Salted Caramel Cupcakes for a Virtual Baby Shower
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These salted caramel cupcakes are topped with a rich salted dulce de leche caramel frosting and happen to be the perfect virtual baby shower treat for my blogging friend Jenny of Picky Palate.
There seems to be something running in the blogging water these days, when you consider all the pregnant bellies showing up on blogs, facebook and at events.
Today my friends and I are throwing a surprise virtual shower for Jenny, the creative face behind the Picky Palate a blog full of fun kitchen creations! Jenny is a wife and mom of two little boys, with number three expected to arrive in September! Not only has she been cooking up another picky palate to feed, but Jenny has also just finished her very first cookbook, The Picky Palate Cookbook with Wiley Publishing that will be available October 22nd 2012. What an exciting year for her!!
We all can’t get together with Jenny in person, but we can all share our well wishes and excitement for her and her family by showering her with our virtual sweets, treats and more!
Earlier last month I visited Sprinkles cupcake shop in New York City with my daughters. As soon as I opened the door and took in the sweet aroma, I knew I wanted the salted caramel cupcake. I’ve been dreaming about the wonderful thick, creamy buttery caramel frosting every since, and knew I would need to try and recreate that cupcake at home. What better time than a virtual baby shower! I think Jenny would LOVE these as much as we did!
I started with a Duncan Hines Caramel Cake Mix and doctored it up just a bit. Still using 3 eggs like the box calls for, but I then used melted butter instead of oil, and only one cup of liquid, using 1/2 cup Coffee-Mate Caramel Macchiato liquid creamer and 1/2 cup water. {full recipe below}
This will yield a nice thick batter, enough for 24 regular size cupcakes and 12 mini cupcakes.
The real magic happens with the frosting! I used Nestle la lechera dulce de leche caramel to make a caramel cream cheese frosting! If you can’t get a hold of the Dulce de Leche, I’m sure caramel ice cream topping would work well too.
With the left over dulce de leche, I drizzled a little over the top of the frosting then a light sprinkling of fleur de sel that I picked up at The Meadow Shop in New York City! A beautiful and unexpected shop that I fell in love with that specializes in artisan salt and gourmet chocolate and more! A must stop if you ever find your self in NYC’s West Village!
I wish I could give you a scratch and sniff here! Even sitting on my table 2 days later, you could just smell the creamy, buttery caramel as you walked by. These were, dare I say, nearly as good as what we had at Sprinkles. Although, I’m not comparing them side by side, but they were definitely every bit as dreamy as I had envisioned!
There you go! One seriously sensational cupcake! For one seriously sensational blogger and her new baby!
I have to tell you though, my husband wasn’t a fan of the salt, so if you aren’t either, just leave the salt off the top…..but promise me, you will try it on just one! Be very light, a little fleur de sel goes a long way!
Congrats to your family, Jenny! There are a lot of incredible moments ahead for you.
Table of Contents
Salted Caramel Cupcakes
Ingredients
For Caramel Cupcakes
- 1 box Duncan Hines Signature Caramel Cake Mix* (or Butter Cake Mix or Duncan Hines French Vanilla Cake Mix with half a cup of caramel sauce)
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/2 cup Coffee-Mate Caramel Macchiato liquid creamer
- 1/2 cup water
For Salted Caramel Frosting
- 1 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup dulce de leche caramel
- 7-8 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- fleur de sel
Instructions
For Cupcakes- Heat oven to 350° and line cupcake pans with cupcake papers.
- In a large bowl, using electric mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, butter, cream and water for 1 minute on low. Scrap sides, then mix on high for 1 minute.
- Divide batter evenly between cupcake wells and gently shake to smooth batter. Bake 18-20 minutes (10 minutes for mini cupcakes) or until toothpick inserted into the center cupcakes comes out clean.
- Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
- Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen in a covered container for 1-2 weeks.
- Place butter in a large mixing bowl and blend slightly. Add cream cheese and blend until combined, about 30 seconds.
- Add the caramel and mix until fully incorporated.
- Slowly add powdered sugar one cup at a time and blend on low speed until combined and desired consistency (you want your frosting pretty thick).
- Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.(about 1 minute)
- Pipe caramel frosting on top of cupcakes with an extra large round pastry tip
- Drizzle frosting with dulce de leche caramel
- Lightly garnish with fleur de sel
Notes
*if you can not find the Duncan Hines Signature Caramel Cake Mix, you can use a Butter Cake Mix Duncan Hines or French Vanilla Cake Mix with half a cup of dulce de leche caramel sauce.
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Jenny’s Virtual Baby Shower Tour
Amanda: Kevin and Amanda Cinnamon Blueberry Biscoff Breakfast Cookies | Angie: Bakerella Baby Faces | Averie: Averie Cooks Chocolate Banana and Biscoff Graham Bars | Bev: Bev Cooks Horseradish Deviled Eggs | Bridget: Bake at 350 Cute as a Button Cupcakes | Cheryl: TidyMom Salted Caramel Cupcakes | Gaby: Whats Gaby Cooking Blueberry Buttermilk Cake | Heather: Heather’s Dish Perfect Pancake Bites | Julie: The Little Kitchen Mixed Berry Mint Slushies | Kathy: Panini Happy Baby Oreo Ice Cream Pies | Kristan: Confessions of a Cookbook Queen Homemade Animal Crackers | Lauren: Lauren’s Latest Mini Chocolate Lava Cakes | Lori: Recipe Girl Oreo and Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars | Maria: Two Peas and Their Pod Cookies ‘n Cream Sheet Cake | Marion: Sweetopia Baby Shower Cookie Favors | Marla: Family Fresh Cooking Blueberry Mint Agua Fresca | Michelle: Brown Eyed Baker Shrimp Nacho Bites | Naomi: Bakers Royale – Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Trifles | Recipe Boy: Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Oreos | Robyn: Add a Pinch Blue Velvet Cake | Shaina: Food For My Family Ginger Plum Preserves | Shelly: Cookies and CupsOreo Pop Baby Rattles
Hi there, I'm Cheryl!
