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–+ servings
A chocolate cupcake filled with caramel sauce on a cooling rack

Moist Salted Carmel-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

This Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes recipe delivers rich, moist cupcakes topped with creamy caramel frosting. Perfect for indulgent dessert lovers.
Author: Nick Makrides
4.60 from 22 votes
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Prep 20 minutes
Cook 45 minutes
Total 1 hour 5 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 12
Calories 633 kcal

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes

  • 185 g all-purpose flour
  • 220 g caster sugar
  • 50 g cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bicarb soda baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt
  • 60 g unsalted butter melted.
  • 80 g vegetable oil or canola
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature (55g each)
  • 185 g buttermilk (see notes)
  • 60 g boiling water

Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting

  • 500 g unsalted butter
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1-2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 30 g heavy cream cold (see notes)
  • 300 g powdered sugar

Decorations

  • 1 batch salted caramel sauce cooled (see notes)
  • Sea salt flakes to sprinkle

Instructions
 

Chocolate Cupcakes

  • Preheat a fan-forced oven to 130C / 265F (150C / 300F for no fan). Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners. More details on cupcake liners in the notes.
  • Combine dry ingredients - Add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarb soda, baking powder and salt to a medium sized mixing bowl and sieve. Then mix with a whisk.
  • Add wet ingredients - Add the butter, oil, eggs and buttermilk to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined and no dry ingredients are showing. Take care not to overmix the batter.
  • Add boiling water - Lastly, pour in the boiling water and mix. The batter will darken and thin out.
  • Bake - Scoop the batter into the cupcakes filling them up 3/4 of the way. Bake in the middle rack of your oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one cupcake (one of the middle cupcakes) comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature.

Salted Caramel Buttercream frosting

  • Cream butter - Add your softened butter, salt and vanilla extract to a large bowl. If using a stand mixer fit it with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy.
  • Add sugar - Scrape down the bowl and add all of the sifted powdered sugar and begin beating on low speed. When no dry ingredients are showing, turn the speed up to high speed and beat for 10 minutes.
  • Add salted caramel - Add 100g salted caramel sauce and whip on medium high speed until well combined. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to scrape down the bowl, beat for a final 1 minute.

How to make it smooth

  • Add the warm milk - beat on medium speed for 5 minutes. Do not add the milk if it’s a warm day or if you need the frosting to be stiffer.
  • Add half of the frosting into a heatproof bowl and microwave for 10 seconds - or until jiggly (not melted) in the center. Add to the rest of the frosting and beat on medium speed for a couple minutes.
  • Right before using or adding to a piping bag - use a spatula to beat the air out of the frosting until smooth. Alternatively, you can leave in the mixer on low speed until ready to use, up to 10 minutes. Don’t overmix on low speed otherwise the frosting will begin to melt and split.
  • Finish decorating - Add the frosting to a piping bag fitted with an open star tip and drizzle with salted caramel sauce. Then sprinkle with sea salt flakes to finish.

Notes

Storage
Cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days.
Making mini cupcakes
If you wish to make mini cupcakes you can get 24 mini cupcakes out of this recipe but you’ll need to have the baking time.
Caramel Buttercream
Before you begin, it’s really important to make sure the butter is soft enough. Some people keep their butter out of the fridge, others chill it. Even if you keep it out, it may not be soft enough. You want your butter to be soft enough so that when you stick your finger in it, it glides in, but not without a little bit of resistance. The best way to get it too that softness is to place your butter on a microwave safe plate, microwave for 10 seconds at a time, testing the softness each time. If it needs longer than 10 seconds, turn the butter over and repeat until it’s ready.

Nutrition

Calories:633kcal | Carbohydrates:64g | Protein:4g | Fat:36g | Saturated Fat:23g | Polyunsaturated Fat:2g | Monounsaturated Fat:9g | Trans Fat:1g | Cholesterol:121mg | Sodium:266mg | Potassium:141mg | Fiber:1g | Sugar:33g | Vitamin A:1153IU | Vitamin C:1mg | Calcium:54mg | Iron:1mg
Keyword Chocolate, Cupcakes, Salted Caramel
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