Salted Caramel Devil’s Food Cupcakes

It was our daughter’s birthday last week. We celebrated with Salted Caramel Devil’s Food Cupcakes. Akshaya has been at home for a while now, given the present pandemic situation. So that’s one more birthday we get to celebrate at home together before she leaves whenever that happens. I have been baking our birthday cakes at home for a long time now. They’re mostly simple cakes.

When I asked what she wanted me to bake this time, she asked for simple cupcakes. Her reason for this choice? Each person gets enough of cake and frosting without having to cut or divide anything. Cupcakes are easier to frost/ decorate and most importantly, she didn’t want me stressing out over the cake!

Her favourite flavours are chocolate, vanilla and lime or lemon. I’ve done them to death in birthday cakes but she doesn’t mind. So I went the chocolate way with Devil’s Food Cupcakes. For something different I topped the cupcakes with a Salted Caramel Frosting, another favourite of hers.

I adapted David Lebovitz’s Devils’ Food Cake recipe for the cupcakes. It’s one of the birthday girl’s favourites and his recipes haven’t failed me so far. It ended up being an eventful bake. First it started with the cupcake liners. She chose these cute square paper cups which turned out to be a good decision eventually. I filled the paper cups a wee bit more than I should have. They over flowed on baking but since the cups were square I was able to trim the excess cake easily. Other than that the cupcakes turned out great, as expected.

I have something to confess here. I haven’t been able to make really good caramel so far. Don’t ask me why, because I honestly don’t know. I follow instructions to the T, do all I must yet the caramel defeats me! Luckily the daughter is a caramel making expert, so she make the caramel. It turned out perfect, though we did slightly burn our fingers in the process. That went into a whipped buttercream frosting that got even more rave reviews than the cupcakes themselves. All in all, these Salted Caramel Devil’s Food Cupcakes are a perfect celebration bake.

You can make the Salted Caramel ahead. The Devil’s Food Cupcakes and the Salted Caramel Frosting can be made the day before. So on the day you serve them, you need just frost them. The Frosting recipe should be enough to frost 18 cupcakes if you decorate them as I have.

Salted Caramel Devil’s Food Cupcakes

Moist and airy more-ish chocolate cupcakes topped by salted caramel buttercream frosting for a celebratory dessert or birthday treat.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 18 cupcakes

Ingredients

  

For the Cupcakes :

• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 cup corn-starch
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 150 gm unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 1 tsp instant coffee
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 cup milk

For the Salted Caramel :

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 40 gm salted butter
• 1/4 cup cream
• Salt to taste if necessary

For the Salted Caramel Frosting :

• All the salted caramel from above
• 200 gm unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/8 cup cream
• 3 cups to 4icing sugar
• Salt to taste

Instructions

 

For the Salted Caramel :

• Put the sugar in a heavy bottomed pan. Mix in a couple of tbsp. of water, just enough to wet the sugar. Set on medium heat. Let the sugar dissolve/ melt. As it does, it will gradually deepen in colour.
• Stir occasionally until the sugar is fully dissolved, and is an amber colour. Take the pan off the heat. Whisk in butter carefully as the mixture will spit. Then immediately stir in cream and salt, if using more. The mixture will be a bit thin in consistency. It will thicken as it cools.
• Let it cool completely before using for the buttercream. If not using immediately, transfer to a bottle.

For the Devil’s Food Cupcakes

• Lightly whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, corn-starch, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together in a bowl.
• In another bowl, with a hand held mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, till smooth. In a small bowl, dissolve the instant coffee powder in the hot water. Then mix in the milk.
• Add half of the flour mixture and the milk to the butter-suagr mixture and beat on slow to medium speed till just blended. Mix in the remaining flour mixture. Do not over beat the cake batter or you will end up with a dense tough cake rather than an airier one.
• Divide the batter equally between 18 cupcake paper cups or tins. Bake them at 180C (350F) for about 15 to 20 minutes. It is difficult to judge if these are cooked from the colour. Over baking will affect the texture. Once the top of the cupcakes look set check for doneness with a skewer through the middle after about 12 to 15 minutes in the oven.
• Cool the cupcakes on a rack. Let them cool completely before frosting.

For the Salted Caramel Frosting :

• Beat the butter, using a hand held mixer, till light and fluffy. Beat in the cream and all the Salted Caramel. Beat in the icing sugar, a little at a time, until the frosting is of reasonably stiff consistency. Check for salt and beat in salt to taste. Frost the cupcakes as desired.