Salted Caramel Cupcakes with Light Brown Sugar Sponge and Caramel Filling

Creaming butter and light brown sugar helps the cupcake batter trap air. Salted Caramel Cupcakes are light in texture. Salted caramel filling and buttercream topping are piped into the cupcakes, together with broken bits of fudge and additional caramel sauce.

Sponge ingredients are butter, light brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and self-rising flour. Light brown sugar adds flavor to the sponge. Self-rising flour adds the leavening agent required by the recipe. Salted caramel sauce is piped into round holes in baked cakes. Frosting ingredients are butter, powdered sugar, salted caramel extract, and milk. Other options for flavoring include salted caramel sauce in place of extract.

Golden brown color and a skewer that comes out clean when poked into the center of cupcakes indicate fully baked sponge cake. Let cupcakes cool completely on a rack before poking a skewer into the center to create a hole. This reduces damage to the cupcakes when making a filling for them. Be sure to whip the buttercream before filling or topping cupcakes with it. Do not top warm cakes with frosting and filling, as this may cause the cake layers to soften and frosting to smudge.

Serve cupcakes with chopped salted caramel fudge and sauce on top. The Ateco 829 decorating tip was used to make the garnish shown in the photo, but other tips can be used. Unused cupcakes should be stored in an airtight container in a cool place, the recipe says.