Pecan Turtle Cupcakes

Pecans are good for you. Probably less so when combined with chocolate and caramel like in a pecan turtle, but let’s not get too technical here. These treats are a cupcake version of the turtle, with a chocolate cupcake base, caramel buttercream, toasted pecans, and milk chocolate drizzle. Wildly delicious.

I made my own caramel sauce for the frosting, but you can use caramel ice cream topping to save time. It’s not as sweet as you’ll expect, so add your caramel slowly and taste along the way to make sure you have the flavor you want. Whatever you do though, toast your pecans. They taste infinitely better when toasted instead of raw.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup water

For the frosting and decoration

• 12 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• About 1/3 cup caramel sauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup milk chocolate chips, melted and cooled slightly
• 1/2 cup pecan halves, toasted and cooled

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; this recipe makes 15 cupcakes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well-blended, then make three wells for the wet ingredients.

Place vinegar, vanilla, and vegetable oil into the wells; add water and mix until the batter is smooth. The mixture will bubble up slightly when you add the water, so just keep mixing until you get a smooth consistency in the batter, which will be fairly thin.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, fill cupcake wells about half full. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting, beat butter and powdered sugar on low speed until the sugar is fully incorporated into the butter. Add caramel sauce and vanilla and beat to combine completely. Fit a large piping bag with a large closed star tip (I use the Wilton 1M) and pipe swirls of frosting onto each cupcake. Top with three toasted pecans and drizzle with melted chocolate chips.