Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel & Sea Salt

Kara's Cupcakes in San Francisco has a cupcake called the Fleur Del Sel which was one of my favorites. Its a chocolate cupcake with caramel filling, ganache frosting & fleur del sel. This is my tribute to that cupcake & a pretty fine one if you ask me. I went with a dark chocolate cupcake & frosting since I prefer that to milk chocolate. My one complaint about the cupcake at Kara's was I wanted more caramel in the middle. Mine seemed to have slightly more caramel but still I'd like even more. I also added the caramel swirl to the top.


Dark Chocolate Cupcake with Caramel Filling

1/4 c unsalted butter
1/8 c Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder
3 T water
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 T well beaten egg
1/8 c plain yogurt
1/2 T vanilla
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 c caramel sauce

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare muffin tins.
Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then whisk in cocoa. Add water and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in separately sugar, egg, yogurt, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the cocoa mixture and whisk until just combined (it will be a little bit lumpy).

Fill muffin tins to about 2/3 full for rounded cupcakes or 1/2 full for flat cupcakes. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes until a skewer or toothpick comes out clean. It's a moist cake, so don't worry if a few crumbs stick to your tester.
Allow cupcakes to cool.

Makes 4 - 6 cupcakes.

Let the cupcakes cool completely. Fill a pastry bag with the caramel sauce & fit it with a star tip. Stick the tip into the top of a cupcake, pushing it about 3/4 inch deep (I found the perfect depth was the length of the tip). Gently squeeze the pastry bag to fill the cupcake, withdrawing it slowly as you squeeze. Scrape any excess caramel from the top of the cupcake. Fill all the cupcakes. I found the caramel settles a little & had to go back to top it off. Put the cupcakes in the fridge while making the frosting to let the caramel set.


Dark Chocolate Frosting

1/4 c unsalted butter
1/3 c Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
3 T milk
1/2 t vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

About 1 cups frosting.

Frost the cupcakes while the frosting is still slightly warm. Allow the frosting to cool completely in the fridge before adding the caramel swirl to the top. Sprinkle with fleur de sel right before serving if desired. These cupcakes should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.