Friday 29 August 2014

Dark Chocolate and Salted Caramel Cupcakes




I am not embarrassed to admit I am new to the whole 'salty and sweet' thang. I never understood those people. Salty is great and sweet is great...make up your mind!

But then I tried Chicago style popcorn which is both cheese AND caramel. WHOA. No idea why the combination works but it does...

This had me questioning my whole paradigm. What else was I wrong about? Is it possible? Salty and sweet...is...good?


No.












It's great! And Salted Caramel is a NO BRAINER. I have been wanting to do something salted caramel for a long time. So for the cupcake we have a dark fudge cupcake with my Caramel Cream Frosting drizzled with caramel sauce and fleur de sel (French Sea Salt).  The frosting is the most smooth and creamy frosting I have ever made. It's such a lovely flavour to pair with the richness of the chocolate!


Et Voila.











Magnifique !


These could totally work as a Starbucks themed cupcake too. Just stick a little green straw in there and boom! Cupcake Frappucino!

I also made these for Eid -- yes, It was a treat filled weekend! And they are such a beautifully presented little treat. I decorated them with moons and stars made out of white chocolate. Those were admittedly  kind of ugly but that's okay because they were DELICIOUS!










Disclaimer: Do you see that weirdness underneath my beautiful frosting? The first batch I made....I used light cream cheese and too much caramel and it seeped EVERYWHERE. It made a huge mess and wrecked my cupcakes. But I didn't want to throw them out so I scraped it off and went to the grocery store to buy all new ingredients for another batch.


Huge pain? Yes. But worth it for this (And yes this one has the messy frosting underneath, too! Grrrrr) :











So grab a box of chocolate cake mix or your favourite chocolate cupcake recipe, cheat with store-bought caramel or a home made version and let's make frosting!











Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes  

Yields  12 extra large or 24 normal sized cupcakes



Chocolate Cupcakes


Ingredients:

  • 1 box chocolate cake mix
  • 1 box chocolate pudding
  • 3/4 cup sour cream 
  • 3/4 cup oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 shot espresso

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 
  2. Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl and sift together
  3. In a large bowl combine all wet ingredients and whisk together
  4. Add the dry mixture to the wet until combined
  5. Scoop into cupcake liners
  6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean
  7. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting 

Caramel Frosting

 

Ingredients:

  • 2 sticks butter, room temperature 
  • 1 8 ounce package regular cream cheese, room temperature 
  • 3-4 cups icing sugar
  • 2 tablespoons caramel sauce (home made or store bought)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon caramel flavour 
  • Optional Garnishes: Extra caramel sauce for drizzling, skor bits, chocolate chips, sea salt etc. 

Directions:

  1. Cream together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy 
  2. Add in 1 cup of icing sugar at a time until frosting becomes thick and sticks to the back of a spoon without falling off
  3. Add in extracts and caramel
  4. Ready to use immediately on cupcakes, cakes, etc!



That's it! Pipe with a round tip or no tip at all -- I didn't use a piping tip, I just cut the end off of a piping bag. Pipe, drizzle, top with sea salt or Fleur de Sel if you can find it and c'est tout! You are done and off to impress everyone who tries one of those beautiful little cakes! 


The cupcakes are quite a sight all on their own, aren't they?! I love their crackled tops!















But of course, the frosting adds a little sum'n sum'n. 









Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?







FO' DRIZZLE!


Hilarious joke, Summer. Hilarious!










 Can you see the SEA SALT?







 Wow that's TWO. TWO HILARIOUS JOKES. *Count Dracula laugh* ha ha ha ha !






I use this brand because it's a nice small amount. They have a whole bunch of different kinds of specialty salts and sugars! I was very excited to find it!



With or without the Salted Caramel....these are beautiful.










 And naturally, I left a bunch of them plain for the non-sweet/savoury enlightened folk in my life....










From every angle...these scream 'I am adorable! Eat me! I am cup, I am cake, eat me now for goodness sake!'








That's all, folks! I hope you enjoyed my two solid jokes...there is more where that came from! 


Happy Drizzling!

XO 


3 comments:

  1. I love the sweet and salty combination and your cupcakes look decadent and sound delicious! Btw, I have a daughter named Summer:)

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    1. They were so good! Definitely the smoothest frosting I've ever made -- thank you so much for the comment! And wahooo!! Great name! I like her already :)

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