Commitment Caramel Cake

I've been a little stressed out about papers and the end of the semester lately. The other day when the AC man was here I couldn't concentrate to write and I couldn't leave the house so I decided that I'd bake. I am so smitten with Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Foose. This cookbook is fantastic and I love reading it. I was flipping through looking for something sweet to make and I turned to this cake. The proper title reads Caramel Commitment Cake: For Committing someone to the Church, Marriage, or the Ground. You also have to be committed to the cake -- it's not for the faint of heart. 8 eggs, 5 1/2 cups of sugar, and 6 sticks of butter are some serious business. However, the end result is completely, 100% worth it. The taste of this cake is so amazing -- it's buttery and sugary and moist and delicious. And the frosting, oh my goodness, the frosting, it's so good! What this cake is not good for at all is your waistline. I cut one piece to share with Dudley, I cut a couple more pieces and wrapped them in waxed paper before I wrapped them up to freeze them, and then I brought the rest of the cake over to school because they love to nibble over there.
I will say, my cake was a sway-backed ugly stepchild to the cake that's in the picture next to the recipe. There's a reason that I only took a picture of a slice and not the whole cake. Because if you'd seen the whole cake you'd never want to make it. And the frosting isn't lumpy at all but I had some issues with mine. I beat it for longer than the recommended amount of time and it had turned opaque but it just seemed to slide right off of the cake. So, if anyone has any experience with this cake please let me know how it worked out for you. I'm seriously going to make this again because it's so good and because I hate it when I make ugly cakes. And my cake was uuuuuugly!
Happy May Day! To celebrate May and the coming of summer one lucky person will get a copy of Screen Doors and Sweet Tea! All you have to do is leave me a comment on your favorite thing about summer.

Commitment Caramel Cake
Screen Doors and Sweet Tea
Martha Hall Foose

Cake:
8 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups of cake flour
3 cups of sugar
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

Caramel Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups of sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
15 marshmallows
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Make the Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 9" round cake pans with nonstick spray and line bottoms with parchment paper. Lightly spray the parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and extracts; set aside.
3. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the butter a tablespoon at a time and blend until a shaggy mass is formed. Slowly add half of the egg mixture. Mix on low speed until smooth. Increase the speed to medium and slowly add the egg mixture, scraping the bowl as needed. Mix until well blended.
4. Divide batter between the prepared pans. Tap lightly on the counter to level. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cakes spring back lightly when touched in the center. (I am not sure if this is a typo because when I checked my cakes after 25 minutes they were still liquid in the center. I didn't need to push on them or use a tester because they swayed back and forth when I pulled on the oven rack. I ended up baking mine for 35 minutes. However, I have an older oven so bake as directed and be gentle when you're checking at 25 minutes). Remove to wire rack for 10 minutes to cool. Tip the cakes out of the pans and let cool completely right side up.
5. Slice each layer in half horizontally to form two layers of cake.

Make the Caramel Frosting:
1. In a heavy bottomed pot (Make sure that your pot is large enough! I used a 3 qt saucepan and it was a little tricky. There's nothing like having caramel come dangerously close to boiling over your pot and all over the cook top to make you very nervous) over low heat (I ended up going a little bit higher -- to about medium heat -- after the sugar dissolved) combine the butter, buttermilk, sugar, corn syrup, salt, and baking soda. Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Add the marshmallows. Cook and stir until the mixture reaches 238 degrees F. on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
2. With an electric mixer, beat the caramel until it begins to get cloudy and opaque, about 4 minutes (I did this with the whisk attachment in the KitchenAid because I don't have a normal electric mixer and it took about 10 minutes. Even still, I think that I should have beat it much longer because, in hindsight, I don't think that it was opaque enough and I think that was part of the reason that my caramel frosting slid all over the place). Working quickly, spread the frosting between the cake layers and then ice the surface of the cake. Let stand for at least 1 hour before serving.

In the margin notes of the recipe, Martha states that caramel icing can sense fear and if you don't psyche yourself out that it will be perfect. I wasn't scared of the icing but I don't think that I gave it enough deference. This icing definitely demands a little bit of respect, if you know what I mean!