caramel cupcakes

I helped my friend Rachel bake some cupcakes the other day, and it made me want to do some baking, which I haven't done for a little while. After scouring the web, I decided to trythese Caramel Cupcakes  and use up some caramel sauce that was sitting in my fridge. The recipe is a bit over-complicated, so you can check the original post for how they made it, but here is my abridged version!

150g unsalted butter at room temperature
295g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
*43g caramel syrup
2 large eggs at room temperature
vanilla extract (I normally use a cap full, more if I want them more vanilla-y)
256g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup of milk (about 240ml)
*the original recipe shows you how to make caramel syrup, but you can buy it from the shop, so skip this step! I had some caramel dipping sauce that I melted and used as a syrup!

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt, and cream until the mixture is light and fluffy. 

3. Add the caramel syrup to the bowl, and beat in. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, mixing after each egg. Mix until well combined.

4. Sift the flour and the baking powder together. (I generally don't bother sifting flour, I'll be honest. I don't find it makes an enormous amount of difference - the flour we use now is so fine anyway.)

5. Add one third of the dry mixture (the flour and the baking powder) to the bowl. Mix in. Add half the mix, a little at a time, and mix in. Add another third of the dry ingredients, and mix, and then the last of the milk. Finally, add the last of the dry ingredients and mix in.

6. Put the mixture into paper cases and cook for 30 minutes or until golden brown. My oven seems to run a bit hot, so it only took about 20 minutes. The caramel in the mixture makes them caramelise slightly on the top, so skewer them with a cocktail stick to make sure they are well cooked. 

7. When the cakes are completely cool, ice them with buttercream frosting. My go to recipe is a ratio of 2 parts icing sugar to one part butter. I also added in a little bit of the caramel syrup and vanilla extract to make them taste better. 

Mine made 12 good sized muffin cases, but it says it will make a 9-inch cake, too, if you feel so inclined. You could probably get more cakes if they were smaller cases, but I only had massive ones! I also didn't bother with the whole dry-wet-dry method of adding the mixture, because I was making them in a rush for dinner, but they tasted fine though. I know the more complicated method is better, but they don't last long in my house, and no-one complained! I didn't pipe the icing on top, but of course that always looks better than smearing it on seconds before me and my brother wolf them down.

Hope you enjoy this recipe!