Salted Caramel Birthday Cupcakes

My daughter’s birthday was last week and the only time we could get her friends together for a little birthday dinner is on Friday.
I’m going to be making caesar salad, garlic bread, pasta with meatballs, and mini chicken parmesan.
Her request for dessert is my salted caramel cupcakes.
These are a light fluffy brown sugar cake with a homemade soft salted caramel filling and a salted caramel buttercream.
It is a great combination of salty and sweet. ♥ The textures are out of this world.
An added bonus is your house will smell amazing. I want to be honest with you though – there are a lot of bowls from this one.
Thank goodness my husband is so good to me and did a bunch of them. 🙂
These cupcakes are deliciousness and if you make them, your family will think you are a rockstar.

Cupcakes:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste Madagascar Vanilla Paste by D’Allesandro, 1 Qt Bottle

1 cup plain greek yogurt
1/4 cup milk

Directions for Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin tins with foil.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt and set aside in one bowl.

Cream butter and brown sugar for a few minutes with a hand mixer.

Add eggs, one at a time, and continue mixing until each is incorporated.

Your batter should look pale like above. Next is to add the vanilla.
You could use regular vanilla or you can get vanilla bean paste.
Madagascar Vanilla Paste by D’Allesandro, 1 Qt Bottle

Here is a close up and you can see all the tiny beans mixed in.

Mix the yogurt and milk together. Had to put a little healthy part in them. 🙂

Mix dry ingredients in with the butter and sugar and alternate with the yogurt mixture.

Once the batter is all mixed, use a scooper to put in the cupcake foils. I got 29 cupcakes.
You will get anywhere from 28 to 30.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes at 325 degrees, until toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool. They feel really heavy, but their texture is light and fluffy.
While the cupcakes are baking, you can make the caramel.

Caramel Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons salted butter
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons heavy cream

CAUTION NOTE: When cooking the sugar, it can get EXTREMELY HOT.
Do not let your kids do this part and do not let it touch your skin.
I accidentally got a drip on one of my fingers a few years ago, and it was burned terribly.

Put the sugar in a pot and stir. This will take a few minutes. You can see it start to melt.

Eventually, it all melts, keep stirring. Don’t leave it, you don’t want it to burn.

Once all the sugar is melted, add the butter in a few chunks. Stir until all melted.

Once butter is melted, add the cream. Be really careful here, it bubbles up.
Make sure your pot is pretty big so it won’t boil over.

Keep stirring, then set aside to cool.

Ingredients for Salted Caramel Buttercream:

2 sticks salted butter, room temperature (each stick is 4 oz, so a total of 8 oz)
1 stick Crisco (8 oz)
1 Tablespoon meringue powder Meringue Powder 8 oz
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 to 5 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup salted caramel (from above recipe)

Cream butter and Crisco together for a few minutes with a hand mixer.
Add meringe powder, salt, vanilla and continue to mix.

Alternate adding the cream and powdered sugar. Add the salted caramel.

Blend completely and do a quick taste test.
The sugar and cream have a range of amounts because the amounts can change
based on the humidity in your house and also the texture you want it.
If it needs more salt, add a tiny bit more. If it is too runny, add more powdered sugar.
If you want it thinner, add a little more cream.

Finally, we are ready to assemble the cupcakes!! 🙂 Hooray!

You can either use a knife and scoop out part of the cupcake, or you can get a cupcake plunger.
Chicago Metallic Baking Essentials Cupcake Plunger, Purple

The purple one is the one I used, but I also have Cuisipro Cupcake Corer.
I just wanted to try the purple one out today.
It didn’t work that great, about half the time. We are not looking for perfection here.
Just take a piece off the top, fill it with the salted caramel and replace the cupcake piece on top.

Then frost them. You can either pipe them on (this covers up all the cuts from putting the filling in),
or just use a knife and spread it on.

I then topped them with sprinkles. After all, we are celebrating a birthday! ♥

Up close with a delicious bite of everything – cake, caramel and buttercream.

Both my kids already taste tested when they got home from school today.
They enjoyed them and wanted another.
I told them they have to wait until tomorrow, the mean mother I am 🙂