Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

Chocolate Caramel cupcakes consist of crazy moist chocolate cupcakes filled with sticky and buttery homemade caramel sauce and covered with a light caramel whipped mascarpone cream frosting. They are fluffy, tender with the most amazing chocolate and caramel notes without being overly sweet.

These chocolate cupcakes with caramel filling are very well balanced in sweetness mainly due to the whipped caramel frosting, however if you want to further decrease the sweetness, you can easily turn them into salted caramel cupcakes by adding good quality sea salt to the caramel sauce.

Jump to:

• My 7 Secrets making crazy moist cupcakes
• Ingredient notes
• 4 Expert Baking tips
• Recipe FAQs
• More cupcake recipe ideas
• Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

My 7 Secrets making crazy moist cupcakes

1. Do not change the Ingredients

I suggest not to change the recipe ingredients unless you are an expert and aware of how to fully reformulate it. If you decide to leave out eggs or choose to go for dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, etc., I can almost guarantee that it will result in an imbalance in the ingredients making the pink cupcakes either too dry, too crumbly, too wet, or too oily, etc. in their texture. It is absolutely possible to make moist “free-from” cupcakes but that requires a totally new recipe instead of skipping certain ingredients

2. Use the Secret ingredient

I call it the secret ingredient, it is not really secret though since I share this tip in all my muffin recipes. Once the cupcake batter comes together – before baking – mix a small amount of (½ teaspoon) white vinegar with a small amount of (½ teaspoon) baking soda. The mixture will foam a bit, then quickly fold it into the cupcake butter – I promise this will make cupcakes airy and much lighter than cupcakes you are used to. These cupcakes will stay super moist and tender even after days if they ever last that long.

3. Learn the Technique

You very much have to be careful not over beating your cupcake butter. It might be tempting to pour everything into a stand mixer but please make sure to use a Hand whisk from the point when butter and sugar are already creamed. Beating the cupcake batter too hard can result in too much gluten development and we don´t want that.

4. Be precise while measuring your ingredients

For a consistent, happy baking experience always measure your ingredients with the help of a Digital scale. Cup measurement is inaccurate and not an appropriate way to measure ingredients. Just a little bit too much dry ingredients (eg. flour) or too few wet ingredients (eg. milk) can easily ruin your cupcakes` texture and make them dry.

5. Pay attention to temperature

Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperate while making these Pink cupcakes. If your butter is too hard, your milk or egg is too cold, they won´t emulsify properly with the rest of the ingredients resulting in unappealing texture on your cupcakes. When it comes to temperature, oven temp is also super important as baking these cupcakes on too high temp or for too long can result in a dry texture. Make sure you invest in an inexpensive Digital oven thermometer to be able to measure your oven temp correctly.

6. Might apply soaking syrup

The soaking syrup is a common trick people use to make their cakes moist, you can use the same method for cupcakes. It is not mandatory and I don´t use it in this Pink cupcake recipe but you can always brush the top of the cupcakes or even drizzle them with syrup that fits with the flavor eg. raspberry syrup in this case

7. Storage the cupcakes correctly

Once cupcakes are well baked and beautifully frosted, the appropriate storage is definitely something you have to bear in mind to avoid dry cupcakes. Instead of leaving them on a plate, store cupcakes in a container with a tight-fitting lid on – in the fridge.

