Did Someone Say Salted Caramel?!

Hello lovely readers! Yes, you did hear us right, this week we’ve been baking salted caramel cupcakes! The hype over salted caramel has somewhat erupted recently in everything from ice cream to bath bombs but honestly we believe you never can have too much of this lush combination!

The inspiration behind this recipe comes from an amazing recipe book: Celebrations by Primrose Bakery (if you don’t have it you should definitely add this to the Christmas list!). As a house we frequently fantasize over the yummy things we want to bake. However when this recipe cropped up… well needs must and all that, we just had no choice but to whip out the cooking aprons and get started!

As beautiful as this recipe is, we’ve adapted it to better suit our cooking methods- as students we don’t have copious amounts of spare time OR money so saving the pennies where we can really does make a difference. But fear not! This does not make them any less worthy of sitting on the golden throne to rule the salted caramel phenomenon. But we’ll leave that decision up too you, so here it is. Enjoy!

Ingredients (Makes 16 Cupcakes)

For the cake:

85g (3oz) Butter

85g (3oz) Sugar

3 Eggs

1tsp Vanilla Extract

85g (3oz) Self-Raising Flour

8 Squares of Caramel Chocolate

For the Buttercream:

110g Sugar

3tbsp Water

125ml Double Cream

1tsp Seasalt (plus a little extra to decorate)

100g Butter

200g Icing Sugar

Method:

For the cakes, first preheat the oven to 180 degrees c and in a bowl beat together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs one at a time and beat well after each is added (if you have a hand held whisk this may speed it up however it is not essential!). Mix in the vanilla and then slowly fold in the flour with a metal spoon until everything is mixed together. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases (so each is about 2/3 full). Chop each of the chocolate caramel squares in half and push a piece into the centre of each filled case. Bake these for about 20 minutes.

The buttercream comes in two parts, the sauce and the icing. For the salted caramel sauce heat the sugar and water in a pan on a medium heat and let the sugar slowly dissolve. It is important not to stir this mixture with a spoon, swirl the pan gently if required. Once the sugar is dissolved turn the heat up to let the mixture boil until it turns a golden amber colour, then take off the heat. Meanwhile gently heat the cream with the seasalt in a pan but do not let it boil. Now for the fun bit, pour the cream in bit by bit to the sugar stirring it constantly (don’t worry it’s supposed to bubble) until it’s all mixed. Allow to cool.

When cooled, beat 200g of caramel sauce with the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Top each cake generously with the icing and eat before your housemates do!  

Tips and Tricks:
No butter? Margarine can substitute this but ONLY FOR THE CAKE MIX!
Seasalt is sort of essential (sorry but its a good general buy anyway!)
No caramel chocolate? The cakes will still taste just as good without them

Love the Cup & Tail Girls 

xxxx