I honestly couldn't have picked a more difficult cupcake to name ... but here it is. Salted Caramel... uhh HONEYCOMB! anddd Double.. no just regular Chocolate Cupcakes.. you're welcome.
SO, I wanted to make something slightly different from the last two recipes on Dona Bakes, there was a distinct lack of chocolatey, bite-sized goodness. Apart from just cupcakes, I wanted to make a surprise filling aswell as show my loves how easy it is to make Honey-comb/Hokey Pokey. (Yes, some people call it hokey pokey..)
In this I show you how to make an amazing salted caramel, I had to use single cream due to the lack of Double in Ireland (there's a pandemic, I'm not complaining) but since I used less cream than my normal recipe, it would've been a lot thicker regardless so it worked fine.
ANYWAYS, go ahead and try out this recipe (and make sure you tag me in any pics x )
Salted Caramel & Honeycomb Chocolate Cupcakes
For the Cupcakes
40g Cocoa
4tbsp Water
3 Eggs
175g Butter
165g Caster Sugar
115g Self-Raising Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
For the Buttercream
300g Butter
600g Icing Sugar
1tbsp Milk
95g Cocoa
1tsp Vanilla Extract
For Decoration
- Salted Caramel, I altered my recipe here to be thicker so instead of 300ml of cream, I used 100ml.
- Honeycomb, you can also use my recipe here.
- Golden Ball sprinkles. an
Firstly start by making the Salted Caramel as you'll want to allow it to set before you decorate, again just to reiterate, I use 100ml instead of 300ml as it allows it to thicken a lot more, perfect for filling the cupcakes.
Next preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/390°F. Line 12 cupcake moulds with cupcake liners and set aside.
Sift the cocoa powder into a stand mixer (or bowl with a hand mixer) and add the boiling water, mix this until combined.
Add the sugar & butter and continue to mix until completely combined.
Lastly add the flour and eggs and mix until combined thoroughly, divide the mixture into the cupcake cases (I use a icecream scoop which weighs roughly 50g per cupcake!!) and bake for 13-15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean, check after 10 minutes JUST incase your oven is slightly hotter than expected! Once baked, let cool completely in the tin!
While the cupcakes bake, you can make the honeycomb!
To make the buttercream, beat the butter in a mixer with a paddle attachment for 5-10 minutes until almost completely white. Scrape down halfway.
Add the icing sugar, cover with a tea cloth and mix at a low speed to prevent icing sugar going EVERYWHERE.
Lastly add in the milk, cocoa powder & vanilla extract and mix until fully combined. This amount of cocoa gives a milk chocolate-esc tasting buttercream, if you'd prefer to a much darker chocolatier flavour, just add more cocoa! If the buttercream is too tough, add a little more wig.
Using a apple corer or large round piping tip, cut out small holes in each cupcake, roughly halfway down the cake. In a piping bag or sandwich bag, pipe the Salted Caramel into each cavity until full.
Fit a piping bag with a size 11 Star piping tip, I find with cupcake, the bigger the piping tip, the smoother the design. Pipe the chocolate buttercream in lovely big swirls on each cupcake, decorate with honeycomb, golden ball sprinkles and drizzle with the Salted Caramel.
As a heads up, only add the Honeycomb when serving within the next few hours as honeycomb will melt overtime and absorb water quite easily (ie. the buttercream.)
If you make these cupcakes, be sure to tag me on my socials! I hope you all enjoy my loves!! x
