Buttermilk Cake with Carmel Icing!!!

OH! WOW!

So last night I made this buttermilk cake. I made it in three round cake pans. This morning I made the homemade Carmel icing, and wow is it amazing! I have never made Carmel icing. I was almost praying it would turn out right.

This was a crazy adventure because when I went to pour the carmelized sugar in the rest of the carmel mix it started to bubble, big time. So, I slowed up on the pouring, while reading the directions, again. (Mixture will begin to bubble)-it said. When I was FINALLY done icing the cake I placed it in the freezer for about 20 minutes to set, some more. After it had set I took some to the apt office to share with the lovely office folk. :) I wish I had some disposable platters I could use to give desserts away. I guess I should look into that because I love sharing my experimental desserts! :) :) :)
OK. So I have a lot of pictures for this because the icing took at least half an hour to prepare. AND then actually icing the cake took even longer because I had to do a crumb coat for each layer. BLAH. In between each coat I would shove the cake back in the freezer so it would set... Good thing I did. I forgot to level the cakes. DOH!!! So here are all the pictures...



caramel after its done mixing

Bottom layer, after iced

bottom layer, again

Top layer, crumb coat.

Finished product. It was kinda messy, but it was OK for my 1st try.

Here you can see the messy sides...

I wish I had remembered to level all the cakes...

This is the frosting.... YUM!

Cooking the frosting to 240 degrees F... I need a better AC or should do this only in the winter time.

This is the sugar...melted. I had to melt 3/4 cup sugar in a sauce pan and then pour it into the rest of the frosting mixture...blah blah blah

the sugar, as it clumps then melts.

This is the sugar being poured into the carmel mix (I jumped at first, it freeked me out).

Well, I don't know why my computer is being a bit slow today, but its not loading the rest of the pictures. I guess I will try and load them tomorrow.

Taste: 5/5 I never thought I would like caramel frosting... But this is delicious!
Try again? YES. Maybe after I take a cake class though. This caramel was a but tricky since it was warm. I don't like using warm icing (it was right off the stove, I let it cool for a little bit but I did not want it to thicken or harden...).
How many times I spilled: Um there is a little caramel on the stove and the cabinets, but that's because I wasn't being too careful about the spoon dripping when I was icing the cake... Not too bad today. I did not drop anything.
Level of experience needed: Probably expert... I have baked many cakes and have made homemade chocolate icing many times and this was still tricky. Plus whenever I was pouring the sugar into the icing it turned all carmely and I was getting worried. I thought it wasn't going to turn out right. But it did!
Lesson learned: Don't forget to level your cakes. ~sigh~

Gotta love it!

God made me a baker!