Sweet meet Salty (Caramel)

It has been a while since I have posted, sorry about that.  The holiday season has been busy to say the least, but I have been trying new recipes.  And the star cupcake I have recently taken on is the chocolate salted caramel cupcake!  It just sounds decadent, doesn't it?  A friend of mine asked me to try and make one for her.  It is a chocolate cupcake with salted caramel filling and a salted caramel buttercream.  Take a look...


You can't see it very well, but on top of the caramel drizzle is a sprinkling of sea salt...sweet and salty in one awesome bite!



Did I mention that this is a homemade creamy salted caramel?  It doesn't get any better than that!  Here is how it happens...

This is how it starts...

then it starts to look like this, then...

I add some of this, and...

this is how it ends up!





I mean, look how yummy that looks.  Combine with chocolate and...heaven!

You might need to fight the urge to lick your computer screen :)



So, what do you think of these treats?  Any ideas on new cupcake flavors I can try?  I can tell you that I plan to tackle a gluten-free cupcake soon, so stay tuned.

 

Congrats to Ruth, who won December's drawing for a free dozen cupcakes!!  Check back again in January for another drawing.




Tip of the Blog: 

When doing anything involving cooking sugar, be very careful-it gets extremely hot!  Always make sure that it doesn't splatter and it's best not to stick your finger in it to test it-you might end up with a sore finger.  To give you an idea how hot the sugar needs to be to be completely melted and ready to finish a caramel sauce, it has to be at a temperature of 350 degrees-ouch!