Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Vanilla Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Filling & Salted Caramel Frosting

Posted by - Dixya @ Food, Pleasure, & Health


...if you have dirty dishes piled up, laundry that needs to be done ASAP, unread mail that needs to be opened, vacuuming, scrubbing and all that business Or, if you are an overachiever and have done all that (please come help me), fine don't- I like cleaning too but just not right now. Not today. 

If you are little overwhelmed like me, go run to your kitchen & surround yourself with heavy cream, flour, butter, sugar, sea salt and make a huge batch of salted caramel frosting, salted caramel filling and extra vanilla-y cupcakes and in the process pile up more dishes - what the hell you will be doing heck of a cleaning later anyways. The whole process is extremely therapeutic - it only takes a spoonful or two (but who's counting right) salted caramel frosting to calm this clean freak. I don't like when things are scattered here, there and everywhere but when I am not in the mood to clear the space I make candied salted caramel.. lets not clean today but shall we be creative, please? And eat all the cupcakes I want! 



Vanilla Cupcakes 
 

Makes about 6 cupcakes

Ingredients
  
3/4 cups all-purpose flour 
1/2 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
3 tablespoon unsalted butter (softened)
1/2 cups sugar (add less if you like less sweeter taste)
1 large egg
1 Mexican vanilla bean (scrape with pairing knife)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract


Directions
 
-Leave butter and eggs in a room temperature for an 1/2 hr or so
-Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
-In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together
-In KitchenAid Stand mixer (if using that) or a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add egg to the mixture and continue beating it in medium speed then add vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste until everything is incorporated.
-Scrape the sides of a bowl

- Add flour and milk alternatively to the butter- sugar mixture and continue until everything is well combined.
-Divide batter and pour it in a lined cupcake pan filling about 2/3 full
-Bake for about 18 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean
-Remove from oven and allow it to cool completely






While the cupcakes are in the oven, go ahead and make the most legit frosting of all times - Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting. The recipe is from Taste of Home fairly easy & requires almost the same ingredients as the caramel filling (recipe below). The recipe calls for leaving it in refrigerator for 4 hours but I left for only 2.5 hours. The final result was extremely fluffy, too good to be true and had to stop myself from tasting licking the bowl.. Its for 10 cupcakes but go ahead and make the full recipe. You can thank me later. 




I hope we all feel same way about Salted caramel filling inside a cupcake right? It perfectly compliments the vanilla cupcakes and keeps the center super moist. I adapted the recipe from 52kitchenadventures & halved it. This is one of the easiest, no fail recipe & I added sea salt to finish it off.

Normally, I have no patience - we all know that. It gets worse when there are cupcakes on a cluttered counter top and caramel butter cream frosting heaven in the refrigerator- try resisting that..its almost painful but today I am trying to be patient and not obsess about messy house or dirty laundry. I want to bring out the hidden patient, creative side of me and decorate these babies with salted candied caramel. The recipe is from Cupcake Friday Project. These candied caramel thingy always intrigued me on TV - it was pretty cool (although I burned it a little bit) but that's my attempt to be creative.





Okay, seriously,this patience business is starting to annoy me and me want some cupcakes. Can we assemble them already?

First whip up the butter cream frosting as directed in the recipe. Stir the caramel filling and get ready for some serious cupcake! Use a pairing knife to cut the center of cupcake, add about 3/4-1 tablespoon filling in the center and frost it. Adorn them with caramel candies. Sprinkle some sea salt.
Although it was little lengthy of a process, each component of this cupcake was worth it..slightly sweet vanilla cupcakes was perfect with salted caramel filling and the frosting - it was spectacular. Candied caramel spirals added a slight crunch which I enjoyed a lot. Let's just say it was worth every minute, every calorie/fat/sugar consumed because guess what - I need all that energy, for I have massive cleaning to do!

17 comments:

Biochimist la cratita said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Biochimist la cratita said...

Those cupcakes are adorable!

Reshmi Mahesh said...

Cute and delicious looking cupcakes..

Mammalorita said...

deliziosi !!!e le decorazioni con il caramello ci stanno divinamente....un saluto...

Unknown said...

Delicious! Don't worry about the dishes - make and eat cupcakes!

Betsy Brock said...

How lovely! I'm sure they are scrumptious, too! I'd love one with my morning coffee right now!

Bianca @ Confessions of a Chocoholic said...

I am obsessed with pretty much anything salted caramel. I wish I had one of these cupcakes right now. And the candied caramel is so pretty, too!

Anonymous said...

These are SO beautiful, yes I will go into my kitchen and surround myself with salted caramel - great idea!
Mary x

LJ said...

I love salted caramel and these look delicious! Love the candied art on top too! Sharon

Unknown said...

thanks guys :) I am so delighted with all your comments.

Shannon @ A Cozy Place Called Home said...

How scrumptious these look with a flair of creativity in the candied piece on top. Wish I had one right now! Thanks for stopping by my blog to leave the nice comment.
Shannon

Marina@Picnic at Marina said...

Lovely cupcakes!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Divine! I am a sucker for frosted cakes and salted caramel.

Cheers,

Rosa

Alexis AKA MOM said...

Wow they looks so beautiful! They sound amazing!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog :)

Unknown said...

I am avoiding anything with sugar right now but those beautiful vanilla cakes are a sure temptation to break my diet goals.

Azzurra said...

Meravigliosi questi cupcake!!!e molto scenografici!!!
mi son subito iscritta tra i tuoi fallowers, bravissima ancora

se ti va passa a trovarmi,
http://lacucinadiazzurra.blogspot.it

Petro said...

Hmm, vanilla! I love all these cute, yummy vanilla treats. They go straight to my heart (and hopefully not on my hips, hehehe)

Ciao, Alida
xoxo