We were in the mood for some salted caramel this week and we stumbled across this amazing looking cupcake on Pinterest and decided we absolutely had to bake something like it!
We decided to go with our usual simple, chocolate sponge recipe, topped with a salted caramel buttercream and salted caramel covered popcorn.
They came out absolutely delicious, we would definitely recommend giving them a go!
We will definitely be baking them again ourselves in the very near future! The only thing that could be improved is that the popcorn goes a little soggy after a while after being covered in the sauce. Maybe a caramel sauce that would dry harder and crunchy on the popcorn would be better, so that's an idea for next time! Either that or just eat them fast! Leave us a comment if you have any ideas!
They were really simple to make so what better to do on a rainy bank holiday! If you want to know how we made these delicious cupcakes keep reading below.
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes…
4oz/115g butter
4oz/115g caster sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp baking powder
3 ½oz/100g self-raising flour
½oz/15g cocoa powder
For the salted caramel sauce…
90g brown sugar
85g caster sugar
50g butter
300ml double cream
1 tsp salt
For the buttercream…
4oz/115g butter
10oz/285g icing sugar
approx. half of the salted caramel sauce
To decorate…
a handful of sweet popcorn
salted caramel sauce
First, pre-heat your oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas mark 6.
We followed the usual super simple cake recipe, just taking out a little flour and replacing it with cocoa powder to make them chocolate flavoured!
In a bowl, beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Then add in the eggs, baking powder and vanilla. Now, mix in the self-raising flour and cocoa powder and stir to make a smooth batter. If you taste the batter and decide you want more chocolate you can just add in some more cocoa powder.
In a bowl, beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Then add in the eggs, baking powder and vanilla. Now, mix in the self-raising flour and cocoa powder and stir to make a smooth batter. If you taste the batter and decide you want more chocolate you can just add in some more cocoa powder.
Next, grab a muffin tray and fill with cupcake cases, we managed to make 10 cupcakes. Then, take a spoon and divide the batter into the cases.
Pop your cupcakes into the middle of your preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes, until springy to touch or an inserted skewer comes out clean. Place the cupcakes onto a wire rack to cool. You can start to make the caramel sauce whilst you wait.
Measure out both of the sugars into a medium sized pan, and place on a medium heat until the sugar melts into a thick liquid. The sugar will clump a little before it melts so don't worry if it looks a little odd, just try not to let it burn! Once the sugar is completely melted, add the butter and stir until melted into the sauce, the butter will bubble so be careful that it doesn't spit at you! Slowly add in the double cream, stirring after each addition. Allow the sauce to boil for about a minute then remove from the heat and add in a teaspoon of salt. Now, transfer the sauce into a cool pan and place it in the fridge to cool down. Once the sauce has cooled you can taste it and add in more salt if you find it needs it.
While the sauce is in the fridge you can start to make the buttercream. In a bowl, beat the butter a little just to soften it, and then add in the icing sugar and combine. Once your salted caramel sauce is cooled you can stir about half of it into the buttercream. This will loosen the buttercream quite a lot so if it's too runny you can just add in more icing sugar until you are happy with the consistency. The buttercream needs to be relatively thick as we are going to pipe it onto the cupcakes.
Fill a piping bag with a star nozzle, with the buttercream and just pipe it onto the cupcakes. If you can't be bothered to pipe you could just spread the buttercream on top as we are going to end up covering it with popcorn anyway!
To make the caramel covered popcorn to decorate, just grab a couple of handfuls of popcorn and mix it with some of the caramel sauce. We made the mistake of just pouring the popcorn into the pan of sauce (being lazy) and it ended up a bit too saucy and made a bit of a mess... So it would probably be best to add the sauce to the popcorn until you are happy with the amount! Now just grab a spoon and pile a spoonful of popcorn on each cupcake.
Then it's time for the best bit, eating the cupcakes!
These are honestly some of the tastiest cupcakes we've ever made. The salted caramel buttercream is to die for! It would be delicious on a vanilla cupcake as well as the chocolate!
We really hope you liked this post.
If you decide to give these a go (you really should!) please tag us on Instagram @sharkettsisters.
Leave a comment if there are any bakes you'd like to see next!
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Love, Antonia and Imogen x
