Summertime: Yellow Cake with Two Versions of Caramel Frosting
I grew up in North Carolina and we spent summers on the North Carolina coast, specifically in Morehead City near Atlantic Beach, in a house my mother’s parents built in 1934, the year she was born. I loved everything about those summers–-hanging out with my cousins, trundling to and from the Beach Club sunburned, hot and happy, riding bikes up and down Evans Street, visiting my very first farmers market or the gift shop DeeGees right on the water, where everything smelled of fish, freshly caught or decomposing on a hot July pier or crispy fried at every restaurant in town. But my favorite single thing about our trips were cakes from the Cake Lady. As soon as we arrived at the house, my mom would be on the phone ordering up two or three cakes, one of which had to be her Caramel Cake. I loved that cake in that setting more than I have ever loved a baked item–-and I do love a baked good. The Cake Lady’s cake was rhapsodic, transporting, indescribable. You can read more about my relationship to Caramel Cake and to the Cake Lady in this article in Salon magazine.
For this post I am including one yellow cake and two caramel frostings you can try. The more challenging Caramel Frosting from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook has kept me on my toes for decades; I still haven’t mastered it with any predictability. For that reason I am giving you a truly easy frosting, a recipe a reader sent in when I first published the Cake Lady article referenced above. The easy version was a revelation then, and I return to it time and time again. The more challenging version is a little more sophisticated in its taste profile, but I know so many people, including myself dozens and dozens of times, who just cannot master this one. Don’t beat yourself up if you cannot get the hang of it, and please please don’t message me if you can make it flawlessly time after time.
With respect to the yellow cake itself, also known as “hot milk cake” in the South, my only advice is to work quickly and with a light hand.
For the Yellow Cake:
1 cup whole milk
½ cup/4 ounces butter
4 eggs, well beaten
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (or, 2 cups gluten-free flour blend)
2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Line two 8” cake pans with parchment paper cut to fit or parchment rounds
In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup of milk and ½ cup of butter to a boil; remove from heat and set aside to cool briefly
Combine 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoon of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of salt in a large bowl and mix well
In a separate bowl, beat together the 4 eggs until well mixed
Temper the eggs by drizzling in one tablespoon of the hot milk/butter mixture while stirring (this prevents the eggs from curdling)
Working quickly, pour the hot milk/butter mixture over the flour
Begin stirring, and pour in the beaten eggs, continuing to work quickly and mixing well, and trying not to let the hot milk cook the eggs before you get them mixed in; my mother says you have to be "young and strong" to make this recipe
Pour into pans and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, until lightly browned, the cake springs back when pressed lightly, and/or when tests done with a toothpick
For Caramel Frosting I (easier):
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup/8 ounces butter
½ cup milk
1 1-lb box (approximately 3 ¾ cups) confectioner’s sugar
Mix 2 sticks of butter and 2 cups of brown sugar together and bring to a boil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat
Boil and cook for 2 minutes (set a timer)
Add ½ cup of milk (will bubble up) and bring to a boil again; boil for 3 minutes
Remove from heat and allow to cool
Beat in 1 box of confectioner’s sugar (you may not use all of box) with an electric mixer, until frosting is the correct consistency for spreading
Frost the cake quickly once the frosting is made
Caramel Frosting II
(more challenging, from p. 405 in the Fannie Farmer Cookbook):
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons/1 ounce butter
⅔ cup heavy cream
Combine 2 cups of brown sugar, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of corn syrup, 2 tablespoons of butter, and ⅔ cup of cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan
Cook over low heat, stirring until sugar melts
Cover and cook for 3 minutes (set a timer); this prevents the frosting from becoming granular
Remove the cover and cook to about 240 degrees (you will need a candy thermometer for this), known as the soft-ball stage
Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm
Beat the frosting until thick enough to spread; the color will lighten and lose its sheen
Again, you will need to frost the cake quickly once the frosting is made! You don’t want the frosting to set into penuche candy-like consistency. If it becomes too thick, beat in some droplets of cream until you get the correct consistency.
This cake is delicious made with gluten-free flour, and/or you can serve this cake with fudge frosting instead of the caramel frosting, or with vanilla frosting with sprinkles.
And to throw a complete curveball at you, I recently discovered this recipe for Southern Caramel Cake by Millie Peartree (even her name sounds southern as though she is hailing from a beautiful pink kitchen in Beaufort South or North Carolina) in the New York Times Cooking app. You should make this one as well if you are a fan of caramel cake. You can’t have too many caramel cakes.
See below for PDF versions of this post’s recipes!
I for one, am very surprised publishers aren’t drooling over these cakes, your writing and this potential cookbook! You are inspiring me to bake and write more :).