Posted on Tuesday, 6th July 2010 by Grace Massa Langlois
What a frustrating weekend with a few lessons learned. Most important lesson; never make a change to your website minutes before your web developer is closed for the long weekend, if something is going to go wrong that’s usually when it happens. Unfortunately my site crashed and it wasn’t restored until late Monday afternoon. Please accept my apology. I won’t be doing that again!
I started off the weekend driving my son, Matt, to the beach. It’s been far too long since I made this drive, I’d forgotten how beautiful it was. So many little towns to pass by with unique little shops selling some beautiful one of a kind pieces. I spotted a beautiful painting in one of the shops of a sailboat docked at the beach, it quickly invoked a feeling of calmness. I’ve always loved the beach, feeling the sand between my toes and looking out onto the water, so peaceful.
I sent Matt and his buddies with a little care package of Black Forest Cupcakes and received a call about 1:00am that evening; “Thank you Mrs. Langlois, oh my god these are so good!” I guess the cupcakes hit the spot.
I was back in the kitchen on Monday, I wanted to try salted-caramel. I wasn’t sure if I would like it or if the kids would like it but I figured anything with chocolate must be good and how could you go wrong with caramel, who doesn’t love caramel?
When I started to review the recipe it looked so familiar to me and I realized I’d used it not long ago when I made the Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. As luck would have it the recipe called for Dark Chocolate Frosting, I just happened to have some in the freezer.
I love it when you find a good recipe and it’s so versatile. If you didn’t get a chance to read my earlier posts, the one-bowl chocolate cupcake batter produces a very light and moist cupcake with a rich chocolate flavour and it is very easy to make, throw everything in a bowl and blend. The dark chocolate frosting almost looks black and it is delicious.
On to the caramel, the not so easy part of the recipe, for me that is, it took 3 attempts before I was happy with it. I think I may need a new candy thermometer, it was reading 345° F but I could tell by the aroma and the look that I’d taken the caramel too far. The second attempt was pure stupidity on my part I walked away for a minute when it registered at 325° F and when I got back to it I was right back to taking it too far. The third times a charm and finally a caramel that looked that beautiful copper colour, smelled fantastic and tasted delicious.
It takes a bit of time to get your caramel to the right stage but be patient and if you can don’t walk away from it as I did.
I’m always looking for easy dinner party desserts and this worked perfect as little individual cakes. It was quite late last night when I finished assembling them but I wanted to share these treats with my next door neighbour Penny and called her over. Unfortunately we couldn’t sit and chat and taste test together (her little one was sleeping and her husband was out of town) so off she went with a little care package of little cakes and mini cupcakes for the 3 of them. Within minutes she’d called, I thought she’d left something behind. Her first question was “Have you tried them yet?”, “Not yet”. She couldn’t say enough about them, “The taste is indescribable, best dessert I’d ever made, no, that she’d ever eaten”. She’d eaten 3 mini cupcakes, literally within seconds of leaving the house, she couldn’t help herself.
I didn’t taste test the final dessert until today (I ate all the little bits after carving out the centres and couldn’t eat another bite). The Fleur de Sel definitely brought out the buttery taste of the caramel and it also intensifies the sweetness of the cake.
I leave you on this note, Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cakes are insanely delicious!
Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cakes & Mini Cupcakes
(from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes)
Makes about 56 mini cupcakes
- One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
- Salted-Caramel Filling
- Dark Chocolate Frosting
One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
Salted-Caramel Filling
(from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes)
makes about 2 cups
- 2 1/2 cups sugar
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, preferably Fleur de Sel
- Place sugar, water, and corn syrup in a medium-sized heavy saucepan. Heat over high heat, stirring occasionally, until syrup is clear; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Stop stirring, and cook until syrup comes to a boil, washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush as needed.
- Boil, gently swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is caramelized and just reaches 360° F.
- Remove from heat; slowly pour in cream (be careful, mixture will spatter) and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in sea salt. Use immediately; if at any time caramel begins to harden, reheat gently until pourable.
Dark Chocolate Frosting
Assembling Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cakes and Mini Cupcakes
- Using a paring knife, cut a cone-shaped piece (about 1/2 inch deep for mini cupcakes and 1 1/2 to 2 inch deep for small individual cakes) from the centre of each cake/cupcake (eat pieces). Spoon warm salted-caramel filling into each hollowed out cake/cupcake. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt over filling.
- For mini cupcake, fill a pastry bag fitted with a medium open-star tip (Ateco #821 or Wilton #18) with frosting. Pipe frosting on each mini cupcake, swirling tip and releasing as you pull up to form a peak. For small individual cakes, fill a pastry bag fitted with a large open-star tip (Wilton 6B) with frosting. Pipe on each cake, swirling tip and releasing. Garnish each of the cakes/cupcakes with a pinch of sea salt. Cakes/cupcakes are best eaten the day they are filled and frosted (or the next morning); store at room temperature in airtight containers (do not refrigerate) until ready to serve.
