This is not a cake

These little cakes are devious - they're not cake at all! They're candy in disguise! (That's Charlie the Unicorn, for Dan, btw)

Well, I guess that's the idea, to emulate the candy they were made to taste like - eating it is just like biting into a nice rich candy. 

I wanted to make a cake for my Mom's birthday visit yesterday, and when I came across this post over on How To Eat a Cupcake I stopped looking. (I won't post the recipe here, as she explains it very well)

First, the making of the buttercrunch candy - it took me three tries to get the candy right - first batch was grainy, second batch burned, third batch - perfect! I documented this with photos. The sacred heart is the second batch, fitting no? (The colors on my camera are coming out weird. Hrmmm..)

God I hate making candy. Sugar requires too much perfection/patience for me to handle.

The candy then has a layer of poured chocolate, and a sprinkling of pecans and sea salt. (Yes, sea salt!)

I decided on a simple white cake (actually, the recipe on the back of the SoftAsSilk box, it's not too bad). This I baked in  a 12in round pan, and then sliced into 4 thin layers. Then, in the most wasteful way, I used cookie cutters to make cute individual cakes. The leftover tidbits were munched on, but in a fit of anger I threw them out the following morning. Dangerous stuff.

Two more steps, almost done - next, the making of the caramel filling. This was awesome stuff, and you may question the salt, but don't, simply do not question the salt. Try it - you'll like it! (this goes for the sprinkling of salt on the candy as well, it is so critical to the taste)

After filling eat layer of the cakes with caramel, the final step was to make the ganache. Sadly, I only had half and half - which of course turned out some thin not-so-ganachey-ganach. it of course tasted and worked just fine, but didn't create the lovely silky chocolate coating I had envisioned.

These cakes were so rich, thick, and very tasty!