Salted Caramel Cupcakes

March is birthday month in our home; three out of four of us are March babies. To celebrate, we made Salted Caramel Cupcakes. They make such a great birthday treat.

Cupcakes
Brule Creek Farms Chocolate Cupcake Mix, prepared as instructed you will need:
½ cup milk
1 egg
¼ cup oil
½ cup boiling water

Icing
1 cup salted butter
1/3 cup caramel sauce
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups icing sugar
extra caramel sauce
coarse sea salt

Prepare the BCF Chocolate Cupcake Mix as instructed. Allow to cool. I scooped out a bit of each cupcake with a melon baller and filled with some more caramel sauce before icing. 

To make the icing, whip the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add in the caramel sauce, vanilla and a sprinkling of salt and whip again. Slowly add in the icing sugar. Once ready, ice your cupcakes as you like; I used a piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip. Decorate your cupcakes with a drizzle of caramel sauce and light sprinkling of coarse sea salt. So yummy!

Chocolate Caramel Pie

So this might not be our healthiest recipe – whipping cream, butter, chocolate – but boy oh boy, it sure is delicious! Save this recipe for a special occasion. I think a Wednesday afternoon qualifies as special enough!

Crust:

1 cup Partially Sifted Flour
3 tbsp sugar
½ tsp sea salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
½ cup chilled butter, cubed
2 large egg yolks 

Caramel Filling:

1 cup sugar
¼ cup water
¼ cup heavy whipping cream
¼ cup butter, cubed
1 tsp vanilla
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Chocolate Ganache:

2 cups heavy whipping cream
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a tart or cheesecake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides. To make the crust, begin by blending together the dry ingredients – flour, sugar, sea salt and cocoa powder. Cut in the butter until mixture looks like oatmeal. Mix in two large egg yolks. Press the crust into the bottom of the pan and work up the edges. If needed, you can add a teaspoon of water to the crust mixture to help it stick. Bake for about 20 minutes. Take it out and let cool. 

To make the caramel filling, dissolve the sugar in the water in a sauce pan over low heat. Once dissolved, raise the temperature to medium-high and continue stirring until sugar caramelizes and turns amber. Be careful though, sugar burns easily. Once smooth, take off heat and stir in butter, vanilla and sea salt until mixture is smooth. Allow it to cool slightly before pouring into crust. 

To make the chocolate ganache, bring whipping cream to a slight boil. Whisk in the chocolate until melted. Cool mixture in fridge for 2 – 3 hours. Once cool, whip the ganache until thick. smooth mixture on top of caramel layer. To top it off, we melted chocolate and drizzled it on top and sprinkled a bit of sea salt. Cool the entire pie for a couple of hours before serving. Delicious!