Movember - Caramel Cupcakes

To help support our Squires MoBros in the office who are growing moustaches of all shapes in sizes to raise money in support of prostate cancer research some of the MoSisters in the office have been baking cakes for Movember Mondays to raise some extra pennies for the cause.


The first week set the bar high with some brilliantly moustache themed cakes, cupcakes of which were baked by Frances of Scruffy Starling. The girls managed to raise a brilliant £62 of donations from those in the office.
This week we had more cake-tastic baking attempts from some of the girls and myself, with even a moustache shaped cake! Honestly I couldn't think of ways to make my cakes moustachy, so I just went for a sugar overdose! We also managed to raise a smashing £62 which has been added to our Mobros account.


The recipe for the cake was adapted from the Magnolia vanilla cupcakes, which I've mentioned before as being one of my favourite cupcakes I've had. I also adapted the icing to not be as sweet as the original and have a caramel twist! Now usually I would try to not use as much butter as this recipe asked for but I kind of just went with it and to be honest I wouldn't scrimp on the butter! You need it to make the cakes soft and delicious. I also decided to fill the cakes with caramel filling, which was a lovely little surprise to add to the rest of the caramely goodness of the cakes, which you can just about see in the picture below.

There are still a few days left to support our MoBros, so please give generously its for a good cause!




Caramel Cupcakes
(adapted from the Magnolia Bakery)
Makes 24


190g self rising flour
160g plain flour
227g unsalted butter, softened
400g caster sugar
4 eggs
250ml milk
1tspn vanilla bean paste
24tspns confiture de caramel (this is used to fill the cupcakes, I made 24 so thats why there are so many teaspoons!)


For the icing


340g unsalted butter
500g icing sugar
2 tblspns milk
1tspn vanilla bean paste
4 tspns confiture de caramel (I used Bon Maman, but you could try making your own dulce de leche)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C , and line 6, 12 or 24 cupcake trays with cases

2. In a bowl, sift together the flours and set aside.

3. In another bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

5. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake cases and bake in middle of oven until tops turn golden brown and toothpick inserted into center comes out just clean (a few crumbs is okay), about 18 minutes.

6. Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

7. For the icing, in the bowl either with an electric whisk or by hand ( to work some of the sugar calories off) whip the butter for 5 minutes on medium speed until it becomes pale and fluffy.

8. Add the remaining icing ingredients and mix on low speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 5 minutes. The frosting should light, creamy, and fluffy.

9. Once the cakes have cooled cut a small circle out of the top of them, deep enough to fill with the confiture de caramel. Fill and replace the cut piece of cake on top – I leveled the cut piece so that the filling didn’t come out of the top.

10. Pipe the icing onto the cakes. I used a petal shaped tip to make the flower effect but you can use any tip you like. Finish with a caramel waffle as I did if you like.

Ps. Sorry for the recently bad photos, I haven't got my fancy camera with me and have been having to make do with my Iphone (other touch phones are available ;) )