Gingerbread Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

As a first Christmas goodies test this year, I found a fantastic recipe for gingerbread cupcakes with a salted caramel buttercream icing. Recently I have found myself developing a taste for salted caramel, especially after sampling some amazing almond brittle crunch and salted caramel pecan brownies at The Cake and Bake Show from Lallapolosa. They were the kind of brownies that you never ever want to end and I was very disappointed when I finished the last crumb!

Even the Great British Bake Off this year went a little caramel crazy, and watching people heat sugar in an attempt to create amazing sculptures and exquisite flavours made me want to try it for myself.

This was my fist attempt at wet caramel (where you add water to the sugar) and I must admit it took a lot longer to caramelise than I thought! I don't know if it was because I was using a non-stick saucepan or because I stirred it, but only after 10 minutes of rapid boiling did it start to colour up. By that point I was slightly apprehensive and took the pan off the heat to add the cream as soon as it started to go golden. This resulted in a lovely tasty condensed milk tasting caramel, but did not have as deep a flavour as I had first hoped. Next time I will leave the sugar on the heat for longer in an attempt to get a stronger flavour.

When I added the salt to the caramel and buttercream, this did improve the flavour, and I even added an extra half teaspoon to really bring the flavour out. However, I thought that a full teaspoon in the cupcake batter was too much, so next time I will reduce it to half a teaspoon in the batter and a full teaspoon in the icing, which will hopefully be much more caramelly! Saying that, all of my tasters absolutely loved the cupcakes, and graciously offered their time and tastebuds to me should I want to trial another batch.