For Rachel...

Because she wanted this one :)

This icing first made the rounds of my family a few years ago when my sister discovered it hiding in the pages of a lovely book called The Cake Mix Doctor by Ann Byrn. There was also a version of this that my grandmother made quite a long time ago (as in, I don't remember eating it) that was more of a butterscotch fudge recipe than an icing. After several years of mutual experimentation the recipe below is the one we usually stick closest too. Mine can come out soft or so crackly it falls off of the cake, my sister's tends to be softer and grainer due to her use of a spoon over a mixer and mom's can be anywhere in between.

Ann Byrn's book is a great one to pick up if you're not much of a baker but want to be or need to be quickly. The recipes feature a box cake mix as a base and ways to "doctor" them that render truly wonderful desserts. One I found all over the place in conjunction with her version of this icing was a banana cake topped with caramel icing and salted pecans. Sounds good to me. My sister's most requested accompaniement to this icing is a chocolate cinnamon banana cake. Sounds odd, but the whole thing comes together very well.


Caramel Icing
(Start to finish, this takes about 10 minutes)

Ingredients:
-8 tablespoons (one stick butter)-1 cup packed brown sugar (light, dark, doesn't seem to matter too much. use whichever one you like)
-1/4 cup milk (skim, whole, half & half--whatever is on hand)
-1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted


Directions:
Place the butter and the brown sugar, milk and vanilla in a medium-size heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for one minute and remove from heat. Add the confectioners' sugar. Beat until smooth. You can use a spoon for this, but I have my hand mixer set up and waiting when I start and use that.

Use icing immediately. As soon as the powdered sugar is incorporated the icing will change texture and become creamy/pasty instead of just liquid. To ice a cake I usually just pour the icing directly from the pot onto the cake. this works best for bundt cakes and sheet cakes that are still in the pan. If you've got a rack you can set the cake on while you pour you'll have a cleaner edge to the bottom of your cake, but where's the fun in that? Work as quickly as you can without burning yourself, and if you need to spread the icing do it as soon as it hits the cake--it will set in seconds. If you want a smooth finish, be careful and pour evenly.


Notes:
-Sift the powdered sugar. If you don't, you'll have little bits of clumped powdered sugar all throughout the icing, and it's not pretty. Tastes fine, looks creepy. If you're icing a cake for halloween that's supposed to look awful, then not sifting and not quite mixing thoroughly is the way to go.
-Fill the pot with water as soon as you're done with it. Trust me on this one. It's far easier to clean out later if it soaks for a while, as this icing is very nearly a fudge recipe and scrubbing candy off a pot that has had time to cool and dry is a royal pain.
-Have a spoon on hand to scrape out the pot a bit before you stick it in the sink. The benefit here is two fold: there's less in the pot to scrub out later, and the icing that hardens on the spoon is quite good on it's own.
-This should probably go without saying, but if you use a mixer, use caution. Boiling sugar and skin do not mix well, so start it at a low speed. I like using a mixer because it does such a thorough job so quickly and results in a smoother texture. Using a spoon is fine, but results in a slightly grainier finish to the icing. Either way, it tastes great.
-Cupcakes. My sister has iced cupcakes with this, and it's quite good that way. To do that, put the pot back on the stove when the icing is mixed and keep it on low and stir frequently to keep it malleable. Use the spoon to drizzle globs of the icing over the cupcakes, but keep the cupcakes in their tin while you do so. This saves your counters from drips (mostly).
-If the icing seizes up too quickly and you still have a large portion of it in the pot, you can warm it on the stove and melt it back into useablility. You can add a spoon of water or milk, but if you add too much that will change the texture.
-The longer the sugar boils the harder the icing will set. One minute or so will yield a firm, breakable icing when it sets. if you want it softer, don't boil it quite so long. You will probably need to make this a few times to get the hang of how it will react and what consistency you like best. I have found that this is a very easy way to finish a cake that just about everyone loves, so getting failed experiments out of your kitchen shouldn't be too difficult, assuming whoever else might be in your house lets you.