Spice Cake with Caramel Icing

Cake:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 stick  margarine
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups flour
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t mace
1/2 t allspice
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1 cup plus 2 T whole milk
1 t vanilla
 Icing:
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 t vanilla

• Heat oven to 325. Grease and flour tube pan.  With a mixer, cream butter, shortening, sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time and mix until smooth.
• Sift dry ingredients, twice.  Add to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk and vanilla.  
• Pour into pan and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool in the pan 10 minutes and then turned out onto a rack until room temperature.
• Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the sugar and cream until smooth then bring to a boil for 1 minute.
• After the mixture has cooled, beat in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Ice the cooled cake.

This cake was added to the Thanksgiving dessert list this year instead of the fig thing. It's essentially a pound cake topped with an unbelievably delicious layer of unsightly icing.  If the icing seems too thick, keep beating it and adding dribbles of cream until you like it's spreadability.