Entertain with Courage

Have you ever been asked to make some dessert or dish for an event, and not really sure how it's going to turn out? But you are up to trying, and know you have some abilities, so you agreed to. Eventually, a little fear will approach your thoughts and those can rob you of the peace and elegance of performing with excellence.

No this cannot be!  A celebration is a time to not worry, but celebrate in the gathering as well as the preparing.

I had a chance to make a salted caramel cake recently for a bridal shower, it was my first cake of this flavor.
I made 4 to test the cake for density, crumb, taste, moistness. My husband was my tester, he is the only one I know who can eat 4 cakes in 2 weeks and lose weight. He says it's yoga, I say it's amazing.

With all that I ended up making one of my all time favorites, the cake part.  Its a vanilla rum yogurt cake, and I added about 2 tablespoons of the caramel into the mix.  The frosting is a  butter cream, cream cheese, with a little caramel mixed in and , drizzled with salted caramel. Topped with chocolate covered caramels.  I made 3 layers and before the cream I added caramel to each layer.  When adding caramel to the frosting, add a teaspoon at a time for texture, it can easily separate. So be careful, each layer has caramel anyway so you can skip it all together if you want.

 If I would change anything about what I had done, I would have brought the darker caramel with me, to add a bit more for color, however everyone at the party loved it. It was delicately sweet and so moist. It really was a hit and I enjoyed watching everyone eat. :)

Yogurt Rum Cake recipe:

This makes 3  8-inch layers.  Butter or oil pans, then dust lightly with flour. Preheat oven to 350. Bake 20-25 minutes. Check center for done

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups of cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2  teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 Rum
1 1/2 cup whole-milk yogurt (I used Mountain High whole fat)
1/2 cup safflower oil
1/2 cup of salted butter
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons to ¼ cup caramel, if not using add ¼ cup to sugar
PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat three 8" circle  with oil or butter dust with flour; tap out excess. Whisk  flour,  baking powder, and kosher salt in a medium bowl. Add Rum and vanilla to sugar in large bowl and with fork or fingers rub together. Add whole-milk yogurt, butter and safflower oil, 4 eggs,  whisk to blend. Fold in dry ingredients just to blend. Add caramel, blend.  Pour batter into prepared pans; smooth top. Bake until top of cake is golden brown and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert onto rack; let cool completely. Wrap in foil before cooled and refrigerated, very moist cake.
This is a moist cake so we are leaving in the pans to cool a little longer so that the entire cake comes out when removed without cracking.
Can be made up to 2 days ahead, my favorite is one day ahead.

Caramel sauce: make a day before you make the cake 
1 14oz can of condensed milk in saucepan,
2 tablespoons of rum, dark or light does not matter
1 tsp of vanilla
1 Tablespoon of heavy cream
1 tsp of Fleur de sel
2 Tblsp of brown sugar
Add everything to saucepan except Rum and vanilla and heavy cream. Heat on low to medium, when warm bring to medium, stir and keep eye on color and do not let it get too hard. I did not use a candy thermometer. and my first batch had perfect color, but would not blend into frosting.
This takes about   20-25 minutes, it is a ligther honey color.
For the dark color, I actually bought Cajeta caramel spread, Coronado brand, it is the darker one in the picture that I used for a drip. This is made from goats milk and is delicious. Just remember to pour more on the inside so that when it drips there is not a huge pool of caramel on the sides. 


Frosting:

This is enough when mixed lightly each layer of cake and top, just a bit on the sides, so when caramel runs down it will not make the cake soggy.  You may put on cake 1 day ahead.
1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
1 stick of butter softened
4 oz of cream cheese, (for thickness without extra sweetness)
1 tsp of vanilla
1-2 tsp of milk as needed
Using hand mixer, whip it together, add a tablespoon or two of cooled caramel sauce.
Refrigerate all together 30 minutes.
Take out 5 minutes before ready to spread on cake. Want it soft enough to not spread, but not take cake apart.
Gently lay caramel on each layer of cake then add frosting and lay next layer on top till all three are together.

  

The sides are lightly frosted and not too thick on top

Below I drizzed the caramel sauce and added a pinch of fleur de sel. Then used the other caramel sauce to line the outside about an inch or two from the edge, and let it drip. Then I just added chocolate covered caramels to the top and some sugar gold colored pearls I picked up from the baking section in the grocery store. I bake, not much of a decorator. Enjoy !!