Last week’s pecan turtle cupcakes left me with about a cup of caramel sauce. Homemade caramel lasts about three weeks in the fridge, and while you could pour it over ice cream or drink it straight from the bottle, I decided to make chocolate caramel buttercream with mine. Think of a Rolo, probably the second best candy invention behind the Reese’s peanut butter cup, but in buttercream form.
I wish I’d baked a chocolate cupcake instead – I think the overall flavor would have been better – but these are pretty delicious.
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk
For the frosting
- 8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- Scant 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- About 3/4 cup caramel sauce
- 10 Rolos
Preparation
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake tin with paper liners; this recipe yields 10 cupcakes.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until very light and fluffy. Add egg and beat to combine, scraping down your bowl, then add vanilla and beat to combine.
Add flour mixture and buttermilk in alternate batches, starting and ending with the flour and scraping the sides of the bowl frequently. Batter will be kind of fluffy. Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop batter into prepared pans, filling about half-full.
Bake for 16-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. My cupcakes were done around 17 minutes. Remove from oven and remove cupcakes from tin; cool on a wire rack completely before frosting.
To make frosting, beat butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt on low speed until the sugar and cocoa powder are completely incorporated into the butter. Add caramel sauce a few tablespoons at a time and beat to combine, scraping your bowl well along the way. Taste as you go; this is a fairly subtle flavor so you can go heavier on the caramel than you might think.
Fit a piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip and pipe swirls of buttercream onto cupcakes; top with a Rolo.
amy bakes in the 'burgh 