Sugar Shard Salted Caramel Cupcakes
These cupcakes are made to impress! Sugar shards have a delicateness to them, breaking so easily at the slightest touch; they also have an edginess to them, at the right angle the larger shards can do some damage! I enjoy this visual juxtaposition of beauty and hazard, softness and hardness.
Fear not, as long as you remove the very large shards, you will have no trouble munching into these cupcakes with a surprise filling of luscious salted caramel. A buttery yellow cake goes so well with a creamy caramel center. Yellow cake is my ultimate favorite cake, so tender and light, with so much buttery flavor. These cupcakes get a douse of rum extract to enhance the warm, fall essence - easily substituted for vanilla or almond, if rum is not your thing. If you choose to forego the rum extract, might I suggest adding a few dashes of cinnamon instead, to bring some of that warmth back.
In the above image, you'll see cupcakes partially assembled, with their creamy salted caramel filling nestled inside carefully. I use a piping bag to fill these cakes, to avoid a sticky mess - they are easily filled by simply spooning the filling inside, if preferred. I made jumbo cupcakes here, which is my preference for filled cupcakes - I can pack for filling inside and get a better cake-to-filling ratio.
You can make about 8 jumbo cupcakes, or about 18 regular size cupcakes from this batch size.
Please read the instructions carefully!
Hot sugar work is dangerous due to the extremely high temperature it can reach.
These cupcakes should be a fun baking experience, not a trip to the hospital, so make sure you are comfortable and have your kitchen prepared to avoid mishaps!
If sugar work is new to you, once you gain experience, you won't believe how easy and effortless it is. The same steps followed here can be used to make spun sugar, or sugar sculptures, it all has to do with temperature!
Are you ready to try your hand at these gorgeous, over-the-top, salted caramel cupcakes?
Thanks for reading.
Signed,
The Mellow Baker