Salted Caramel Poked Cupcakes

Know what's nice about fall/winter? Mixing and matching and layering. It's absolutely wonderful to turn one sweater into 7 different looks just by layering it with different colors/patterns/textures, etc. Pinterest is a dangerous place to look at clothes and admittedly, it boggles my mind to think about EVER having a handbag and shoes and jewelry and nail polish to match every article of clothing I own. Just the thought of that is kind of stressful. And ridiculous.  Where do you store all of that?! All I can say is I will never have a wardrobe like that (but in my mind, my closet with that wardrobe in it is color-coded and fabulous looking).

Mixing and matching...I can handle that. It takes up a lot less room and it's waaaaay more affordable. I feel a small sense of accomplishment when I reinvent something from my closet that I've gotten bored with by paring it with different things than I normally would and SHAZAM! Whole new outfit! Anyway, the moral of the story is that these cupcakes are a delightful little mix-&-match victory. You might recognize the cupcake recipe from here but they've been transformed into a whole new recipe for deliciousness. These are poked and smothered with homemade salted caramel and topped with more of the good stuff. Give them a try and then at Christmas time, bust out the original ones too! It won't even be like the same cupcake.

Salted Caramel Poked Cupcakes

Makes 24 Cupcakes

Homemade Salted Caramel

Ingredients:

• 1 c. salted butter
• 2 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Directions:

Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add brown sugar, heavy whipping cream and salt, stirring constantly. Allow mixture to boil for 1 minute and remove from heat. Cool completely.

Note: Reserve 1 c. caramel for pouring into pokes and drizzling over the top of the cupcakes. I re-heated that portion for about 10 seconds in the microwave just to make it a little easier to work with. The remaining cool caramel was mixed into the frosting (see recipe below).

Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 c. strong-brewed, hot coffee
• 2 c. sugar
• 1 3/4 c. flour
• 1 c. unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 c. buttermilk, well-shaken

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Combine chocolate chips & hot coffee in bowl, allowing chocolate to melt & stirring until smooth. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, soda, baking powder & salt. In another large bowl, beat eggs until slightly thickened and slowly add buttermilk, oil, vanilla & chocolate/coffee mixture, beating until combined well. Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined well. Fill lined cupcake tins 1/2 full with batter. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from cupcake tin and cool completely. Using a straw, poke three 1" deep holes in each. Pour about 1 tsp. caramel into the holes of each cupcake.

Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 c. butter, room temperature
• 3 c. powdered sugar
• remaining salted caramel (from recipe above)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and salted caramel. Add powdered sugar slowly to desired thickness. Spread or pipe frosting on cupcakes and drizzle with reserved salted caramel if desired. Enjoy (with a steamy cup of dark roast coffee)! :)

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