Burnt Sugar Cake

Unlike caramel cake, which is a yellow or white cake with a thick caramel frosting, a burnt sugar cake has caramel inside and out. Step one is to caramelize sugar into a robust amber syrup, and step two is to enjoy its flavor and color in both the cake and the frosting. Though it strikes me as a cake from the mid-nineteenth century, our national culinary treasure Jean Anderson traces it only as far back as the