While the ice cream is freezing, I decided to make the cake layer. I chose a recipe I saw online for a caramel apple cake. I cut the recipe in half because I only wanted one 9" round and I omitted the frosting part. I definitely want to make just this cake on its own eventually, it was really moist and flavorful. You can find the original recipe here: http://www.ahintofhoney.com/2009/10/caramel-apple-layer-cake-with-apple/
Ok ok...so who looked at the picture and sees a weird middle section that's fallen or crumbled? Well, when I took the cake out of the oven it looked perfectly done. The sides pulled away from the pan, the top was springy, the color looked right, the timer was up and a toothpick came out cleanly. But after I let the cake cool, I went to cut off the top to make it level and found out that the center of the cake wasn't cooked all the way through, aaahhh! You can't just rebake it or it will dry out the parts that are already cooked. So I took a gamble and cut the center section out of the cake and just rebaked that part, LOL. it didn't work great but it wasn't noticeable to anyone but me once it was frosted.
This might have to be my birthday cake every year, yum YUM YUMMM!