Caramel-Covered Tea Cakes

Caramel-Covered Tea Cakes are the winner with 117 votes! (The other two were tied with 98 votes each.) These little babies are sweet! I mean literally tooth-achingly sweet. The cupcakes are delicious. It's a great yellow cake recipe. But the caramel frosting is a bit too much. If I did this over again, I'd make regular sized cupcakes and just spoon a bit of caramel over each one. Dipping them in it was WAY too sweet. However, someone in my house loves them because this morning more than half of them are already gone!

Cupcake hardwareCupcake software bright yellow batter in a matching bowl! Oops, I was supposed to get 21...They spread out like little mushrooms...
Oh well, here they are cooling upside down. ingredients for caramel coatingbutter, brown sugar, evap. milk, saltboil until it reaches the "soft ball" stage after stirring in vanilla and sour cream... dipping them in the caramel (I tried a few methods before settling on this one.) Tada! Yum, but TOOTHACHE!!

Recipe from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.

Easy-Mix Yellow Cupcakes
Supposed to make 21, I got 16

½ cup + 2 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg
½ cup sugar
¼ cup canola or corn oil
½ tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla butter nut flavoring [found it at Kroger])
¼ cup sour cream

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray two 12-cup mini-muffin pans or one 24 cup mini-muffin pan with nonstick spray.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the egg and sugar until thickened and lightened to a cream color, about 2 minutes.
4. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla until blended. Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain. Mix in the flour mixture until it is incorporated and the bat­ter is smooth.
5. Spoon a slightly rounded tablespoon of batter into each of the sprayed cups filling them 2/3 full. Bake just until the tops feel firm, the edges have browned lightly, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 12-14 minutes. Cool the cupcakes for 5 minutes in the pans on wire racks. Remove cupcakes from pans onto wire racks and cool completely. While cupcakes are cooling, make caramel frosting.

Caramel Frosting (also halved)
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
1 cup + 2 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup evaporated milk
a pinch of salt
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp sour cream

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, evaporated milk, and salt, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring the mixture to a full boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until the mixture measures 234°F on a candy thermometer, about 6 minutes. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and let the caramel sit for 5 minutes.
2. Scrape the caramel into a large bowl, and whisk in the vanilla and sour cream. At first the caramel may seem firm and sugary, but as you keep whisking, it will become smooth and creamy.
3. Spear the top of each cup­cake with a fork and dip it in the warm frosting (I just held each cupcake with 2 forks), covering the bottom and sides, then let any excess frosting drip back into the bowl and replace the cupcakes, top side down, on the wire rack. (About halfway through you might need to microwave the caramel for about 10 seconds to thin it out again.) Let the cupcakes sit until the frosting is firm, about 30 minutes.
The cupcakes can be covered and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days. The frosting will lose some of its shine overnight, but it will remain soft and creamy.

Overall rating on a scale of 1-5
Moistness: 4
Tenderness: 4
Frosting: 3

Cupcake Poll #17 - Tea Cakes

As I understand it, "tea cakes" are just mini cupcakes without frosting, making them less messy than regular cupcakes. They are usually topped with a glaze or a dusting of confectioners sugar. I've never had a problem with messy cupcakes, but I noticed a few recipes for tea cakes in Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. They seemed pretty cute. So here is your poll for the 4th week of the 4th month. Feel free to leave comments here, but make sure you cast your vote in the poll on the left-hand side of the blog.

This week's poll:

• Butter Almond Tea Cakes:
  Mini pound cake cupcakes flavored with almond paste and drizzled with a simple powdered sugar glaze!
  
• Caramel-Covered Tea Cakes:
  Mini yellow cupcakes dunked in a penuche-like caramel glaze!
  
• Lemon Sponge Tea Cakes:
  Featherlight mini lemon cupcakes topped with a dusting of powdered sugar!