Salted Caramel

A few months ago Laney and I were in Bethesda and decided to stop into their branch of Georgetown Cupcake before dinner. (Great idea to have dessert first. Also, side note about the Bethesda branch of the cupcake store? Zero line. It was awesome. I will never wait in the Georgetown Cupcake line.* Its WAY too long.) Anyway, they had a Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcake and it was divine. We loved it.

So when I asked Laney what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday last month, she asked for a Salted Caramel Cake. And Martha Stewart helped me out when I googled for a recipe and I ended up making the Sweet and Salty Cake by Baked Bakery in New York City.

The real cake, the one make by Baked Bakery is SO much prettier than mine. Check it out HERE.

I also want one of those spinning cake stands, but isn't this blue one cute?

I think this is my favorite picture of the cake. It was so rich the pieces had to be really thin.

And now the cake was totally destroyed but the layers were thick and the frosting was delicious.

Things I want to get better at:

• making frosting. I don't know why but mine wasn't that smooth, and I had it mixing forEVER. Maybe my butter was too cold. But next time, I want it to look like professional frosting. 
• frosting cakes in general. I don't think I'm BAD at it, but I'm not good either. I need a spinning cake stand and a frosting spatula.
• making caramel. I may have burned it BAD and ruined a pot. It took me three tries to get it correct.

Would I do it again? Oh, you bet. It was really fun.

P.S. All pictures taken by the lovely Debbie.

*source