Brownstone Front Cake - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose

Recently a friend told me about Brownstone Front Cake. It is a southern cake that his family made from time to time and it was a favorite. It sounded really good, with chocolate cake and a caramel icing, so I decided to make it. I had no idea what I was in for.

The cake itself isn't hard to make. In fact, the actual cake is delicious and very light and fluffy. But when it was time to make the icing, I knew I was in trouble. Unlike traditional frosting, caramel icing is poured over a cake. Also, this icing takes 45 minutes to cook on the stove, and you need to be near it to stir frequently, so it doesn't burn. There are few things grosser than burned caramel. Below is the recipe and some pictures of the fallout front he cake. As they say: if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again!

MAKE SURE THE CAKE AND ICING ARE COOL BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO ICE THE CAKE. SEE PICTURES BELOW FOR EVIDENCE OF THIS! You will be sorry otherwise!

**note - I found this recipe at BlairPeter, but there are many variations of this recipe.

Brownstone Front Cake

3/4 cup warm water 1 tsp. vanilla

3 Tbsp. cocoa 1 tsp. baking soda

2 cups sugar 1 cup buttermilk

1/2 lb. of unsalted butter, softened 3 cups all-purpose flour

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put cocoa in warm water and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix well with each addition. Add vanilla to cocoa and water and add to mixture. (At this point, my cake batter looked curdled, but don't dismay, it will change.) Add soda to buttermilk. Alternate adding flour and buttermilk mixture to bowl, mixing only to combine with each addition. I ended with buttermilk, made sure all was mixed. At that point I has gorgeously smooth batter a beautiful golden brown color. Pour equal amounts into 3 buttered and floured cake pans. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before icing it.

Icing

3 1/2 cups sugar (I know!) 12 oz. Carnation evaporated milk

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (!!) 1 1/4 tsp. vanilla

Cook sugar, butter, and evaporated milk in a heavy bottomed pot on stove top. Bring to a bubbling boil, then lower the heat to a bubbly simmer, stirring often and adjusting heat as necessary. Cook 35 to 40 minutes. Add vanilla, beat mixture in bowl of electric mixture until creamy.*This icing needs to cool down quite a bit before spreading it on the cake, so you could start it while the cake is baking. Spread a generous amount of icing between each of the layers, then spread the remainder of the of the icing over the cake. If icing still seems to be running, put everything in the refrigerator to cool down.