Name: Salted Caramel Cupcakes
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 22 min
Total time: 57 min
Yield: 12 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour; 1 ½ tsp baking powder; ¼ tsp salt; 115 g butter, softened; 150 g caster sugar; 2 eggs; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 120 ml milk; 150 g caster sugar, for the caramel; 3 tbsp water; 120 ml double cream, warmed; 30 g butter; ½ tsp salt; 150 g butter, softened, for the buttercream; 300 g icing sugar; ¼ tsp flaky sea salt

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes filled with homemade salted caramel and topped with caramel buttercream and flaky salt, baked for 22 minutes.

57 min total Serves 12 servings Medium

Making Salted Caramel Cupcakes Ahead

Keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Making Salted Caramel Cupcakes

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Heat the oven to 180°C / 355°F and line a 12-hole muffin tin. Beat 115 g butter and 150 g sugar for 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, then fold in the flour, baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt and milk. Bake for 22 minutes and cool.
Heat the caramel sugar and water without stirring for 8 minutes until deep amber. Off the heat, whisk in the warm cream, 30 g butter and 1/2 tsp salt. Cool.
Cut a cone from each cupcake, fill with caramel, and replace a thin slice of the top.
Beat the buttercream butter and icing sugar until fluffy, then beat in 4 tbsp of the cooled caramel.
Pipe onto the cupcakes, drizzle with the rest of the caramel and finish with the flaky salt.

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A Few Pointers

Take the caramel off the heat at amber.
Add the cream slowly and stand back.
Fill the cupcakes when they are cold.

Behind the Recipe

The caramel is what all the effort goes into, so it is worth making it properly. Sugar and a little water heated without stirring until it turns a deep amber, then cream and butter whisked in off the heat: the result is a sauce that tastes of toffee and burnt sugar, with a trace of bitterness that shop-bought versions lack. It takes about 10 minutes and a careful eye.

Watch the colour, not the clock. The sugar will go from pale gold to amber to dark brown in under a minute, and past that point it turns bitter and acrid. Take it off the heat as soon as it is the colour of strong tea. Add the warm cream slowly, standing back, since the mixture will bubble violently and spit. Stir in a pinch of salt and let it cool to a thick, pourable sauce.

Hollow out the cupcakes and fill them while cold. Cut a cone from the middle of each cooled cake with a small knife, or use an apple corer, and fill the cavity with a spoonful of caramel. Replace the cut-out top with a thin slice, trimmed to sit flush. The cupcake hides its secret.

The buttercream is beaten with cooled caramel instead of vanilla. Pipe it on, drizzle with more caramel and finish with a few flakes of sea salt. Eat the same day, as the caramel can soften the cake after a day.

What to Put Next to It

Coffee · Hot tea · Cold milk · Vanilla ice cream