I thought I would end this year on a short sweet note.
My family has a birthday to celebrate before Christmas for my son, Ian, whose birthday is on the 23rd of December. Please don’t feel sorry for him! Birthdays are always birthdays not a hodge-podge of Christmas and birthday.
His birthday presents are always wrapped in birthday paper and we do take time to celebrate him. But several years ago, I quit making him birthday cakes. There is always so much other food to prepare for the holiday festivities and an abundance of sweet treats around that birthday cakes just started to feel like overkill. This year however I decided that a birthday cake was in order.
For a few years, a recipe’s been calling to me from my file (and I use that term very loosely) for a Martha Stewart masterpiece — a Salted Caramel Six Layer Chocolate Cake. Just the title alone made me drool but it always seemed like an ambiguous undertaking so the recipe continued to reside tucked away in the archives! Now truth be told my change of heart to make Ian a birthday cake this year may have been because of this blog but never the less the Diane meets Salted Caramel Six Layer Chocolate Cake challenge was on!
My cake turned out like this.
I’m sure you’ll notice that it’s only five layers not six! Who has three cake pans? I only have two and I made the mistake of not dividing the batter equally and ended up short on cake batter for a third pan! If and when I ever make this again I think I’ll stick with a standard issue two layer cake or possible four but not try for six!
I know it’s no masterpiece and I am NOT Martha!!! I think I’ve confessed that things requiring technique and patience (like cutting cake rounds in half or frosting cakes) are not necessarily my forte. I’m more about — does the creation taste good? Of course I admit that we eat with our eyes first and that if my cake looked like a “Martha creation” it might taste better, but honestly… I don’t think so! The caramel is velvety smooth, the cake moist and decadent and the frosting… well it was the creamy chocolate “icing on the cake”.
Mind you my first impression of the recipe was spot on. It is quite an undertaking. That said, if you want a cake loaded with smooth buttery caramel and chocolate-y decadence give this a try. I do not think you’ll be disappointed.
Sweet… thanks for visiting Palatable Life in 2015 and I hope you’ll continue visiting and perhaps finding inspiration here in 2016.
Be inspired,
Diane