Caramel cupcakes

When in doubt what to bake head to the BBC Goodfood website!  That approach usually comes up trumps and it did this time too with these lovely cupcakes. Mr CC has been reminiscing of late about his long standing love of Caramac.  Therefore, when I saw the decorations required two Caramac bars I knew I would have to buy three to ensure I got the full quota of sprinkles (a bit like in The Simpsons when Marg bakes a decoy pie to satisfy Homer, so that her main pie will survive until dessert time).

The caramel cream cheese frosting is divine – so soft and with a perfect sweet/tangy contrast.  Don’t worry if it seems soft after making it – it will firm up in the fridge.  Give it as long as it needs.  The amount of frosting is more than enough for 12 cupcakes so pipe generously from the first cupcake; I hate it when I’m not sure if I have enough so pipe cautiously and then end up with leftovers.  I did experiment with reducing the sugar in the frosting but the frosting was too soft.  Surprisingly, it isn’t too sweet so don’t let the scary amount of sugar put you off.

The cake batter is stiffer than normal cupcake sponge – don’t be tempted to add milk to slacken it; the batter needs to hold its own against a caramel filling and lots of frosting.

Isn’t caramel a beautiful thing? Here’s the proof:

Now I cannot explain why, but these cupcakes are man pleasers.  Mr CC takes most of my bakes into work for his colleagues (who are exclusively male).  He said these got the most praise he could recall –from the sponge, to the frosting, to the caramac on top.  I am not a dating expert by any means but if you’re looking to bake your way to a man’s heart, this might not be a bad place to start.....

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g light muscovado sugar
2 eggs
175g self raising flour
2 tablespoons milk

For the frosting:

140g Carnation caramel
200g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
450g icing sugar

For the filling and decoration:

250g Carnation caramel i.e. the rest of the tin left over from the frosting

60g Caramac – this equates to 2 bars

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/ fan oven 160C/350F/gas mark 4.

Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper cases.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy – do not skimp on this stage.

Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until well incorporated.

Fold in the flour and the milk.

Spoon into the paper cases and bake for approximately 15-18 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the sponges comes out clean.

Remove from the cupcake pan and leave to cool on a wire rack (NB. It is important to de-tin them straightaway or the heat retained by the metal will continue to bake the cupcakes and can make them tough).

Now make the frosting: place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth and well combined.

Spoon into a piping bag (choose whichever nozzle you prefer) and refrigerate for about 10 minutes – this will firm the frosting up to a nice pipeable consistency.

Using a cupcake (or apple) corer remove a plug of sponge from each cupcake.

Spoon the remaining caramel into each cupcake.

Pipe the chilled frosting over the top of each sponge.

Refrigerate the cupcakes.

Now make the decoration: cut the two bars of caramac into tiny pieces.

Sprinkle over the top of the cupcakes.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Whipped cream cake with caramel fudge icing

Classified as a ‘dessert cake’ this is one of those beautiful concoctions that will look right whether you serve it for dessert or as something special with afternoon tea. This is the photo that defines ‘happiness’:

What interested me with this recipe is that the sponge contains no butter, but uses whipped cream instead. This gives a lovely fine but firm texture and a lightness to the sponge. I have a weakness for cakes made with brown sugar too so this one couldn’t really disappoint!

When I took the cake from the oven it had risen so much that I prepared myself for it sinking. It didn’t. This is a tall cake when layered up with all the cream and fudgy goodness!

Even before the cake is cut and filled it’s big:


Here you can see the texture really clearly – this was taken when I cut the cake into layers:


The icing is rather magical – it’s not a buttercream or a white icing, the best way I can describe it is as a soft caramel fudge. Actually that’s a lie, the best way I can describe it is as follows: heavenly!

The icing starts as caramel on the hob:


It then becomes thick and sweet and succulent. It’s so thick and gooey that it can’t run down the side of the cake!


You get a lot of servings from this one!


The now-standard spoon shot:


Compare and contrast with the CCB’s (Caked Crusader’s Brother) spoonful – notice how he was more careful to compose a spoonful showing all the component parts, unlike me who was just trying to shovel it in as quickly as possible!


Ingredients:
For the cake:
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used a bit more)
275g brown sugar
300ml double cream
300g self raising flour

For the filling:
300ml double cream

For the caramel fudge icing:
60g unsalted butter
110g brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk or cream, more may be required
80g icing sugar

How to make:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin (nice deep tin).
- First, make the cake. Beat the eggs and vanilla until the mix is thick and creamy. It should look airy with little bubbles in it.
- Gradually beat in the sugar. This is best done by adding some sugar, beating, adding more sugar, beating etc, rather than adding the sugar in one go.
- Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold one spoonful of this into the egg mix.
- Fold the flour into the egg mix, then fold in the remaining cream.
- Spoon mixture into the cake tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took 1 hour.
- Remove from oven and leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes. Then, turn out and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. I expected the cake to sink but it didn’t! It is a big cake!
- To make the filling, beat the cream until firm peaks form.
- To make the caramel icing, melt the butter in a saucepan and add the brown sugar and milk/cream. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat at once. Simmer for 2 minutes then remove from the hob. Allow to cool slightly before sifting in the icing sugar. Sifting the icing sugar is vital – if you don’t the icing sugar will form lumps in the icing which no beating will remove (as I learnt to my cost and had to remake it!)
- If the icing becomes too thick simply beat in an additional tablespoon of milk.
- Cut the cake into two layers and spread the bottom layer with the whipped cream. Put the top layer of cake onto the cream and spread the top with the caramel icing. If you want to make the top completely smooth flip the cake layer so that the rounded top sits in the cream, giving you the lovely flat cut side to spread the icing over.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.