Caramelooza!!

So the Daring Bakers Challenge for November was a Caramel Cake with Caramel icing and an optional project of making chewy caramels. Caramel is sometimes my Nemesis and sometimes my friend, so I went into this challenge looking to conquer sugar! Here is the recipe provided:

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon (http://eggbeater.typepad.com/), as published on Bay Area Bites (http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/).
and
Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich, Artisan Press, Copyright 2007, ISBN: 978-1579652111
Since the caramel syrup was needed for the cake and icing I set off to make this one first.

Once the sugar gets going its just a waiting game until it reaches the right temperature and color. The main problem I had was that my three thermometers all read different temperature and eventually broke. Which makes working with sugar almost impossible.

But here is a sample of my caramel syrup...

Then I set off to make the cake...which I decided to make cupcakes instead so I could take them to work and give away easier. The cake was relatively simple and I didn't have problems with it.

I had to try one before I got the icing ready.

While the caramel syrup was cooling I made the chewy caramels. Which given my thermometer state was a little tricky. Right before starting them I tried to calibrate all my thermometers to no avail....so in turn my caramels turned out a little harder than I would have liked. They are delicious though!!

Here is my finished cupcake after icing:

A fun and yummy challenge....hopefully I will get a new thermometer for Christmas so I can make more candies!!