As a wife, mom, and caffeine enthusiast, my journey has taken me from bustling mornings with my family to sharing delicious recipes, home care tips, and heartfelt decorating insights with wonderful readers like you. My love for baking, photography, and tidiness shines through every post I craft. Dive into my world and discover the art of homemaking, one tidy moment at a time. Read more...
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I’m in LOVE with salted caramel and could really go for about a dozen or so of these yummies!!!
I love the doctored up cake mix recipe – I need to try that! These cupcakes look amazing! Thanks for the great ideas!
I must have these. I simply, must!
Mmmm.. love salted caramel on everything!!
These look awesome! Love that caramel drizzle on top 🙂
Mmm, I can’t get enough of salted caramel, these have my name all over them!
These turned out so nice, Cheryl. Absolutely gorgeous, and salted caramel is my favorite. I can’t wait to try these.
what a SWEET idea:) your cupcakes look insanely amazing!
Oh my! Your photographs make these cupcakes come to life!
Yum, yum and yum! I would gladly eat a dozen of these in one sitting. Just saying.
Does regular salted caramel taste the same as the french sea salt that you used?
I’m not sure I understand your question – the salt on the caramel is what makes it salted caramel.
If you are asking if you can use table salt, the answer would be no – but you can use any sea salt, it doesn’t have to be French – you can find sea salt in the grocery store next to the table salt – Morton even makes Sea Salt http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-home/culinary-salts/food-salts/15/morton-sea-salt-fine-and-coarse/
Hope that helps!
luv it thankx alot
So apparently the Carmel cake mix doesn’t exist where I live. I am really disappointed I couldn’t find it anywhere, went to at least 6 different stores looking for it. I did, however, find the Duncan Hines Decadent Apple Caramel cake mix, think it would taste just as good? Or should I wait till I can find the regular caramel cake mix?
Darn! I’m so sorry. I don’t know why they don’t make things available everywhere!
I think the Duncan Hines Decadent Apple Caramel cake mix would maybe work – but I would follow the direction on the box for mixing the cake – because I think that’s a smaller cake
Here’s what I would try on of 2 ways
get a good butter cake mix or even the Duncan Hines French Vanilla (if you can find it) and
• use 1 cup caramel creamer and no water (and follow my recipe)
Or
• Follow my recipe + add ½ cup caramel sauce/syrup to the cake mix
Hope that helps!
I am trying the Butter cake mix with 1 cup of the creamer…hoping it turns out as good as yours look! Thanks for the help!
I just called Duncan Hines (3/1/13) and they have discontinued their caramel cake mix!!! I’m going to try a plain white or butter cake mix instead and use creamer instead of water…and perhaps a spoon or two of caramel sauce.
i have a question about the salted caramel cupcakes – i can’t find the cake mix but did find butter pecan – how do you think that would work or should i stick to the suggestion you mentioned above about the french vanilla?
Thanks in advance for your reply 🙂
I was drooling over this recipe and then was asked to make cupcakes for a (non-virtual) baby shower and finally, had an excuse to make them. I couldn’t find the Caramel cake mix either and freaked out a little bit, but then I saw your modifications for a French Vanilla mix… I added 1/2 c. caramel like recommended and they tasted amazing! Thank you for this fabulous recipe!! A huge hit!
Hey! Just wanted to let you know I made these and they are DELISH! I actually posted the recipe on my blog as well! Thank you so much for the lovely recipe!
These look so good I want to make them right now!
Hi, I’m planning on trying these. My question is…sorry, maybe it’s me….but I have a question about the coffee-mate creamer. In one link it shows a link to amazon, for the powdered version and the other (recipe) shows the liquid version. Which is it? It says 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of creamer…could go either way….
Hi Jo Ann, sorry for the confusion – but I just double checked and all the links go to the liquid creamer – and the liquid cream is what I used.
Hope this helps
I love this recipe however along with some of the other ladies I wasn’t able to get a hold of the Duncan Hines Signature Caramel Cake Mix so I used Duncan Hines French Vanilla Cake Mix with half a cup of caramel sauce. They were a hit at my friends baby shower, a few of the ladies asked for the recipe. I also really like the look of your blog as soon as I saw those pictures I knew it was a recipe I had to try.
I found the Duncan hines signature caramel cake mix and the Nestles carmel dulce de leche on Amazon so I just ordered it. I’m so excited to try your recipe that I decided to pay the extra and order on Amazon.
A question, the picture you have posted looks like it has swirls in the cupcake. Does it have swirls? I didn’t see any instructions on mixing something into the mix itself. Thanks, can’t wait to try this.
Concerning the frosting : Why are cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar listed twice ?
Does this take 2 – 8 oz cream cheese???
I’m looking for caramel cupcakes recipes and i found this post. This recipe look so tasty, i can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks for share this lovely recipe.
These were delicious!!! I didn’t want the cupcake to be over. I’m not even a cupcake or salted caramel kind of girl. But wow! I made these for a friend’s baby shower. Let’s just say there were a few missing before the party even started.
These were delicious!!! I didn’t want the cupcake to be over. I’m not even a cupcake or salted caramel kind of girl. But wow! I made these for a friend’s baby shower. Let’s just say there were a few missing before the party even started.
hello. This cupcake has great flavor but each time I make them the center sinks. I am using the butter cake mix and adding caramel. It seems like there is too much liquid. Any ideas?