Mom's caramel cake

My mom has always baked this cake ever since I can remember. I even celebrated a birthday in school cutting this cake with my best friend. It has been a family favorite for years and is the simplest of recipes to prepare. I've called it a caramel cake because some of the sugar is caramelized before adding it to the cake mixture. And this is how you do it.

Ingredients:

1. Flour - 3/4 cup
2. Sugar - 3/4 cup powdered
3. Sugar - 1/2 cup for caramelizing
4. Unsalted butter - 50 grams
5. Eggs - 3
6. Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
8. Powdered cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg - a pinch of each 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Caramelize the sugar. To do this, heat the sugar in a bowl over medium heat till it melts and turns a dark reddish brown. When that happens, remove from heat and add a dash of water and mix well. This stops the caramelized sugar from solidifying. Be careful when you add the water. There will be a lot of spluttering. 
3. Beat the eggs, butter and powdered sugar on medium speed till creamy.
4. Mix the flour, baking powder and spices and fold it into the egg mixture. 
5. Add the caramelized sugar and vanilla essence and mix well.
6. Pour into a greased baking tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.
7. Take out, cool and serve. 

This works brilliantly well as an accompaniment to your evening tea and also with some ice cream!