Chocolate Cake With Penuche Frosting, The Verdict

The finished cake

I saw this frosting recipe on Food52, it is family recipe from editor Lindsay Jean Hard and thought a caramel frosting would be nice on the cake. The frosting couldn’t be easier to make. I doubled the recipe because the recipe frosted an 8 inch cake and mine is 9 inches and used 4 oz of salted and 4 oz of unsalted butter, because who doesn’t love salted caramel!! It really is a lovely frosting, and so simple to make. A quick caramel that is whipped with some powdered sugar, thats it.

Penuche Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 to 2 cups powdered sugar
In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and stir in the brown sugar. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the milk, raise the heat, and cook until the mixture boils. Remove from heat, and let it cool until the mixture is lukewarm.
Gradually stir in the powdered sugar, beating until smooth. NOTE: It took the better part of an hour and a half to bring the caramel to room temperature but I think it’s important for the outcome to make sure your caramel is not warm at all. Also, I folowed the instructions and cooked the caramel 2 minutes before adding the milk, test it by putting a little bit on a spoon, let it cool slightly and rub between your fingers the brown sugar should be dissolved and it should not have any grit. I should have let mine cook a little longer as the brown sugar was not completely dissolved.

Because I had to bake the cake longer than the time called for on the recipe the edges were over done. The cake was crumbly making frosting it challenging. I made a crumb coat and refrigerated for 30 minutes and then added the other layer of frosting.  The layers were quite high, a very nice rise, I love a tall cake, it always looks so nice.

I don’t know if it was my oven it could have been but I did test it with my oven thermometer and the oven temp was 2 degree’s higher it registered 352 degree’s. I think based on this I would take the temperature down a little but honestly don’t think that 2 degree’s would have made an appreciable difference in the outcome.

Moist and tender and the frosting is great

The Verdict

Well it’s a great cake, very moist and tender I thought it was going to be dry but it wasn’t. The cake itself tastes amazing. There were a few slips and falls, the middle sunk not sure why and it did take longer to bake than it said in the recipe but all in all a wonderful cake. The frosting compliments it beautifully, caramel and chocolate as you all know is such a delicious combination I would definitely make this again but when I get my new stove.