Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Cake Talk


Can we talk about cake for just one minute?
For Moira’s birthday I made chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting.
I found the recipe through Pinterest.  Looks amazing, right?

Through the process of making it all, I couldn’t wait to finish the final product.
The cake batter was tasty!  And Caramel frosting?  Yes please!
But…  I ended up being rather disappointed.
The cake has potential for me.  But, I found it far too heavy in thick layers.
I baked my cake in 6” pans.  The final cake ends up cool looking – slender & tall.
If I were to make this recipe again, I would most certainly spilt each cake layer in half.
And I think I would make syrup to brush on each layer, too.
This cake recipe seems it may be at its best in a trifle. 
The frosting was sad for me, too.  The flavor of caramel was great.
But, I am reminded with the frosting that I do not like basic powdered sugar buttercream.
I find it gritty & overly sweet.  Some people believe they don’t like frosting.
I think that belief may be the fault of powdered sugar buttercreams.
Before you write off all frosting, please try meringue buttercream.  
The difference is incredible.



And, if you don’t want to make cake yourself, please try Kari’s Malva Pudding.
Really. 
Kari is a Santa Cruz local with a small business just making amazing malva pudding cakes.
We first tried the cake when she was giving samples at our Nob Hill grocery store. 
We loved her South African accent & her lovely personality.  And we loved her cakes.
The kids kept asking her for more & more (& she was happy to share). 
It was hard to pull them away. 
Gillian exclaimed multiple times, “I just can’t besist that cake!!”  (besist = resist)
The cake is not sold everywhere - yet..  Check out the locations here.
Kari makes a Chocolate cake & a Caramel cake. 
We get one of each & then we split each of them in half
& put half caramel cake & half chocolate cake in a box.
Then throw the boxes in your freezer for when you want an amazing dessert last minute.
We had the lovely pudding cake for our mother’s day treat.
  

5 comments:

Brittany Martin said...

I used to work with Kari at Monte Vista, 8 or 9 years ago. I stumbled across her cake business on-line a year ago or so, I'm glad you like her stuff! I need to try it sometime.

Stef said...

I love the pic you captured of her! So sweet.

I'm yet to find an actual amazing recipe on Pinterest. I finally gave up and went back to my beloved allrecipes.com and other recipe websites.

Did you know Pioneer Woman has her own Food Network show now?! You like her food, right? I might be confusing you with someone else. Kara and I watched 2 episodes tonight and though a little cheesy, the recipes look hearty and delicious!

Erin said...

Cool Brittany, you know Kari! She was so nice when we met her. The pudding cake is tasty. I think you'll love it.
Stef - some good & some bad on Pin boards, that's for sure. Most recipes are pinned for looking good. Not all taste good. :) I get most of my recipes on Epicurious. I have tried a handful of PW's recipes. Some are great. Some I would not make again. So, I am not sure if that makes me a fan or not. :)

Stef said...

I'll have to try Epicurious! I think I used to use them years ago and then probably forgot over time.

Stephanie said...

I'm glad you said the thing about frosting. I almost never like it - toooo sweet.

That said - I do like cream cheese and/or whipped cream based frostings sometimes. (But only sometimes).

stephanie@metropolitanmama.net