Caramel Cupcakes

I have long wanted to perfect a good caramel cupcake recipe. One that has the perfect amount of caramel flavour without being overly sweet. I am happy to say I’ve finally found that perfect caramel cupcake 🙂

With the weather cold and crisp these days, these cupcakes were the perfect treat to give you that warm and fuzzy feeling inside 🙂

These double or triple caramel cupcakes are made using soft brown sugar, which is one of my all time favourite ingredients, in both the batter and frosting. Using it in the batter gives the cupcakes a beautiful, warm caramel flavour without being too sweet, like when using actual caramel, and brings so much extra moisture to the crumb texture, it’s just scrumptious! 😋

The highlight of this cupcake was definitely this frosting! Ohh it’s so delicious and candy like, smooth caramel-y flavours and creamy too! It’s made using soft brown sugar, butter and cream that is cooked together, then adding some icing sugar to turn it into a soft frosting. It is thick enough to be piped on sky high, you might not get perfect swirls but it is sturdy enough to top cupcakes with as much as you want. I went for that smooth type frosting because I loved it like that combined with the soft and tender cupcakes 🙂

Now of course you don’t have to top with only caramel frosting, you can top these brown sugar cupcakes with pretty much anything, here I frosted with my favourite cream cheese frosting and topped with dark chocolate crumbs and some with peanut butter frosting and hazelnut chocolate 😉 so gooood! 😋

I know that these cupcakes will be loved by all, try adding some spices like cinnamon to the batter if you like 😉

An actual love at first bite experience ❤

Caramel Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (155gms) + 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon corn flour/cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 heaping teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup (65gms) light or dark soft brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (100gms) white sugar (soft brown sugar can be used instead)
• 1/2 cup (100gms) softened butter cut into pieces
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (120gms) sour cream

Caramel frosting (recipe can be doubled)

• 1/4 cup (50gms) salted butter
• 1/2 cup (100gms) light or dark soft brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste
• 1 1/2 – 2 cups (180 – 250gms) icing sugar
• Optional: splash of vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a muffin tray with cupcake cups.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cornflour, salt and sugars until well combined.
3. Add the chopped butter and mix until all the flour is moistened and mixture resembles coarse sand.
4. Add in eggs one at a time whisking well between each addition. Whisk in oil and mix until batter is smooth.
5. Add in sour cream and vanilla and whisk until batter is smooth, creamy and fluffy. Divide batter between cupcake cups and bake until cooked through, 15 – 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before frosting.

For the frosting

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add butter and whisk until its melted. Add in the brown sugar and cream and stir until all the sugar has dissolved and mixture starts bubbling. Add in the salt and let it bubble for 1 – 2 minutes.
2. Take caramel off heat and cool for about 10 minutes then whisk in icing sugar. Add more cream if needed until desired consistency is reached. More salt can be added to if you find the frosting on the sweet side.
3. Frost cooled cupcakes and top with caramel candies.