Caramel Cupcakes
Can I just tell you how hard it is to find a recipe for caramel cake? Not yellow cake with caramel frosting, a CARAMEL flavored CAKE? It's difficult. Very, very difficult. So difficult that…
Caramel Cupcakes
Can I just tell you how hard it is to find a recipe for caramel cake? Not yellow cake with caramel frosting, a CARAMEL flavored CAKE? It's difficult. Very, very…
Ingredients
Cake
- 10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 and
- 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/3 cup caramel syrup* (see below)
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup milk, room temperature
Instructions
Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake pans with liners.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform. Sift flour and baking powder. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake liners 1/2 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack, completely before frosting.
*Because I didn't have the time to make homemade caramel, I used Hershey's Caramel - it's a jar of ice cream topping. Worked fabulously.
Caramel Cream Cheese Filling
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup caramel sauce
1/4 cup powdered/confectioners sugar
In a small bowl, combine all ingredients with a hand mixer until well blended and light and fluffy. Put mixture into a piping bag with a small star tip. Push star tip 1/3 way down into the top of each cupcake and lightly squeeze until filling starts to push back out of the top. Go slowly. Too much force can and will make your cupcake explode. Trust me. I speak from experience. =)
Caramel Frosting
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, (2 sticks) at room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered/confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup caramel sauce
Pinch of coarse salt
2 tbsp. heavy/whipping cream
Add the butter to the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Beat on medium-high speed 1 minute until smooth. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Mix in the vanilla, caramel sauce and salt until incorporated. Make sure the caramel sauce isn't too hot to avoid melting the butter in the frosting. Add the heavy cream and whip on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.
Recipe adatped from userealbutter.com
I always find caramel so sweet but if you like caramel then these look so perfect.
I’m still getting over the fact that your grocery store is open at midnight!
Looking at your blog, my new friend! We have different blogs for sure, but I can appreciate the thought of lovely caramel cupcakes. Clever!