Ingredient notes

For the chocolate cupcakes

1. Butter: Use always unsalted butter as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using European-style 82% fat content butter in all my cupcake recipes. In this Chocolate muffin recipe, the butter needs to be at room temperature which technically means soft enough to be able to cream but not too soft or runny so avoid last-minute microwaving. The right consistency and temperature of the butter is a very important factor when it comes to the cupcake texture, so please make sure you leave the butter out on the kitchen counter to soften for a few hours before using it
2. Granulated Sugar: Standard, all-purpose granulated or white sugar is perfectly fine for making cupcakes, nothing fancy. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my article in here
3. Egg: Room temperature as always
4. Flour: All-purpose flour or pastry flour makes the best cupcakes. They are so-called “soft flour” which are low on protein resulting in a delicate, tender texture. It is always a good idea to sift your flour as it tends to form lumps. If you want to be a Pro when it comes to deciding what type of flour to use in your baking, please read my article in here
5. Cocoa powder: Generally always use unsweetened, 100% cocoa powder in baking. I use dutch-process cocoa powder, it has a lovely dark colour and it is lower in acidity
6. Salt: An essential ingredient in most dessert recipes. Balances flavor and enhances other ingredients
7. Baking powder: Has two functions: increase the volume and lighten the texture
8. Milk: Room temperature whole milk is the best
9. Coffee: If you are not using coffee in your chocolate desserts, you are missing out and I think you should seriously consider trying it. Believe me, the cupcake itself won’t taste coffee at all but coffee enhances the taste of chocolate. I recommend brewing a strong espresso type of coffee and use it fresh as part of your "wet ingredients" along with milk
10. White vinegar+baking soda: The SECRET ingredients to make cupcakes super moist and tender even after days, the exact opposite of those sad-looking dry ones from the supermarkets

Exact ingredient quantities can be found at the bottom of this page, in the RECIPE CARD.

For the homemade caramel filling

1. Granulated sugar: Use white granulated sugar, nothing fancy. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my article in here
2. Glucose syrup: This is a professional caramel filling recipe that is made with glucose syrup, what it does is, make the caramel softer, creamier, it won´t harden as much, and is also easier to prepare because it prevents sugar crystallizing. I suggest you try purchasing glucose syrup for the best result, however, if you cannot access it, I will have a traditional caramel recipe at the end of this post, that is made of sugar, butter, and cream only
3. Butter: Use always unsalted as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat content butter in all my recipes. It is very important that butter needs to be at room temperature meaning soft. If the butter is too cold, it won't incorporate properly into the caramel sauce, in the meantime, if butter is melted, again, won´t emulsify properly
4. Heavy cream: Also known as whipping cream, has a fat content between 36% and 40%, the one I am using is 36%. Avoid substitutes like vegetable-based “whipping cream”

Exact ingredient quantities can be found in the RECIPE CARD, at the bottom of this page!

I have a whole detailed Guide about making the perfect caramel. This homemade caramel is sticky, buttery, and very well-balanced in sweetness. It’s only 10 minutes of work, once you try it, you will never buy it from the store ever again!

For the caramel frosting

1. Mascarpone: Very rich Italian cream cheese, exceptionally smooth and easy to spread, or whip. The flavor is milky and slightly sweet, use the full-fat version (41% fat)
2. Heavy cream: As per above, use high-fat content (36%) cream and avoid substituting it
3. Caramel: We will be adding caramel to the frosting that will bring flavor as well as sweetness, so no powdered sugar is added to this frosting

Exact ingredient quantities can be found in the RECIPE CARD, at the bottom of this page!

4 Expert Baking tips

1. How to make moist chocolate cupcakes

This is a super simple base chocolate cupcake recipe that makes 6 wonderful tall bakery-style cupcakes. The recipe can be doubled or halved easily.

There are 2 important considerations to bear in mind while making the cupcakes:

1. Do not overmix the cupcake batter: Key thing is not to overmix the cupcake butter. Once you cream butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer, I suggest switching to Hand whisk. Add in the egg, then mix for a few seconds, then add in dry (flour+cocoa powder+baking powder+salt) and wet (milk+coffee) ingredients in 4 steps: wet, dry, wet, dry, that keeps the mixture well blended. Make sure you finish with dry ingredients. Please note that room temperature ingredients encourage proper emulsification of the cupcake batter therefore make sure that butter, egg, milk, etc. are all at room temperature.

2. Do not overfill your cupcake tin: For this cupcake recipe, I recommend filling your cupcake tin until ¾. The recipe is designed to make 6 tall cupcakes. Cupcake cases are coming in different sizes in terms of their height, try to buy the taller ones. My muffin case is 35mm / 1.3 inch in height and 65mm / 2.5inch in diameter.  If you overfill your cupcake tin it will result in “mushroom-style” cupcakes! On the other hand, if you don´t fill it enough, they will rise but will stay tiny. If your cupcake case is a different size, you will need to adjust and make more or less than 6 cupcakes

Bake at 175 C / 347F for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean, then let them cool completely on Cooling rack before frosting.

