Toffee Cupcakes With Caramel Frosting
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There are good, but not great. The cupcakes are quite moist, but pretty bland. The frosting is super sweet, and sort of overpowers the simplicity of the cupcake. The cupcake recipe suggested making either caramel frosting, buttercream frosting, or chocolate fudge frosting. I think if I were to make these again, I’d use chocolate frosting.
[Edited to add: My coworkers give these a thumbs up. Apparently I’m in the minority.]
Also, the frosting recipe said to stir 10 to 15 minutes or until thickened. However, I couldn’t get it to thicken very much, and was afraid if I kept it on the heat the caramel would burn. Consequently, it ended up more of a caramel ice cream topping consistency than a frosting consistency. But it still tasted good, albeit really sweet.
Cupcakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
2 egg whites
2/3 buttermilk
2/3 cup toffee bits
- In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together brown sugar and butter until well combined. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until smooth. Add toffee bits, beating until smooth.
- Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting.
Yields one dozen.
Frosting
1 cup whipping (35% cream)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
- In a heavy saucepan, combine cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and salt. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted.
- Reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring often, for 10 to 15 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir until smooth and pour into a bowl. Let cool in bowl, stirring occasionally. Caramel will thicken further as it sits and cools.
- Stir cooled caramel well and spread or spoon over cooled cupcakes.
My notes:
- Make the frosting before the cupcakes so it has time to cool.
- Don’t be lame like me and put the frosting in an aluminum bowl to cool. Duh.
Recipes from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes.
I’m Still Here
I just haven’t tried any new recipes lately. However, I have gotten my baking business started.
I know I don’t need to apologize for the lack of new posts, but I feel badly when I don’t update this blog. So here’s a non-recipe update for ya. I know, total cop out post. Anyway, I’m hoping to try a new cupcake recipe this week and will post about it if it actually happens. (Life has been busy!) If I don’t get to it, there won’t be any recipes until after Passover because really, I have no new Passover recipes to try; I think we’ve found all the good ones. Speaking of Passover recipes, if that’s what you’re looking for, they’re over here. The matzo brittle and apple crisp are my family’s faves.
Have a good Pesach/Easter!
Hamantaschen
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Hamantaschen are cookies, traditionally filled with poppy seeds, eaten for Purim. I hate poppy seeds, and since I was the one making them, I made an apricot (also a popular flavor) filling. If you don’t want to make a filling, just use store-bought preserves. Anyway, they’re in the shape of a triangle, which symbolizes (the Purim bad guy) Haman’s triangular hat or his triangular ears. Hey, I’m just passing along the info…I didn’t make it up.
Anyway, this was a near disaster, and two recipes in the making. The first one I tried was a pareve (non-dairy/non-meat) recipe. Looking at the recipe, I thought it was missing some wet ingredients (orange juice or oil perhaps), but then again, who am I to second guess? I made the dough in the morning, stuck it in the fridge as the recipe says, went out for the day, then came home late afternoon to shape and bake the hamantaschen. The dough was so dry it just crumbled. Thinking I did something wrong, I tried the recipe again and ended up with the same result. So frustrating.
Back to the Internet, and I found this recipe. It’s just okay, not wow! or anything, probably because it reminds me too much of sugar cookie dough. And it’s heavy. The apricot filling is delicious though.
Filling Ingredients
1/4 lb. dried apricots
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
Filling Preparation
Cover apricots with 1/2 cup water. Cook over low heat in covered pan for 15 minutes. Mash and add sugar while hot, then add 2 tablespoons water.
Dough Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
4 cups flour
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Dough Preparation
Cream sugar, oil and margarine. Add eggs and juice and mix well. Blend with dry ingredients and roll into a ball. Refrigerate dough one hour.
Divide dough into four parts. Roll out each piece very thin (approximately 1/8 inch) on a floured board. With the rim of a cup or glass (depending on desired size) cut into the dough to make circles. Place 1/2 to 2/3 teaspoon of filling in the middle of each circle. With your finger, put water around rim of circle.
To shape into triangle, lift up right and left sides, leaving the bottom side down, and bring both sides to meet at center, above the filling. Lift bottom side up to center to meet other two sides.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.
Yields 4 dozen Hamantaschen.
Original hamantaschen recipe from Jewish Recipes. I altered it slightly.
Apricot filling recipe from jewishfood-list.com.
