Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Ok, so I suppose by now you're onto me. You may have guessed that I have a slight obsession with cupcakes. This is the 3rd cupcake recipe (or is it the fourth...?) that i've posted. But I can't help it! I love cupcakes. They're just so cute. And yummy. And they're easy to share,  And did i mention how cute they are? *Sigh*
Anyway, this one is a salted caramel cupcake! Mmmmmm! Since I love cupcakes and salted caramel seems to be having a moment right now, this sounded like the perfect thing to bake.


There are 3 different components for this recipe. There's the fluffy vanilla cake, the gooey caramel filling, and the tasty salted caramel buttercream! 


We'll start with the cake.
Here's the ingredients:

2 whole eggs

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 cup sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

***Make sure your butter and buttermilk are at room temperature! It is a very important part of this recipe.

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Don't forget the extra yolk. 

In a  large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. If you have a stand mixer, take advantage of it for this recipe! My arm got very tired as I only have a hand mixer. Turn your mixer on low speed, then slowly, a few pieces at a time, add your cubes of butter. Keep mixing until all of your butter in incorporated, and it is uniformly textured with no large butter chunks left. 

Slowly add the buttermilk mixture with the mixer still on low.  When it is all added, turn the mixer speed to medium and beat for 1 1/2 minutes, or until the batter is light and fluffy. 

Put in muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then place on a wire rack. 

Now you'll need to make the filling.

It's just a simple caramel sauce recipe. 

1 cup sugar

6 tablespoons salted butter

1/2 cup whipping cream.

kosher salt 

Put the sugar in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Stir it occasionally. After a 5 minutes of so, the sugar will begin to liquefy and form chunks. 

Now stir it continually until the sugar is completely melted, then wait 30 seconds to a minute for the sugar to turn a nice brown color. 

Then add the butter. It will get all foamy and crazy but just keep stirring it until it is all melted. 

Then remove it from the heat, wait 5 seconds and add the cream gradually.

Add a few sprinkles of kosher salt and it is all finished!

This would be DELICIOUS over ice cream!

To fill the cupcakes, I cut a small hole from the top. 

Then I spooned the caramel sauce into the cupcake crater

Then I placed the chunk back on top. It doesn't have to be perfect because it will just be covered up by frosting anyways. 

Speaking of Frosting...

You need

1/4 cup granulated sugar 

2 tablespoons water 

1/4 cup heavy cream 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 sticks salted butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

It starts about the same way the caramel sauce does. Add the sugar and the water to a saucepan. Stir it once so it is mixed together, then place it over medium high heat and leave it alone after that. 
You must resist the urge to stir, otherwise the sugar crystalizes and that will ruin your caramel.

Once it turns a nice amber color (see above), remove it from the heat and add the cream. Stir until smooth and set aside to cool. (For faster cooling, transfer it to another bowl.)

Meanwhile you will make a basic buttercream. Add the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla to a bowl and beat until cute and fluffy. When the caramel has mostly cooled, add it to the buttercream and beat it. 

TIP:If you add the caramel when it's too hot, you will have a tasty frosting soup. Not really what we were going for....

Now, all you have to do is frost those babies and you are ready to eat!!! 

Ta-Da!

I brought them up to Mt. Emily and they were gone pretty quick. Everyone said they were delicious!