RECIPE: Southern Caramel Cake Icing

Finally- Caramel cake conquered! My last post, yielded a couple of recipes- Thank you! Today I set out to make the cake, I made the icing substituting cream for the half and half. Half and half... not so fond of it- I much prefer heavy whipping cream, sorry I love fat. Proportions were perfect though, I stirred the sugar and cream mixture to 238 degrees- soft ball stage. The icing thickened up perfectly during cooling, it is a little time consuming- an hour's worth of stirring over the stove. But, I will say- worth every single stroke, I licked the spoon and pot clean (yes, I know I have a problem). The icing is perfect- the true test will come when I try to make this mid-summer in 100% humidity, but for now I'm happy and I'll worry about that in June.

Caramel Icing

3 cups light brown sugar, packed

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a heavy pot combine sugar and cream and cook over low heat while stirring occasionally until mixture reaches soft ball stage- 238 degrees. (about 30 minutes)

Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla and stir an additional 20-30 minutes or until thick enough to spread on cake. I used my favorite 2 layer yellow cake, baked it in 8" pans and had just enough icing to cover and fill the cake.

Store cake covered at room temperature.

I'll post a photo soon-