MS Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes

Oh my, oh my! I am so excited about this I can hardly stand it. Let's just say I spent most of my day baking these babies and they turned out beautifully! This is a chocolate cake filled with caramel, sprinkled with sea salt, and topped with a dark chocolate frosting. A little bit of chocolate heaven. They are rich, moist, and delicious. I have tried making chocolate cake from scratch before and failed miserably. Since then I have mostly used doctored cake mixes and have gotten good responses from those. I was a little nervous to try a scratch recipe again, but was very pleased with the results. I will definately use this cake recipe again. The original recipe is supposed to make 56 mini cupcakes, but I went for the standard size and got nineteen. You can find this recipe on page 148 of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Enjoy the photos, they really were as good as they look. The lucky recipients of these babies are my lovely in-laws.

The batter was runnier than I am used to.

This is the first time I have ever made my own caramel. I was nervous the whole time because it was taking forever to hit 360 degrees. No worries, I think I could have taken it off the heat a little quicker, but I like the dark caramel. It was yummy.

After the caramel is spooned in, I sprinkled a little sea salt on. I was excited for this because I love how sweet and salty mix.

Whala! The finished cupcake! They are so beautiful.

This cupcake stand was my sweet grandmother's. I lost her this summer. She would be so happy to see such lovely treats on it.

Don't you just want to take a bite of this! I know you do.

And here is the caramel filled center. Yummy goodness surrounded by cake, my idea of a little heaven.

Stay tuned! More yummy cuppies to come! If you are from my area, I would love to share my creations with you. Seriously, let me know if you're interested and I will let you know next time I'm baking.