The Great Caramel Cake Challange, Part 1

For three years I lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama while I went to  graduate school and I was miserable. A mountain girl by nature, I felt profoundly out of place in the extreme heat and the endlessly expanding flatness of the place, its impenetrable forests, its ever present mold and insects, the vague undertone of violence simmering just under the surface of the place. I missed the company of the mountains and the austere generosity of mountain people. I am glad to be back in a landscape where I feel at home. But for the short while I lived in Alabama I was persistently just a little bit sad; the place seemed to make space for that sadness in the heat and humidity. There was a remedy too, and that remedy was called caramel cake.

The Smitten Kitchen Caramel Cake. Awesome Sourdough Starter in Mason Jar

Southern food is famous and for good reason. It does what all great food does in some way: it makes something wonderful out of very little. It is not fussy. It is simple and good even in Alabama. When I was the saddest in Tuscaloosa, I would go across the tracks to a little dilapidated-looking place beside the railroad track, called Maggie's Diner where the first thing you encountered upon walking through the front door was a solid wooden butcher block table covered in great, golden slabs of caramel cake.

It's hard to imagine that any place is bad when there are spots like Maggie's Diner and food like caramel cake is readily available. Maggie's caramel cake, in my book, is the gold standard: a moist, dense cake with a slightly salty, creamy caramel frosting. A single dense layer took me all day to finish. (But, then again, I am a nibbler. Emmy calls me "2 Bite Chuck").Since leaving Tuscaloosa I have tried caramel cake at any number of diners, I watched Paula Dean construct a fussy two layer cake decorated with pecans (of course!) and, while they were all delicious, none of these cakes ran even a close second to Maggie's cake.

Maybe it's the little bit of humidity that has returned to the air this weekend or the cherry blossoms, but I woke up this morning and knew that it was caramel cake weather. I googled caramel cake recipes and found this one on my favorite cooking blog, Smitten Kitchen.

The Smitten Kitchen Caramel Cake

I like this recipe OK. I really like the caramel glaze, though it is just that, a glaze, not a frosting. It's beautiful and glossy but lacking the creaminess of Maggie's frosting. I'm not crazy about the cake, which is a little bit too light and a little too thin. I suppose this is to be expected; god love the baker at Smitten Kitchen but she is a Yankee (I am too...) and the caramel cake is, to me, a deeply Southern dessert and the right recipe will come from a Southerner.

So, I'm opening this challenge to you, dear readers, dear customers. Do you have a good caramel cake recipe?  If so post it below and we'll try it out here at the Merc. If we like your recipe the best, we'll name our cake after you and you will be famous in our little town. Want to be a taste tester for our caramel cake challenge? Come on down to the Merc, taste the cake and let us know what you think!We're looking forward to hearing from you!

-Kirsten

Spring Cleaning

It's Wednesday, sunny and warm after a snowy and cold Tuesday. I'm sitting on our fixed up front stairs waving at the good people of Todd as they drive past on Railroad Grade Road. The mayflowers are blooming beside our peeling beech tree. Daffodils and hyacinths are popping up along the roadside. Sure, we still have a little fire going in the bakery to keep the chill off, but it's definitely starting to look a lot like spring in the high country. The periwinkle is blossoming and the trees are slowly starting to bud and bloom. Our birds are a little rag tag in their molting season but who isn't this time of year?

Like our bird friends we're in the process of putting on our summer finery and gussying up the joint for y'all. Emmy is busy spring cleaning at the store during the week in order to make room for more seating this summer. We've got a new blog and a new look. If you've been by the bakery in the past month, or so, you may have noticed that the chicken cage/ dog hang out is gone and in its stead is a beautiful, brand new porch-- thanks to the guys at Heart of the High Country Realty (our new upstairs neighbors) for putting it in for us!

Spring is a time for celebrating change and growth. We're so pleased to be in the process of our own growth here at the Merc and hope you won't be shy coming in and checking it out. Some things, however, never change. We're still baking up high quality, reasonably priced treats and breads on the weekends and will expand our hours as soon as summertime is in full swing. Stop by and enjoy the weather and a treat. We're always happy to have you!

-Kirsten