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Choc Caramel Cupcakes

Bringing together two of the most delicious flavour combos, chocolate and caramel, these cupcakes are a marriage made in heaven. Silky smooth caramel filling inside a subtle coffee infused cupcake, topped with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. You're welcome.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup very strong hot coffee Make this first and leave to cool slightly while making the rest of the mixture.
  • 2 cups plain flour, sifted
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp bicarb soda
  • 1 1/2 cups castor sugar

Dulche de Leche

  • 1 can condensed milk or 1 jar of store bought caramel sauce To make your own dulche de leche, remove the label from the condensed milk and place the can in a pot full of simmering water, ensuring it is always fully emersed. Simmer for 3 hours.

Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

  • 1 200g block dark chocolate Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in microwave. Set aside.
  • 6 eggs, separated You will only need the whites.
  • 1 1/4 cups castor sugar
  • 1 1/4 blocks (300g) salted butter, cubed and at room temp.
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180C

  2. Line two muffin trays with 18 cupcake papers

  3. In a medium bowl, using a hand whisk, mix together eggs, oil, sour cream and vanilla.

  4. Add slighlty cooled cup of coffee. Whisk until well combined. Sit aside.

  5. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, bicarb, baking powder and sugar. whisk until combined.

  6. Gently pour wet mixture into dry ingredients. Whisk until well combined.

  7. Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake papers until each is 3/4 full.

  8. Bake in moderae oven for 18 minutes or until cupcakes are slightly brown on top and firm to touch. Cool in pans on a wire wrack.

  9. When cupcakes are cold, use a small sharp knife to cut a large triangle out of each cupcake. Discard (you know I mean eat!) scraps.

  10. Put dulche de leche caramel into a piping bag and cut the tip about 2cm from the tip. You can add a piping tip if you want to be a fancy pants, otherwise the bag will be fine. Fill each cupcake generously with caramel.

Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

  1. Put 2cm (ish) into a medium saucepan and simmer.

  2. Separate eggs and put egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer. Discard yolks or make lemon curd!

  3. Add sugar to egg whites. Whisk by hand until well combined. Put bowl over simmering water. Leave until sugar has dissolved and you can't feel the grains between your fingers. It will feel like gross snot, and this is what youy want!!

  4. Put of bowl egg white/ sugar mixture onto stand mixer with whisk attachment and whisk on high until soft peaks form, about 5 - 8 minutes.

  5. Turn mixer onto low. Add butter 2 or 3 pieces at a time. Do this until all pieces are fully incorporated into the mixture. This will take up to ten minutes, so be patient.

    *Note: SMBC takes a good while to make and goes through some weird stages, including turning from divine meringue peaks to soupy slop, then curdled scrambled eggs. This is all completely normal and you just need to persevere until it magically becomes silky smooth buttercream and your life will never be the same again.

  6. When your SMBC is firm and delicious, keep the speed of the mixer on low and slowly scrape the melted chocolate into the bowl. Try not to eat it all at this point. It is crazy delicious. Pipe onto cupcakes and top with a dollop of caramel. Eat at room temp. Enjoy.x

Recipe Notes

SMBC troubleshooting:

  • If your buttercream is taking foreverrrr...like over half an hour to come together, it is most likely affected by the weather. It hates humidity almost as much as I do, and wayyy prefers a cool environment. Pop the bowl of buttercream into the fridge for ten minutes and then try again. It should come together now that it's happily chilled.