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Tags: cake fillings, cupcake fillings, cupcakes, dessert, desserts, frosting, icing, individual dessert, mini cakes, mini cupcakes, salted-caramel, small cakes
Posted in Baking & Pastry, Baking Mise en Place, Custards, Creams & Mousses, Fillings, Frostings & Dessert Sauces, Pastry Doughs & Batter, Recipes
Comments (43)
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July 6th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Sorry you had a rough go during your weekend! But, these cupcakes look delicious. How can you go wrong with Salted Caramel? I totally agree with you – Fleur de Sel definitely brings out the buttery taste of the caramel. I use it to top Salted Caramel ice cream and…wow!
Can’t wait to try these cuppies!
July 6th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
The little pink cupcake stands are so cute. And, how many shots did it take to get the caramel to flow exactly right for that perfect!!! shot?
These look delicious!!!
July 6th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
See Grace, that’s what I’m talking about..it’s all this incredible chocolate that keeps me coming here on a regular basis. You are making my baking to do list longer by miles, oh I can’t wait to try these as well. Keep the chocolate coming, no complaints here
July 6th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Grace, your Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes & Mini Cakes are definatley a hit in my household!
Thanks for the treats.
We’re all looking forward to your next creation.
Penny
July 7th, 2010 at 12:31 am
What are you going to do when you move, who will I share my treats with?
July 7th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Gale I got lucky with this one, 1st time, couldn’t believe it.
July 7th, 2010 at 12:48 am
I’m definitely going to have to try the ice cream! Just visited your site, oh my goodness, the torta di ricotta is calling my name, have to try this one. What a beautiful photo of your Grandmother in her wedding dress. I miss my grandmother so much! We have an Italian Bakery here in the city that carries quite a variety of essences, I will take a look for your anisette bottle, do you remember the brand? By the way, I’ve never noticed caramel chips, who carries them? I’ve been on the hunt for yogurt chips and haven’t found those either. If any ones knows where to get them would love to know. I’m heading over to your site again, must see what other Italian treats you have.
Hey All, you must take a look at Chris’s torta di ricotta Napoletano
July 7th, 2010 at 12:48 am
Chocolate Lovers Unite
July 7th, 2010 at 11:14 am
looks absolutely awesome!
July 7th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Thank you Paula
July 8th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Isn’t the beach such a fun place especially if you haven’t visited for a while, this recipe reminds me of my gran when I was younger. She used to make us caramel logs with hazelnut topping, yours look delicious.
July 8th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Ryan you must get me the recipe, I love hazelnuts and now that I’ve become an expert on caramel I could use a few new recipes.
July 9th, 2010 at 11:30 am
I’ll see what I can do, might have a sneaky look in my grandmothers recipe book for you haha.
July 9th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
I agree with everyone else here – these are so beautiful. They look good enough to eat!
July 19th, 2010 at 2:50 am
Very chocolatey rich cupcakes
July 22nd, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Salted chocolate desserts make me swoon. I love to see those specks of salt perched on top of the frosting of your cupcakes. Delicious.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:00 pm
I wasn’t sure if I would like the salt but it was such a nice balance, its definitely become a favourite for me.
October 22nd, 2010 at 6:06 pm
The three recipes you gave do not give quanitites in proportion to each other. I just wasted $30 buying extremely high quality cooking chocolate and butter, etc. The frosting produced about 2/3 more than I actually needed, and that wasn’t noted in your blog.
Of course, I couldn’t bear to THROW AWAY such an expensive frosting, so I will be baking the rest of the week.
Also, your blog could use clarification about the caramel-making process. You use vague descriptors like “boil until caramelized”–but for someone who has never made caramel before, what the heck does “caramelized” really mean? Give me sounds, tastes, colors, textures to watch for! Who is your audience? I found that I had to take huge leaps of faith throughout the process of making these because I had no idea what to look for, or why I was even doing certain steps (after I did it, it made more sense)
The cupcakes were delicious, however. My caramel didn’t turn out but despite this they bordered on divinity. The texture of the cakes turn out wonderfully moist and airy, and the flavors are more complex than your average chocolate cupcake–which usually taste of just sugar and nothing else.
Despite the drawbacks I encountered, I cannot say that these were not sinfully delicious.
October 22nd, 2010 at 7:15 pm
I wanted to thank you for stopping in number one for a visit , number 2 for trying one of the recipes and number 3 leaving such a detailed comment. I really do appreciate a good critique, it will help me to learn and get better along the way. I am really quite new to blogging and baking.
I’m not sure if you noticed but the recipes I used came from Martha Stewart, I too struggled with the caramel (not sure if you had a chance to read the post). It was the 1st time I’d tried caramel. I’m sorry if the instructions were a little vague, I will work on writing more detailed instructions, I guess I assumed (ignorant of me) that the instructions were clearer than they actually were. You are right in asking “what is my audience?” I wish I knew, I am still trying to figure what the audience is, unfortunately most visitors don’t comment and that makes it a little difficult to figure out how detailed to get. I’ve found with most frosting recipes the yield is either too much or too little because everyone’s preference is different when it comes to the amount they use to ice each cupcake. I’m not sure if you noticed in the recipe notes but you can freeze the frosting for up to 1 month, when you’re ready to use it just bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth.
