sticky caramel pinwheel cake

The best part about joining baking groups is that one gets to try making things that one normally would never have thought of trying.

It was the knowledge that I would have to make these pinwheels that prompted me to start experimenting with yeast. And this could be one of the best things to happen to me in recent history. I got out of my comfort zone, and have developed an interest in making breads.

So today, I share with you how I made these really, really yummy sticky caramel pinwheels. It is more of a bread than a cake, really. What I really love about these is the fact that they are sort of like cinnamon buns (which I absolutely love) and that they are not overly sweet. In fact, I was a bit worried that the teens in the house may not like them in the event that they were not sweet enough!

This is where having a thermometer really helps. If you place yeast into water that is too cold, nothing happens. If you place them in water that is too hot, nothing happens either! For a novice bread-maker like myself, it helps a lot if I know that I am doing the right thing. Here's a giveaway for a cooking thermometer if you do not have one yet!

Below is a series of pictures of what happened to my yeast. Into water that was 105˚F to 115˚F, I added a packet of yeast and a pinch of sugar. I stirred, and set it aside.

Whoa! That happened in the space of 10 minutes!! That was pretty cool, actually. :)

In a sauce pan over low heat, I added butter and milk. I melted the butter.

Then this was transferred into a mixing bowl, and I added sugar, salt and vanilla extract. I waited for this mixture to cool to 105˚F to 115˚F.

The yeast was added to this, then the eggs were added one by one and beaten into the mixture.

Finally, I swapped the paddle for a break hook, and added the flour in stages.

The dough was very sticky, so I finished the kneading process by hand, and added a little more flour as I went along. The resulting dough was sticky, but not overly so. I shaped it into a ball, coated it with some oil and placed it back into the mixing bowl (and covered with a piece of damp cloth) to proof for 1.5 hours.

In the meantime, I made the caramel by melting butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan, stirring once or twice. This would take about 8-10 minutes over a small fire.

This was poured into a greased 9x13-inch baking pan and set aside.

When the dough had roughly doubled in size, I placed it on a work surface and rolled it out.

I slathered on the melted butter and scattered cinnamon sugar on the dough.

Then I rolled the dough - I need to roll this a lot more tightly, as I had learnt from this experiment! - and cut the dough into pieces.

The dough was placed in the baking tray, and covered with a wet towel. This was set aside for about an hour, at the end of which the dough would have risen and expanded to fill in the gaps.

The only thing left to do was to bake the rolls.

I turned the cake out of the baking pan immediately onto a wire rack once it was baked, and resisted eating the entire thing all by myself since it was way past mid-night by the time I had finished baking.

It didn't take long for the entire thing to disappear from the kitchen the next morning!

For the full recipe, please visit Jasline of Foodie Baker and to view other members' bake, drop by The Home Bakers (THB).

We are a group of home bakers who are currently baking from "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas, until each recipe from this book has been baked. This is our bake no. 27 and we have 33 recipes more to go. If you are interested to be a member and join in our bakes, you may drop me an email at kitchenflavours@yahoo.com.