Aren’t these cupcakes adorable? So cheerful looking!
Best of all, they are really fun to eat because they’re so good. The cake is light, almost like angel food. The doctored up buttercream gets an extra infusion of butter flavor. Topped off with crunchy caramel corn and a rich drizzle of caramel, these little cakes are winners.
The homemade caramel was a little bit of a fiddle to make, but very good. Keep the faith and keep beating if your butter separates out like mine did….or use purchased caramel.
Caramel Corn Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
½ cup cream soda
3 large eggs
7 tablespoons softened butter
Buttercream Icing (recipe follows)
Caramel Sauce (recipe follows)
Caramel corn
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with 22 liners.
2. in a large bowl, combine cake mix with cream soda, eggs, and butter. Beat for 4 minutes and spoon batter into liners.
3. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes. Cool on a rack.
4. Frost cupcakes (I used a round tip to pipe the icing on) and top with caramel corn. Drizzle with caramel.
Buttercream Icing
Ingredients:
2 (16 oz) cans buttercream frosting
2 teaspoons butter-flavor extract
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, combine buttercream frosting, butter-flavor extract, and confectioners’ sugar. Beat until smooth.
Caramel Sauce
Ingredients:
¼ cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream
½ cup corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
1. In a small saucepan, heat sugar over medium heat, stirring until sugar is melted and turns golden brown.
2. Remove pan from heat and add butter and brown sugar, stirring until smooth. Add heavy cream, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt and stir until combined. (The butter separated out when I made the caramel. It took a good 5 minutes of vigorous beating to get it incorporated. I’m not sure why the separation occurred.)
3. Allow caramel to cool. Drizzle the sauce generously over each cupcake.
Recipe from Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Magazine
I had an email in my inbox titled “Influential cult folk-hero Chris T-T (Xtra Mile) returns to Scotland for Glasgow & Edinburgh shows.”
I’m such a Scottish music freak that I think the publicist possibly thinks that is where I live (which I really wouldn’t mind).
Back to Brighton-based Chris T-T. I had never heard of him and, if he is indeed influential, I wanted to get on board and see what his music was like. The more recent stuff is full of folk songs that outline political and moral dilemmas. Really well done.
My morning of listens though, turned up this more grungy, rocking style tune interestingly titled “Eminem Is Gay”. I’ve been enjoying it immensely.
Check out Chris T-T on his Website, where you can learn of upcoming gigs in the UK including the aforementioned ones in Glasgow and Edinburgh. You can buy his music on his site, too.
Cheers!
