Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

4.89 from 34 votes

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.

Prep Time30

Cook Time25

Total Time55

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: Large

Calories: 776kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Chocolate muffins

90 Unsalted butter soft, room temperature
100 g Granulated sugar
1 Egg room temperature
80 g All purpose flour
45 g Cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon Baking powder
65 g Whole milk room temperature
60 g Coffee room temperature
½ teaspoon White vinegar
½ teaspoon Baking soda

Homemade Caramel filling

125 g Granulated sugar
75 g Glucose syrup
125 g Heavy Cream
27 g Unsalted butter

Cupcake Filling

120 g Caramel sauce using the homemade caramel

Caramel Frosting

150 g Mascarpone 41% fat, use it cold
120 g Heavy Cream 36% fat, use it cold
120 g Caramel sauce using the homemade caramel

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Start with the caramel filling

Melt the sugar and glucose syrup in a large saucepan over medium-high heat
Heat cream until simmering
Once the sugar starts to turn into golden brown, adjust the stove to medium heat
When caramel achieved the right temperature (160-180C / 320-356F) or color (golden brown), immediately pour over the hot cream and keep whisking with a hand whisk or rubber spatula
Cook the caramel for a further 1-2 more minutes
Remove caramel from the stove and pour it into a large enough bowl so it can cool as quickly as possible
Let caramel cool to about 40C / 104F then mix in butter in 3 steps stirring vigorously between each addition.
Let it chill to room temperature before using it as a filling and frosting

For the chocolate muffin

Heat oven to 175 C / 347°F
With an Electric hand mixer whip room temperature soft butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy then whip the egg in. Do not overbeat
Sift flour, salt, cocoa powder, and baking powder together, this is the “dry ingredients”, while the room the milk and coffee mixture is your "wet ingredient"
Start adding the dry and wet ingredients into the cupcake batter in the following 4 steps: wet, dry, wet, dry. Fold with a Rubber spatula fold each time. Finish with dry ingredients
Mix vinegar and baking soda together in a small bowl, it will be super bubbly. Immediately fold the mixture into the cupcake batter. This is the secret ingredient to keep the cupcakes soft for days without the taste of vinegar of course!
Spoon or Pipe the mixture into Cupcake pan till approx. ¾. This recipe makes 6 large cupcakes
Bake for 25 min or until a skewer inserted comes out clean then let them cool on Cooling rack before filling and frosting

Caramel frosting

Whip cold mascarpone and heavy cream for about one or two minutes with Electric hand mixer until it reaches a sour cream texture
Add in room temperture caramel sauce and whip for a further 1-2 minutes until frosting reaches a fluffy, pipeable consistency. Do not overwhip

Assemble

Once cupcakes and caramel both cool room temperature, make a small hole on each of the cupcakes and fill them with the caramel sauce
Pipe the frosting on top and decorate with more caramel
Store in fridge

Video

Notes

INGREDIENT NOTES:

Measure your ingredients with a Digital scale for accuracy
All ingredients for the cupcake must be at room temperature to properly emulsify: eggs, milk, etc.
Do not skip the white vinegar+baking soda "secret ingredient":)
For frosting make sure you use high-fat content cream and mascarpone. Low-fat dairy products won´t whip up properly
For the caramel, you can skip the glucose syrup, please check my ultimate caramel filling guide for details

TECHNIQUE NOTES:

Make sure you read my Expert tips section above to maximize your success. A short recipe alone is not able to cover all the necessary details, and science behind baking.
While whipping the frosting, pay very close attention to the consistency and stop whipping immediately after it gets fluffy. Overbeating would result in breaking the cream and instead of becoming stiffer, in fact, it will get runnier
Never frost warm cupcakes, make sure they are chilled to room temperature
If you have never used a piping bag and piping nozzle before, it is worth making a cheaper buttercream and practicing before

Nutrition