sea salt + caramel + cake (in cups) = sea salted caramel cupcake yumminess

So in an effort to relieve some stress, I had decided it was time to venture back into the baking world and forget about my delicious red velvet cupcakes and try something new.

I’m usually very finicky when it comes to my recipes, but due to lack of concentration with my cat walking into walls, I chose a fellow blogger’s recipe based off of Shelly Kaldunski’s Salted Caramel Cupcakes recipe in the Williams Sonoma Cupcakes book. Except she used her own salted buttercream recipe. I’m not going to lie, I really didn’t like her take on the frosting recipe so in turn I made my usual one, which is just guessing mostly (that’s right, I’m a magician when it comes to baking) and adding things in until it tastes yummy.

Here is the recipe I used from Savory Bites:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
• 2 large eggs (room temp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• Sea salt (preferably Fleur de Sel!) (NOTE: DO NOT PAY $8.99 for Sea Salt. Be cheap, like me and buy a large container for $3.99)

Recipe:

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line a standard 12 cup cupcake pan with liners.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, beat the sugars, milk and butter using an electric mixer. You want them to be light and fluffy, which should take approximately 3 minutes if the mixer is on medium-high speed. Then, add in the eggs  and vanilla until combined. Add in the flour mixture.  Beat until smooth and  use an ice cream scoop and pour into cupcake tins (lined with paper cups).

My Buttercream Recipe:

So for my version of the buttercream recipe. I used 1 cup of butter or 8 ounces, 4 cups of icing sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavouring, two splashes of milk, a pinch of sea salt and a tablespoon of the caramel (which you can make from scratch beforehand or purchase at a bulk store). Then beat it with your blender, ice your cupcakes and use the leftover caramel to dribble in a pattern and sprinkle sea salt on the tops.

The Process: