Recipe: Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Back in June my mum's work held a cake sale in aid of charity. And I was eager to be a part of it. So in the full midst of a busy week at work I bashed out three delicious batches of cupcakes that turned the best I'd ever made them. I actually shared the Rhubarb And Custard Cupcakes recently and today I'm back with the Salted Caramel Cupcakes that could have turned out a disaster but in fact turned out better than expected.

Ingredients
For The Cupcakes
- 100g Stork
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 100g Self Raising Flour
- 2 Eggs
- 25g Cocoa Powder


For The Buttercream
- 200g Butter, softened
- 320g Icing Sugar
- 2 Tsps Salted Caramel Extract
- Blue Food Colouring (optional)

Method 
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a twelve hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2- Into a bowl place your stork and sugar. Using a stand mixer or silicone spatula beat until pale and fluffy. A stand mixer is a lot easier and quicker but mixing it by hand gives the cakes a lighter texture that just melts in the mouth.
3- Add one egg and a tablespoon of flour. Beat until combined.
4- Repeat with the second egg and another tablespoon of flour. Make sure you scrape around the edges of your bowl so no butter or egg is sat lingering on the sides.
5- Fold in the rest of your flour and cocoa powder. This is the one part of the recipe where you need to take your time. Just beating the flour in relentlessly will knock out all the air you've already built in the mixture. Folding the flour in will add more air and means your cake won't sink when it's cooking.
6- Spoon your mixture into the paper cases and cook for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. I tend to be more cautious when cooking cupcakes with cocoa powder in them as they tend to dry out if you leave them in for too long and you lose that delicious chocolate flavour you're aiming for.
7- Leave to cool for five minutes in the tin once cooked and then transfer over to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
8- Now it's onto the buttercream. Place your softened (not melted) butter into a clean bowl and beat until soft and creamy.
9- Add half your icing sugar and beat until combined. Again you can do this by hand or by a stand mixer but to save time I always do it by hand as it saves me having to drag my mixer out.
10- Add the other half of your icing sugar and beat until combined. If your buttercream is a little stiff, add a splash of milk to loosen it to a good piping consistency.
11- Pop in your salted caramel extract and beat again. I always sneak a bit of the buttercream to see how it tastes afterwards so I know if I need to add more.
12- Then this next step is optional. I wanted my cakes to be bright and noticeable on the stand so I added bright blue food colouring to make them pop. You don't have to but if you want to add a twist or make them stand out then food colouring is the way to go. I do advise really taking your time to mix your food colouring in. The last thing you want is a swirl of unmixed food colouring sat on top of your cupcake.
13- Then it's time to pipe the buttecream onto your now cooled cupcakes. I usually use my Wilton 2D Flower piping nozzle but it was currently in the wash so I went in with a slightly larger nozzle that gave a more open design. My hand always tends to get shaky when I pipe so they're not as neat as others and by the time I was icing this I had already iced twenty four cupcakes that night.
14- Once you're happy with your icing, leave to set and then enjoy. Trust me when I say everyone will enjoy them.