Saturday, November 29, 2008

Our first challenge

My daughter, S, and I have joined the Daring Bakers. This month we had our first challenge, a Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, created by Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater. This challenge was hosted by Dolores, Alex, and Jenny. The gluten-free bakers got their assistance from Natalie.

This was a particularly tough month to do the challenge because it is Thanksgiving here, and I stupidly (or brilliantly) opted to do this with S while we had 6 guests (so 10 people total) in the house. Because S, her twin, A, and their cousin, M, were all itching to bake, it became a team effort. I handled the hot sugar and the browned butter. They did most of the rest (that was the brilliant part).

I realize the icing job wasn't the most beautiful, but not bad for 2 4 year olds and a 3 year old! They LOVED this part.

You can see from this photo we kept the icing layer thin. Even this was a lot for me. But it was good icing, and EXCELLENT cake. We highly recommend the cake -- my dad had two pieces (skinny ones, but it's still a second portion). The kids highly recommend the icing!

The scariest part of the challenge was making the caramel syrup. Shuna isn't kidding about the sputtering. I JUMPED when I poured the water into the browned sugar syrup. But it was very cool to watch the process. The key is to trust that when she says dark amber, that's what she means. It's *not* burned.

I am looking forward to future daring baker challenges! S says,"Me too!"

8 comments:

Ruth said...

Great first challenge. I think its lovely that you and your daughter are doing this together. The cake looks beautiful

raquel said...

I'm jealous that your cake looks darker. :( I must have not made my syrup properly because my cake looked light. I think it's awesome that your daughter is interested in baking with you.

Gretchen Noelle said...

Yeah for team efforts! I think the little ones are future bakers! Welcome to the Daring Bakers!

Unknown said...

Yeah, I don't think I left mine long enough...oh, well! What fun to make this with children. I bet they had a blast...wonderful job!

BC said...

I am so glad you didn't get burned. It was a bit nerve wracking though.

ingegerd said...

great first challenge!

Eva said...

great job! Your cake looks better than mine and I'm an adult and I iced it all by myself.

dolly said...

Great......
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