Forever Alone Cupcakes (Salty Caramel)

So I asked my co-workers what type of cupcakes would they like for valentines day and one replied facetiously “How about human tears?” Well, I never turn down a challenge so here we are Forever Alone Cupcakes (or a brown sugar cupcake with vanilla buttercream and salty caramel sauce)
Salty Caramel Sauce
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1.7 ounces unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 drop of red food dye
Directions
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar and water over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves.
- Increase the heat and bring to a boil, without stirring and boil until the syrup is an amber color, about 5 to 6 minutes.
- Remove the sugar from the heat and carefully whisk in the heavy cream.
- Stir in the unsalted butter, and salt and then the red food dye.
- Transfer the caramel to a dish and cool.
Brown Sugar Cake
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 4 ounces butter, softened
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
Directions
- Heat oven to 350°. Line a muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Cream light brown sugar and dark brown sugar with butter until smooth
- Add the eggs, one at a time
- Beat in vanilla.
- Add about 1/3 of the dry mixture and half of the buttermilk to the wet mixture. Beat until smooth. Beat in another 1/3 of the dry mixture and the remaining buttermilk. Beat in the remaining flour mixture, blending well.
- Fill cupcake tins about 2/3rds and bake for about 15 to 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean.
Buttercream Ingredients
- ½ pound of butter softened
- 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Cream butter.
- Add powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Mix.
- Add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes.
- If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.
I also got a wonderful arm exercise making butter, because I didn’t have buttermilk. So here’s a recipe on how to make butter and the process buttermilk. I used the butter made for the butter cream.
Butter (Buttermilk)
- Heavy cream
- Fill a jar or tubberware with heavy cream and close the lid firmly.
- Shake the container back and forth. After several minutes, the cream will turn into whipped cream and then turn yellow (i.e. butter) and separate liquid (buttermilk).
- And there you have it butter and buttermilk in less than 10 minutes. (It’s like a productive version of the shake weight!)