Salted caramel cupcakes

The book for this months cupcake book club, run by Kelly from american cupcake in London, was 'Cupcakes at Carrington's' by Alexandra Brown.

The main character Georgie works at Carringtons and enjoys nothing more than sinking her teeth into a sweet creation from the cafe, run by her best friend. It was an enjoyable book and I would happily read the upcoming ones in the series.

Georgie's favourite cupcake is the red velvet. I have not made this for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is lent, so no chocolate for me. Secondly I love chocolate and the red velvet never really does it for me, I do not want mild chocolate flavour, I want full on chocolate!

Still there are plenty of other cupcakes and sweet treats mentioned in the book. One cupcake mentioned is a salted caramel cupcake. This is my sort of cake, I love salted caramel!

I made a vanilla cake with a spoonful of peanut butter in the batter to give a salty element. I filled the cake with salted caramel and topped the whole thing off with salted caramel buttercream. I think Georgie would approve of the clouds of buttercream!

Salted caramel cupcakes

makes 12

75g butter
50g peanut butter (no added sugar preferably)
125g golden caster sugar
tsp vanilla paste/extract
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
tbsp milk

75g white caster sugar
75ml double cream
sea salt to taste

80g butter
200g icing sugar
tbsp milk


Line a cupcake/muffin tin with liners and preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN.


Cream the butter, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla paste together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl in-between and beat for a further couple of minutes.

Add the flour and beat on slow until just combined. Finally add the milk and beat for a further minute. Divide the batter between the liners and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden and springy.

Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.

To make the caramel gently heat the caster sugar in a pan until dissolved and deep amber in colour. Remove from the heat and, stirring quickly, add in the cream. Return the pan to the heat and cook until the caramel has thicken and coats the back of a spoon. Add sea sat a little at a time until the caramel is salted to your preference. Set the caramel aside to cool.

When the cupcakes and caramel are cool the assembly can begin! Remove a cone from the cupcakes with a sharp knife. Fill the cavity with a teaspoon of the salted caramel before replacing the cone, it may need trimming to fit. 

Finally for the buttercream beat the butter, icing sugar and milk together until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes or so. Beat in some of the cooled caramel a little at a time until the frosting is well flavoured with the salted caramel.

Pipe or swirl on the frosting with a palette knife.

I am pretty certain Georgie would approve of these cupcakes. The are sweet and salty, with plenty of buttercream. Mark certainly approves, declaring the frosting 'the best ever'.