Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm no stranger to a good dessert so when I saw that this weeks Sunday Supper theme was a holiday dessert I got into the kitchen and started baking.  I was lucky in that I had volunteered to make a desserts for a few kids at school who had learned their prime numbers to 100.   The teacher had given then challenge and gave the students 3 weeks to study.  In the end only 3 students knew their prime numbers so the teacher and I decided they deserved a treat.

When I think about cupcakes that both kids will love and that would be great for the holidays I immediately came up with chocolate.  Kids love chocolate and people love chocolate at the holidays because they are stressed out and chocolate is comfort food.  So I started with my basic chocolate cupcake recipe but I wanted to make it stand out.

That's when I thought about caramel together with the chocolate.   One of my favorite pairings is chocolate and caramel.   So instead of just making a salted caramel frosting, which I did do, I added some caramel notes to the cupcakes as well. In order to do this I used salted caramel creamer.   That's right, I substituted part of the milk for the flavored creamer. Because the cupcakes are chocolate the caramel just had a faint note in the cupcakes which was perfect.

When it came time to decorate the cupcakes I went with a salted caramel buttercream.  Again, I just used a simple buttercream recipe and then flavored it with caramel syrup.   Once the cupcakes were frosted I drizzled caramel sauce on top.

Then, because I really wanted that salted flavor to come out with the sweetness, I added a pretzel on top.   I thought it was the perfect thing to tie the cupcake and frosting together.  Plus I knew the kids at school would get a kick out of having the pretzel on top of the cupcake and my family would think it made the cupcake really pretty at the holidays.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

22 mins

Total time

42 mins

 

A delicious chocolate cupcake with caramel notes topped off with salted caramel buttercream.

Author: Heather Lynne

Recipe type: Cupcakes

Serves: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

• 1 stick butter
• ½ c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• ½ c. caramel creamer
• ¼ c. milk
• 1¼ c. flour
• ⅓ c. cocoa powder
• 1½ t. baking powder
• 1 t. salt

For the Salted Caramel Buttercream:

• ½ c. butter
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 T. caramel sauce
• 2-3 c. powdered sugar
• 1 t. sea salt

For the topping:

• Caramel Syrup
• 12 pretzels

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put cupcake liners in 12 muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar. Cream until smooth.
3. Stir in the eggs and mix well. Stir in the vanilla.
4. In a small bowl combine the caramel creamer and milk. Set aside.
5. In another small bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
6. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well. Stir in the milk and creamer mixture until smooth.
7. Add in the remaining flour mixture and mix until just combined.
8. Fill the cupcake liners ⅔ of the full. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Cool completely on a wire rack.
10. In a large bowl combine the butter, vanilla, and caramel syrup for the frosting. Mix until smooth.
11. Add the powdered sugar a half cup at a time until desired consistency is reached.
12. Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Drizzle with caramel sauce and then top with a pretzel.

Notes

A Hezzi-D Original Recipe

3.3.3070