Banana Cake with Caramel Frosting Disaster

What?? You say, disaster? You say, hey, that doesn't look like caramel frosting in the picture! So true, fans, it is chocolate ganache frosting! Let me start from the beginning! First, I made the banana layer cakes from a recipe I chose on foodnetwork.com. Not really happy with the height of the layers, so made 2 more layers. I could have made the layers in 8" pans so they would have been taller, but the recipe called for 9" pans. This is a risk you take when you choose a recipe you haven't made before. Ok, so on to the disappointing frosting. This recipe I found in the most recent Food and Wine. It was featured with a white butter cake, and they called it Caramel Icing. The picture looked great, and I thought it would be yummy with the banana cake. The recipe is pretty elaborate, kind of like making a caramel sauce, cook the white sugar and corn syrup til amber colored, add whole milk, cook til 235 degress on candy thermometer, stir in butter, vanilla and cream. I was really concentrating and following the directions exactly! At this point you are supposed to strain the icing into the bowl of the stand mixer and let it cool 15min. Then beat it at medium speed for 15 min. I started getting worried now because it is too runny, although the recipe says, "pour" over cake layers. Not happy. I make the decision to throw out (too distraught to eat it) this batch and try again! Here goes, I was careful to bring the temperature to 235. (oh yeah, forgot to add that I rushed to Kitchen Kaboodle and bought a new candy thermometer thinking mine was old and not working). I think at the beating at 15 min stage I was almost hyperventilating. Nothing much happening AGAIN!! Ok, then I put it in the frig. It set up a little so I poured it on each layer thinking maybe it would thicken in the frig. NOT! Called husband, who is on his way back from Duck football, begged him to stop and get chocolate to make chocolate ganache. (it's 8:45 pm)
So there ya go, I had to be creative and think of a frosting that would go with banana, pecans and caramel sauce. I love cream cheese frosting, but too sweet with the caramel, right?
The caramel soaked into the cake and was very moist, but not at all a frosting! Maybe some of the dinner guests will comment about their thoughts! I am not going to post the recipes because I think we can find a much better banana cake and I intend to figure out what is wrong with the caramel frosting recipe before you guys tackle it! So all in all, it was a learning experience, very frustrating and I definitely had to be creative!!
I'll be baking again soon, this time it's Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for my son in laws birthday on Sept. 19th. I'm crossing my fingers!
P.S. Never Give Up is Cakequeen Motto :)