meal and place the dough onto the corn meal. After placing it just right, we were able to add our toppings and place the pizza in the oven. This is where the real challenge started. Once it was time to transfer the pizza from the pan to the 500 degree preheated pizza stone the pizza dough didn't want to move from the pan. I had to pull the dough onto the stone and one of the pizzas was just a disaster and it just happened to be G1's pizza. He was at least mature about the devastation and helped me replace the toppings and pull the dough back onto the stone. Boy did the stone smoke after all the cheese and toppings hit it!! The Husband thought he saw smoke when he got home, not a chance this was smoke!

We cooked these pizzas in my two ovens and once one would come out, we would put another one back in. We had hot pizza that tasted so AWESOME!! I couldn't believe that I actually replicated my favorite BBQ Chicken Pizza from a Gourmet Cafe and I didn't dig myself 6 feet down by doing it either!!!

BBQ CHICKEN PIZZA

Cheese Pizza

This challenge was so very exciting and really brought us together at dinner time. I have already suggested having a pizza making night with my cousin and her children so that we can really a great time and awesome pizza that is truly homemade! Thanks Daring Bakers for challenging me to make something that I never thought of doing. I had a great time this month and cannot wait to see what new recipe November will bring.

Here is the recipe for this awesome crust!

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH
~Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart
Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer)

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water
NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap



7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.
NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil (a few tablespoons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator

DAY TWO
8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow it to rest for 2 hours

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).
NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss

NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time. During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and re-flour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping. In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully, then try again. You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 5-8 minutes

Win a BEAUTIFUL quilt!

Hurry on over to http://pigtailsandsnails.blogspot.com/ and all you have to do it leave a comment about her quilt post! That only earns you one entry. For more entries, sje will give 5 additional entries for posting about the giveaway on your very own blog. She will also give another 5 entries for posting the banner below in your sidebar. If you don't win the quilt, she will be giving away a very special 2nd and 3rd place prize, THE PATTERN TO THE QUILT. I know just how complicated making a quilt is, so I really appreciated the fact that she has taken the time to complete it, and then GIVE IT AWAY! I hope I win or even you too! HURRY, it ends today ;}