4th Time's A Charm

We had a few friends over this evening, and I wanted to make a yummy dessert to share with them.

I was all set out to make a cupcake version of one of my favorite chocolate cakes.  Before I go on . . . there aren't any children looking over your shoulder, are there?

Is it safe? 

I've had this cake at pot-lucks many times, but I've never attempted to make it myself.  I'm sure you've had it before too.  In fact, if you ask your mom, she's probably tasted this cake also.  It's the "Better Than Sex Cake."  But we're calling it the "Better Than Almost Anything" Cake.  (There are children in the house!)

However, I wanted to make the cupcake version after a friend told me about the "Better Than Sex Cupcakes" her sister made a couple weeks ago.  She said, "they are AMAZING."  (There's that word again.) 

I grew up baking everything from scratch, thanks to my mom and Mrs. Kopf, my home ec teacher.  (Blessing #209)   It's so much better than cake mix out of a box, right?  And it's really not that tough.  All you do is dump everything together, mix it up, and pour it in the pan.  I searched the internet for a cupcake version and found 2 recipes. 

My first attempt at recipe #1 was a failure.  Part of the reason, was I over-filled them.  What a mess!

The only way I can explain the difference in texture and color of these cupcakes, is that the pan on the right is airbake, and the other is not.  Weird, I know.  My awesome husband helped me clean up the mess (#210), after we got the fire put out in the oven.  It was just a little fire where the batter fell onto the burner, so all is well.  But it sure stunk up the house for a while.   

I don't throw in the towel that easy, so I skipped my workout at Curves this morning and tried it again, filling the cupcake liners only half-full this time.  See how attempt #2 turned out?  

Not good.  Failure #2.  What causes the big craters in them? 

I searched the web for another recipe, and decided to try again, with a new recipe.  Things seemed to be going better.  Until I took them out of the oven. 

Why do they keep doing this?  Failure #3.  They don't taste too bad, but they look horrible.   Chad says, "God is trying to teach me patience."  (#211)

I didn't have time to try again, so I swallowed my pride and went to the store and came home with this:

After I get it all jazzed up with toppings, it will be delicious.   Next time, I will make my cake by scratch. . . I just ran out of time today. 

After poking holes in the cake with a chopstick, I poured sweetened condensed milk over the top.

Next came the caramel sauce.

I then covered the pan and stuck it in fridge four a couple hours.  I made the whipped topping while it was chilling.  And here's the finished product:

DEE-LISH!  Here's the recipe for the cake that actually turned out.  I won't waste your time with those awful cupcake recipes.

Better Than Almost Anything Cake
1 chocolate cake mix
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup (or more) caramel sauce (see below)
Whipped Cream (see below)
Heath Toffee Chips
Mini Chocolate chips

Bake cake as directed.  As soon as you take it from oven, poke holes in top of cake with chopstick, about 1" apart.  Slowly pour sweetened condensed milk over top of cake and let it soak in.  Slowly pour caramel sauce over top of cake.  Cover, and put in fridge for a couple hours or overnight, to let the flavors blend.  Sprinkle with toffee chips and mini chips.  Then, top with whipped cream.  Sprinkle with more toffee chips and mini chocolate chips.  Store in fridge.

Caramel Sauce
1 c. light corn syrup
1 1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. butter
1 c. Heavy Whipping Cream
In 2-quart saucepan, heat corn syrup, brown sugar and butter to boiling over low heat, stirring constantly. Boil 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in whipping cream; heat to boiling. Cool about 30 minutes. Serve warm. Store covered in refrigerator up to 2 months.

Whipped Cream
4 c. cold heavy whipping cream (1 Qt)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. granulated sugar
Whisk & large bowl - in the freezer for at least 15 minutes
For best results, make sure your heavy cream, whisk, and bowl are all very cold. Whisk cream on low speed until small bubbles form, about 30 seconds.  Increase speed to medium and continue whisking for about 30 seconds longer.  Increase speed to high.  Just before the cream becomes soft and billowy, slowly add vanilaa and sugar at the sides of the bowl, and continue whisking.  Stop whisking when the cream has doubled in volume and is smooth, thick, and forms hard peaks.  Be careful not to over beat or it will turn to butter. Use half of the whipped cream on cake, and freeze the rest for later.

As I was searching for a good "from scratch" recipe, I happened upon the recipe for "Better Than Johnny Depp Cake", which I'd like to try some day.  It's the modern-day version of the "Better Than Robert Redford Cake".  If you want to know the history of this cake, check out her blog by clicking the link.

Our friends loved the cake, by the way.  And when Jacob came home from college tonight he said "what in the world happened to those cupcakes?"  (They're going in the garbage tomorrow.)