Let me begin by stating that caramel has long been my nemesis. I have attempted to make an acceptable caramel a number of times without success. So what was I thinking when I invited my sister-in-law and her husband over to celebrate his April birthday with a promise of a cake? Specifically this cake? Maybe I missed the word “caramel” in the title. So I found myself on a Saturday morning realizing that they’d be over the next afternoon to celebrate and I had the face the music.

The dreaded caramel sauce must be made first because some of the sauce is drizzled into the cake before it is baked. But I needed to have heavy cream and a couple of tablespoons of butter come to room temperature before I could begin. So I put those things out on the counter and went for a walk. I came back, and got started. To make caramel, you simply cook sugar and water (and in this recipe, light corn syrup as well) until it turns into caramel. Sounds so simple. In the past, I somehow never got it quite right. But the entire recipe depended on my success so I rolled up my sleeves and began. I selected a medium size sauce pan, added the sugar, water and corn syrup and placed the pan over medium-high heat.

And then I just stood back, watched and waited. I decided I wasn’t going to try to brush down any crystals that might form on the side of the pan since that had caused problems in the past. So I swirled the pan occasionally, but otherwise left it alone. I tested a couple of times for the color change by dropping a drip onto a white plate. Both times it wasn’t quite there. It was rather hard to tell whether or not the mixture was coming to the right color because of all the bubbles on top. All of a sudden, the bubbles turned a deep amber. I turned off the heat immediately and added heavy cream, butter and (oops!) vanilla. Salt was supposed to be added first and the vanilla added after mixing the other ingredients, but it didn’t seem to matter. The caramel was perfect. Whew!

Next, the cake batter. Flour, baking powder, cinnamon and baking soda get a whisk. Egg whites and a whole egg are stirred together. Then butter, canola oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla are mixed in a stand mixer. The egg mixture is slowly mixed in, followed by vanilla. The flour mixture is added, alternating with room temperature buttermilk.

Scrape the batter into a springform pan.

Time to swirl in some of that beautiful caramel sauce.

Into the oven until deeply golden, pulling away from the sides and a tester comes out clean, 44 minutes for my cake.

After the cake cooled, I wrapped it in foil. The caramel sauce was in a jar in the fridge, waiting for its next star turn the following day.

About an hour before our guests were expected, I softened the caramel in the microwave. To make the frosting, caramel sauce is mixed in a stand mixer with confectioners sugar. Mine was a bit thick, so I added heavy cream until the frosting was the right consistency to spread easily over the cake.

I cut the cake in half, revealing the marbling of caramel.

Frosting goes on this half and then the other half of the cake goes on top. After the whole cake was frosted, I finished with some chopped pecans.

Our guests arrived and there was much acclaim over the cake’s appearance. But how would it taste? I was afraid that caramel plus confectioners sugar would equal too sweet. But we all agreed it was delicious and just right on the sweetness scale. This cake got me over my fear of caramel. It makes a lovely special occasion cake. Its looks are impressive and so is the taste.