Day 178 – Chocolate Salted-Caramel Mini Cupcakes

Chocolate Salted-Caramel Mini Cupcakes (recipe below from Bake or Break)

    

The cupcakes are very dense. They look and feel (and taste) a lot like a devil’s food cake. Dark and fudgy.  A nice, sweet chocolate flavor. Not too dark, but not weak either.

The caramel is thick and dark.  It tastes a little burnt. Not like a typical sweet caramel. It’s possible that it’s on purpose.

Note: The recipe says to let the caramel get to 360 degrees. I didn’t quite make it there before my house was filled with smoke.

The frosting is the consistency and texture of chocolate pudding. It holds its shape way better than I would have expected!  It tastes a bit like chocolate-chocolate cream. The 2 different chocolates give it a much deeper flavor. Really interesting. Really tasty.

    

These cupcakes are meant to be minis, and there’s a reason. The full-sized cupcake gets way too much of the caramel and the salt and it overpowers the whole thing.

    

The caramel turns in to a hard, candy caramel in the center of the cupcake. Making the full-sized even harder to eat. The minis have a nice chocolate to caramel to salt balance. They are dark cupcakes. Not overly sweet or sugary. But the minis are nice, bite sized, chocolate-covered salted-caramels.

Scoring Sheet:

• Cupcake Taste: 4

• Frosting Taste: 4.5

• Overall Taste: 3.5

• Appearance: 4.5
• Ease of Making: 2.5 (None of the parts are overly difficult. Caramel and chocolates are pretty time-consuming.)
• TOTAL: 19

RECIPE

Chocolate Salted-Caramel Mini Cupcakes (recipe from Bake or Break)

For the cupcakes:

• 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 & 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup warm water
• sea salt, for garnish

For the filling:

• 2 & 1/2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 & 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

For the frosting:

• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
• 2 & 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 & 1/2 pounds semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

For directions visit Bake or Break.

*Tomorrow: Candied-Hazelnut Cupcakes*