Caramel Cupcakes with Burnt Butter Frosting

I made these for my Thursday night class in order to commemorate my new cupcake carrier. I had seen and bookmarked the recipe a while back and meant to try it. It had a lot of steps, but none of them were complicated, and I actually made them over the course of a few days. I began with caramel syrup, which was incredibly perilous, but very exciting nonetheless.



Caramel Syrup
This yields about 2 cups; however, for this recipe, you can safely cut it in half and have more than enough. In fact, this made two batches of 24 cupcakes each.

2 Cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water for stopping caramelization.

In a small stainless steel saucepan with tall sides, mix together 1/2 cup water with sugar, being careful not to get any stray crystals on the sides of the pan.

Turn heat to highest setting and allow the sugar to caramelize until it is amber colored.

**Important** Put on long sleeves and wear oven mitts when doing this! It will jump around and burn you, and caramel burns HURT! When the dark amber color is achieved, carefully pour the remaining cup of water into the pan. The caramel will jump around and sputter, so be very, very careful.

Whisk over medium heat until the syrup has slightly reduced and feels sticky when cooled.

Allow to cool completely and store until ready to use. I had mine in a Tupperware on the counter for several days before use. Oh, and it's pretty good by itself.


Next, the cupcakes.

Caramel Cupcakes

Ingredients	3 Cupcakes	6 Cupcakes	12 Cupcakes	24 Cupcakes
Unsalted Butter, Room Temp.	1.25 T (.75 oz)	2.5 T (1.25 oz)	5 T (2.5 oz)	10 T (5 oz)
Granulated sugar	2 T+1 tsp (1.25 oz)	1/3 cup (2.5 oz)	2/3 cup (5 oz)	1 1/4 cups (10 oz)
Salt	Pinch	1/8 tsp	1/4 tsp	1/2 tsp
Caramel syrup	1 Tablespoon	2 Tablespoons	2 T+1 tsp (1.15 oz)	1/3 cup (2 1/3 oz)
Eggs, room temperature	2 T egg	3 T egg	1 egg	2 eggs
Vanilla extract	dash	1/2 tsp	1 tsp	2 tsp
AP Flour, sifted	1/4 cup (1 oz)	1/2 cup (2 oz)	1 cup (4 oz)	2 cups (8 oz)
Baking powder	Pinch	1/8 tsp	1/4 tsp	1/2 tsp
Milk, room temperature	2 T (1 oz)	1/4 cup (2 oz)	1/2 cup (4 oz)	1 Cup (8 oz)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your desired number of cupcakes with cupcake liners and spray with Pam.

Sift together your flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Mix together your milk, vanilla, and caramel syrup. Set aside.

Cream butter and flour until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until well combined.

Mix in 1/3 of both the milk and flour mixtures until incorporated. Repeat twice more (so you don't fling flour all over your kitchen).

Drop into lined cupcake tins and bake for 18-23 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

As your cupcakes are baking, whip up this frosting.

Burnt Butter Frosting

Ingredient	3 Cupcakes	6 Cupcakes	12 Cupcakes	24 Cupcakes
Unsalted Butter	1.5 T (.75 oz)	3 T (1.5 oz)	6 T (3 oz)	12 T (6 oz)
Powdered Sugar	2 oz	4 oz	8 oz	16 oz
Caramel Syrup	1/2 T	1 T	2 T	4 T

Plus milk to smooth.

Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat until browned. The butter will make crazy noises and begin to smell nutty and not unlike dulce de leche. Pull it off the heat and transfer to a bowl to make frosting in. Allow it to cool to room temperature.

When the butter is cool, add caramel syrup and powdered sugar and beat until the mixture attains a frosting consistency. Use milk to smooth out the mix. Avoid eating straight out of the bowl--you won't have enough left to frost your cupcakes! It's just that good.


To decorate these guys, I mixed together about 1/2 a cup of raw sugar with about 1/4-1/2 tsp kosher salt and then rolled the edges of the frosting in this mix. It gave it a nice sweet-salty bite that rocked the caramel.


And all of this to christen my new cupcake carrier. An amazing recipe for an amazing invention!

(PS: I put cut up water bottles in my cupcake carrier because it sagged a little; it helped prop everything up but wasn't too glamorous. Oh well.)

Kentucky Derby Cupcakes

...or the cupcake that started it all.

These were the first cupcakes I remember making. I found the recipe at Coconut and Lime's blog back in May, just in time for what would become an absolutely gut-wrenching Kentucky Derby. My fellow is a Kentucky-native, and I wanted to impress him with my baking skills. Little did I know He would eat just about anything...


Luckily the recipe itself is sublimely easy and a crowd-pleaser to boot.

The Cupcakes:
(Yeilds 6 cupcakes)

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup half and half
1/4 cup bourbon
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, room temperature
3 tablespoons mint, bruised and minced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix milk and mint and allow to steep for at least 15 minutes. After mint and milk have steeped, add the bourbon and set aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Line six cupcake wells with papers. Spray lightly with Pam to allow for easy release.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat until well combined.

Add 1/3 of the milk and flour mixtures. Stir to combine. Repeat twice more, alternating between the milk and flour mixtures.

Pour into cupcake cups (about 2 ounces per cup) and bake 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.




And now, the icing.

Mix together the icing while the cupcakes are in the oven so you'll be ready to go when they're cooled.

Bourbon-icing
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 tsp bourbon
Half and half to thin
Food coloring--not essential, but I had green so I used it.

Beat together the butter and confectioner's sugar, using milk to smooth the mixture out into an icing-like consistency.



Delicious!