if at first you don't succeed, try, try again... and again... and again...

So I decided to test out a cake from my new cake book!!! (I got it last Friday!) It's a carmel cake and you have to make a batch of carmel to mix into the batter... Well I've had a bad habit of not reading directions completely and assuming I know what I'm doing. Baking has almost cured me of this habit, but it still happens from time to time. And it happened when I made the carmel.
I read the ingredients and added all of the carmel ingredients into the pan (brown sugar, milk and butter). I had finished dissolving the sugar and was starting to let it carmelize when I re-read the directions to get ready for the next step and realized that I should have reserved some of the milk for the next step. First batch of carmel goes down the drain :::sigh:::
I was starting to get impatient with the second batch. I got the ingredients mixed in correctly, but I really didn't want to wait forever for the carmel to get to the "soft ball" stage. I decided that I'd crank up the heat a bit... just help it along... and I burned the second batch. So the second batch of carmel joined the first batch :::sigh:::
I was ready at this point to just settle for burnt carmel. But my husband knew it was going to bug me and he got me motivated to give it one more shot. I just had him keep reminding me to be patient so I wouldn't sneak in and crank up the heat :) You'd really think that just leaving the sugar to boil (you can't stir it or it'll be ruined) would be the easiest part of the baking process, but it's easily the hardest part for me, to just wait! But finally my patience paid off! The 3rd (and final!) batch of carmel came out perfect!!!

dissolving the sugar and melting the butterit starts to curdle up as it begins to boil

waiting... forever!

finally carmelized and the reserved milk has been wisked in

the batter all mixed and ready for cooking!yay! the cake is out of the oven!

it was good plain, but I felt like it needed more

so I decided to carmelize some apples to top it off

butter, milk, brown sugar and apple slices

here is the pretty plated cake I presented to my hubby!

and here's my piece! LoL but I think all mashed up is the best way to eat any cake!

I really like it. I think next time I make it I won't cook the apples as long. They were a little mushy and I think having them still crunchy would even better!

I'm thinking I might try out a coconut cake this weekend. I saw it in my book and I'm dying to try it. I'm not a huge fan of coconut, but the cake looked so pretty! We'll see :)

~tinu