I am curious, how many cupcakes did you get out of the batch? When I made them I yielded only a few extra than the 56 the recipe stated, I just figured I under filled a few cups.
Again, thank you for taking the time to comment and I will do my best in the future to put myself in the place of the visitor and ask myself the question if the visitor were baking for the 1st time could they follow along with the recipe with ease.
I am very happy you enjoyed the cupcakes, especially after all the grief, I sincerely apologize for my shortcomings and I hope to do better in the future.
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Thank you for your reply. I apologize for the harshness of my comment earlier because I realize the recipes are Martha Stewart’s and not yours
The quantity of cupcakes would be a bit off for me because my mom has cupcake tins that are a bit larger than normal cupcakes. In fact, they are more like mini-cakes.
The batter recipe was enough for 6–however, upon reflection of the process (which I try to do and take notes on, a new endeavor!) I realize two reasons why there was SO MUCH extra frosting for me:
1) I probably over-filled the tins–at most, I could have made 12, but it’s hard to say. The point is, because there were fewer cupcakes I used less frosting.
2) Also, because my mini-cakes are larger than cupcakes, the overall surface area would probably be less and thus require less frosting.
However, there was quite a bit of frosting left over. I mean, a LOT! I’m not sure if I even used 1/3, haha! I tried very hard in my note-taking to see if I made an error somehow that resulted in less batter.
Baking for me is always an adventure and because it is so precise I try very hard to be as careful and attentive as possible. As a regular recipe blog reader, I find demonstrative photos to be extremely helpful when tackling a less-known cooking task (dough kneading technique, visual consistency of pie filling on a spoon when it is done, etc etc etc).
Because your blog is so descriptive of the step-by-step process, a picture or two to show the color of the caramel in the pan when it is ready to be taken off the heat and also what the bubbles and overall texture would look like at that stage would be SO helpful to a caramel virgin. If you don’t like to take pictures of the process, a descriptive paragraph would also be really helpful
(you mentioned “I could tell by the aroma that I’d taken it too far”–I would love to know what that aroma is like just in case I made the same mistake)
Anyways, the dessert itself turned out to be absolutely incredible despite my own possible errors and doubts. I love that you combined three different recipes into one kick-ass cupcake!
October 28th, 2010 at 8:23 am
You are so right: Who DOESN’T love caramel?!!! It will get me every time.
Those photos are mouthwatering good. I’m hoping that time allows me to test the recipe.
October 28th, 2010 at 10:16 am
I’ve never tried salted caramel cupcakes, but after your rave review I’ll definitely be making some! And your frosting looks incredibly rich and chocolatey!
October 29th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Lovely. I do love caramel in all it’s wonderful forms.
November 20th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
These cupcakes look so cute and the salted caramel filling sounds terrific!
November 21st, 2010 at 12:44 am
The contrast of the salt and chocolate on those cupcakes looks stunning.
November 21st, 2010 at 12:49 am
These cupcakes look thoroughly delicious, and your pictures reflect that… and more! Salted caramel is a flavor made in foodie heaven, I’m quite sure of it.
November 21st, 2010 at 1:40 am
Oh wow… they would make excellent gifts and they looks so pretty!
Thanks for sharing!
November 21st, 2010 at 6:20 am
Thank you, what a great idea!
November 21st, 2010 at 6:21 am
I completely agree Maya
November 29th, 2010 at 6:29 am
oh YUM!! thanks for joining the party. Such a lovely contribution.
November 29th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Thank you Penny!
December 8th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
[...] dessert table wouldn’t be complete without a little chocolate. Chocolate Salted-Caramel Mini Cupcakes will be making an appearance (I know they won’t last long!). I think I may take this Iced [...]
January 2nd, 2011 at 6:49 pm
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January 7th, 2011 at 10:38 am
These sound absolutely perfect. The only thing I possibly like more than chocolate is the combination of salty and sweet, and these have both! Too good.
January 7th, 2011 at 10:49 am
Me too Evan!!!
January 7th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Wow, three attempts at the caramel, you are dedicated! But these cakes definitely look like they are worth it.
January 7th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
I was determined and believe me it was definitely worth it, these are fabulous!
January 7th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
I love the beach too, and there’s something super awesome about the beach in the winter, no? Oh, and of course… these cakes look great!
January 7th, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Definitely I like the beach any time of the year!
February 19th, 2012 at 2:26 pm
I am making the salted carmel cupcakes but an confused on the frosting, the frosting recipe associated with the cupcakes is a dark chocolate frosting, but the picture shows a frosting that can be piped. The dark frosting can NOT be piped? WHat recipe goes with the slated carmel cupcake?
Thank you for your help, the cupcakes are very good.
February 19th, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Hi Jeff The Dark Chocolate Frosting is the correct frosting, here’s the link – http://gracessweetlife.com/2010/05/candied-hazelnut-cupcakes/ – In the hazelnut cupcakes I used the frosted differently, it’s versatile. I’m glad you like the cupcakes, one of our favourites, I make them often. Sorry it took me so long to reply my internet connection has been wonky today.
August 27th, 2012 at 9:25 am
They look amazing. I’ll give these a shot! Thanks.
August 30th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Just a bit of a warning Wayne, these are addicting.