Cinnamon-scented cream cake with molasses burnt caramel

Today is my mom's birthday, so I made her a cake. My mom is every kind of quirky. Whenever I describe her to friends and acquaintances, I use a certain key phrase: "She's not a crazy cat lady, she's a crazy lady who happens to have cats." She loves to take care of things, so whenever she feels she has exactly no more time to dedicate to another living being, she acquires five more. It happened with rabbits, it happened with turtles, and cats, and her garden, and then chickens. Another defining characteristic is her assertion that all those beings love her the most. It happened with her kids (conjecture), it happens with her nieces and nephews (fact), and it will happen with our kids (definite) and her menagerie of orphaned slow lorises (projected). Among her other oddities is a proclivity for hurrying her offspring through the airport as if all the planes are on fire, insisting Nicholas Cage is "hot", alluding to her being "so sick of religion and politics in general" but never getting sick of saying "i'm so sick of religion and politics in general," and abandoning me and my sister whenever we go anywhere together, only for us to find her sitting on a bench outside of that very place, smiling blithely into the air like some weirdo. We do love you, though, Mom, just the way you are.


Cinnamon- scented cream cake


This is adapted from a Lottie + Doof recipe I have used a few times.

2 cups plus 2 Tbsp cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup heavy cream (I used 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup cream)

Put the oven on 350F. Butter and flour a 9 in. x 9 in. cake pan.
Place the softened butter and sugar in the mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, and beat on medium until the mixture turns white and looks fluffy, about 5 minutes.
In the meantime, sift the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon into a separate bowl. Set aside.
Pour the vanilla into the butter. Mix. Incorporate the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl well after each.
Pour in the cream.
Add in the dry ingredients in three batches. Spread the batter evenly in the cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes.
Take the pan out of the oven, cool for 10 minutes, and flip it out of the pan.

Molasses burnt caramel


1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup molasses

Place the first three ingredients in a medium saucepan, and set on the stove at medium heat.
Watch the sugar bubble. Eventually, it will turn a light brown.

Then it will turn a darker brown

It helps to take a spoon and check the darkness of the caramel instead of using the pan as a reference. The pan is deceptive, because it appears darker than it really is. The proper caramel will turn dark brown right before it starts to burn. This is when you need to add the cream and molasses. I made a mistake and let it go too far, but the error was a fortuitous one, because it added depth to the molasses.

Quickly take the saucepan off the stove, and pour the caramel all over the top of the cake.

I sprinkled cinnamons on!