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?

Source: kimberlytaylorimages.com via Erin on Pinterest

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.  

(like in this honey & jam post.)

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.