Conquering Caramel

Take a look at this salted caramel sauce.

Look! I tried to be all fancy with a fabric background!

Doesn't it look divine?

It tastes delicious, too.

And I actually MADE it!

After seeing salted caramel things floating around on Pinterest for a couple months, I resolved to make some salted caramel cupcakes for a friend's baby shower this week. Hey, if everyone on Pinterest was doing it, I could certainly do it, too.

Erm. Perhaps not.

The recipes were all deceptively easy. Sugar+Butter+Heavy Cream+Salt=Salted Caramel Sauce. How hard could it be?

Answer: Hard.

I started by using a Pinterest tutorial. I like tutorials that have lots of pretty pictures, and this one fit the bill. So I tried it on Sunday. I couldn't really tell when the sugar turned "too dark" (it happened so fast!) so I just added the rest of the butter, cream, salt anyway. Then I tasted it. Ew. It tasted like burning. For a second I was like, "Maybe it's supposed to takes like that...?" Ha.

Yesterday I tried again. I used a VIDEO tutorial and watched it three times. I turned the heat lower and watched the sugar VERY closely. And again, I watched it burn. I didn't add all the other ingredients because, let's face it, cream is expensive. So it turned into a black mess molded into the bottom of my pan, a lot like this:

Ewwwww.

So I was pretty bummed out. I fancy myself to be a pretty decent baker, and caramel was alluding me! And apparently everyone in the whole world thought it was "easy" and "simple" (according to Pinterest). I had been defeated. I decided I would just make another type of cupcake instead. 

But I woke up this morning with a new resolve. I will persevere! Caramel sauce will not beat me down! 

Obviously I am in need of a little victory in my life.

So I searched the internet for yet another tutorial. I found one that added water to the sugar. This was different. Maybe I should give it a go. The pictures on the tutorial were slightly less pretty, but I was willing to give it a try.

And YAY! It worked! I conquered the elusive salted caramel sauce!

Jordan and I will be feasting on caramel corn, caramel apple pie, and caramel cupcakes for a long while now. And the baby shower will have caramel cupcakes! The day is saved! Jamie is victorious!