I'm back.....with some yummy goodness!

I’m BAAAACK!

Well after a long break from blogging, cooking and pretty much anything I enjoyed due to school, I can finally say I AM DONE! I graduated with my Masters in Nursing Administration, with a 4.0 to boot! Yay me J

Well enough bragging on myself. I am back in the kitchen, starting some crafting, reading some awesome books, and I love it. Over the past year I have discovered Pinterest. Ever heard of it?? If not, then you might live under a rock. It has given me some fabulous ideas on baking, cooking and crafts. I have completed a few crafts inspired by Pinterest. I’ve repainted our bedroom furniture for our bedroom remodel, I won’t post pics yet, until it is ALL completed, there is still painting, artwork and staining my bed to be done. I also attempted to make a bow holder for all Brynn’s hair clips. It turned out super cute, I’ll post pics and a blog later. I want to get on to the YUMMY stuff J

Last week for Nurse’s week on our fabulous floor we had a different theme each day and on Thursday we had a bake-off! Right up my alley. We have some amazingly talented bakers on our floor and everyone brought amazing stuff. I did not win L But, that’s ok, I’ll survive. For the bake-off I decided to make salted caramel cupcakes. I am a bit obsessed with salted caramel anything, the sweet and salty flavor is amazing. So I searched and searched Pinterest for a recipe that was doable. I found one that sounded great. It was a lot of work and in the future I would make a few changes. I’ll post them below after the recipe and pics.

The recipe is from 52 Kitchen Adventures

http://www.52kitchenadventures.com/2011/09/20/salted-caramel-cupcakes/

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes

Makes 15 cupcakes

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325 °F. Line muffin tin with paper or foil liners.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each until fully incorporated. Mix in vanilla extract. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients in 3 batches, alternating with 1/2 of the buttermilk, stirring after each until everything is combined.

Pour batter into prepared muffin tin until each liner is 3/4 full. Bake for around 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Salted Caramel Filling

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons salted butter, cubed
• 
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoons heavy cream, at room temperature

In a medium saucepan, cook the sugar over medium heat, whisking as it melts. When it turns a deep amber color, add the butter and stir until it is melted. Add the heavy cream and whisk until the caramel is smooth. Remove from heat and let cool.

Using a large pastry tip or a paring knife, cut a small round piece out of the top of each cupcake. Pour in around 1-2 teaspoons of caramel.

Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 stick salted butter
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• Fleur de sel for sprinkling (optional)

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and water and cook over medium-high heat. Boil without stirring until it turns a deep amber color. Remove from heat and slowly pour in cream and vanilla, whisking until it is very smooth. Let cool for around 20 minutes, until it’s just barely warm and still pourable.

Meanwhile, beat butter and salt together until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat until thoroughly combined. Pour in the cooled caramel and beat on medium-high speed until light and airy (around 2 minutes). Spread or pipe onto filled cupcakes (if frosting is too runny, the caramel was too warm when added – refrigerate for around 15-20 minutes until frosting is stiffer). Sprinkle each cupcake with a small pinch of fleur de sel.

***My notes:

The cupcake batter was thick, not sure if it was supposed to be that way or not, it reminded me of pancake batter, so don’t freak out like I did, and it only made about 15 cupcakes. Also, I would double the batch of caramel filling and use half of it to add to the buttercream icing rather than how the buttercream recipe calls for making the caramel. In my opinion the caramel for the filling tasted much more flavorful than the buttercream recipe caramel. I think the icing lacked a big caramel taste and it would have been much better with more caramel flavor. But that’s just my opinion J

Hope you enjoy!