Fudgy, Caramelly Cupcakes

When you're with a man who appreciates your baking, his birthday is the perfect excuse to go a bit crazy with calories.
He dropped some not-so-subtle hints about liking caramel, so I ran with the idea and ended up with a fluffy caramel sponge, coated in a lightly salted caramel buttercream and topped it all off with a homemade fudge drizzle and crushed Daim bar. There's nothing like using a little artistic licence, is there?
My cake loving other half is an unashamed patriot, so I decided to place these cakes in both blue gingham cases and some which adorned Union Jacks. This is just a personal touch and you can, of course, dress these gorgeous little cakes as you wish.
After I made them I did have to taste them, just to ensure that they weren't poisonous...I'm a samaritan like that. They certainly weren't, the end result was a taste not too dissimilar to sticky toffee pudding, so if that's a favourite of yours, then this recipe should take a prominent position on your shelf.




                                                                                                    










(Recipe makes 16-20 cupcakes)

Method

For the caramel sauce:

250g golden caster sugar (if you don't have this, you can use normal caster sugar and just add a little light muscovado sugar to the mixture.)
135ml water

• Put the sugar into a heavy bottomed pan and mix with five tablespoons of your water over a low heat, until the sugar has dissolved. 
• Increase the heat for around 10 minutes, until your sugar has turned dark amber in colour. 
• Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool slightly. You can stir the mixture occasionally to help it cool quicker. 
• Once the mixture has cooled slightly, add your remaining water. Take care as the mixture may spit and will be extremely hot. 
• When your sauce has completely cooled, pour into a bowl and cover, until ready to use. You can store this mixture for up to a week if necessary. 

For the sponge:

100g salted butter

120g light, soft brown sugar

120g dark, soft brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g self-raising flour, sifted

120g plain flour, sifted

75ml caramel sauce (recipe listed above)

50ml double cream

• Preheat your oven to 160ºC (Gas Mark 3) and place your chosen cupcake cases into muffin trays. 
• Beat all of your ingredients together until all elements are well combined and the mixture is fluffy. 
• Spoon the mixture into your prepared cupcake cases (attempt only fill them half fill so the baked mixture does not spill over the edge of your cases.) 
• Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes, or until your mixture is cooked through. 
• Remove and leave to cool completely before decorating.

For the buttercream:

80g salted butter

7 tbsp semi skimmed milk

250g light, soft brown sugar

260g icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

A pinch of rock salt

• Melt your butter in a heavy saucepan, along with the brown sugar. Bring the mixture to the boil and boil for one minute. 
• Remove from the heat and stir in half of your icing sugar, before allowing it to cool slightly and adding the remaining icing sugar, rock salt and vanilla extract. Stir until the mixture thickens a little. 
• This icing is best used immediately.

For decoration: 

Fudge sauce:

340g granulated sugar

85g brown sugar

100g cocoa powder

30g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

400g evaporated milk

250ml water

2 tbsp salted butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

•  Place the granulated and brown sugar, cocoa powder, flour and salt into a saucepan. Add the evaporated milk, water and butter and bring slowly to the boil, stirring constantly. Once boiling, cook for five minutes.
• Remove the sauce from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Otherwise, simply crush your Daim bars and decorate as you wish. 

I hope these little cakes bring you as much happiness as they did one certain 24 year old man recently. I have every faith that they will.

Enjoy, K x

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