2. How to make caramel filling for cupcakes

Making homemade caramel sauce literally takes about 5 minutes (depending on your stove and saucepan) and can be the best filling for this chocolate cupcake. I have a very detailed step-by-step homemade caramel tutorial, please make sure you check it out! If you cannot access glucose syrup, I have a basic caramel recipe using sugar only, cream and butter only.

1. Melt the sugar and glucose syrup in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. It is ok to stir the mixture a few times with a heatproof rubber spatula but no need to stir it while heating
2. In the meantime, heat cream until simmering. Do not boil the cream (as that would result in losing some of its volume), only simmering
3. Be careful not to burn the caramel, once the sugar starts to turn into golden brown, adjust the stove to medium heat
4. Once caramel achieved the right temperature/color, immediately pour over the hot cream and keep whisking with a hand whisk or rubber spatula. The mixture will rapidly bubble, do not worry, it is normal
5. Cook the caramel for a further 1-2 more minutes, withing this time frame the mixture should bubble less and thicken slightly, but no need to cook it longer
6. Remove caramel from the stove and pour it into a large enough bowl so it can cool as quickly as possible. You can run the caramel through a sieve, if in doubt, but with the glucose syrup added, you should not have sugar bits in the mixture
7. Let caramel cool to about 40C / 104F and mix in butter in 3 steps stirring vigorously between each addition. Please note that the butter won´t get incorporated if 1. butter is too cold 2. caramel is too warm 3. you add too much butter at once. It is fine to use a hand whisk, rubber spatula, or hand blender
8. Once butter is incorporated, move caramel into a jar or container and let it further cool. Use it at room temperature

Tip: You can turn this caramel filling into salted caramel sauce by adding 1 teaspoon of good quality sea salt to the mixture at step 5

3. How to make caramel frosting

This caramel frosting is super simple, it consists of full-fat cream, mascarpone, and homemade caramel sauce whipped until fluffy, pipeable consistency. It is creamy, milky, a super stable frosting, and way more delicious and less sweet than caramel buttercream!

Using the right ingredients at the right temperature is extremely important while making this caramel frosting; Mascarpone should be cold, use the full-fat version (41%+). Heavy cream should be also very cold, use the full-fat version (36%). The caramel sauce should be room temperature (if too hot, it would break the frosting, if too cold, it would be too solid to incorporate).

1. Whip mascarpone and heavy cream until mixture slightly thickens into a sour cream consistency
2. Add in soft, room-temperature caramel sauce
3. Whip the cream for a further 1-2 minutes, until it reaches a creamy, fluffy consistency, then stop. It won´t get stiffer after this point, in fact, if you overbeat it, it will get only runnier then it will break. I don´t use my stand mixer to whip this frosting since it is really easy to overwhip it
4. Once you are happy with the consistency of your frosting, move it into a piping bag fitted with your favorite nozzle tip

TIP 1: If you do not have mascarpone, the recipe works with high-fat Philadephia cream cheese as well

TIP 2: You can easily turn this frosting into a salted caramel frosting by adding a teaspoon of good-quality salt to the cream

4. How to assemble the caramel cupcakes

I recommend making the caramel filling first, as it needs to come to room temperature. Meanwhile, bake the chocolate cupcakes. Once the cupcakes and also caramel filling is cooled to room temp, prepare the whipped mascarpone frosting as per instructions.

1. Make a small hole on each of the cupcakes and fill them with the caramel. Before filling, make sure that neither the cupcake nor the filling is warm
2. Pipe frosting on top of each cupcake. Very important that you never frost cupcakes that are warm as that would melt the frosting
3. Move a small amount of caramel into a pipig bag, make a small hole on the bag and decorate the cupcakes with the caramel
4. Store the cupcakes in the fridge for 2-3 days

For more information read my how to store and freeze cupcakes baking guide.

Recipe FAQs

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