These Karamel Sutra Cupcakes are inspired by the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor. They’re super moist and decadent chocolate cupcakes with a caramel sauce filling and a chocolate buttercream caramel swirl frosting!
Chocolate and Caramel Swirl Cupcakes
Ben and Jerry’s Week is still a-go.
Round one was fun with What A Cluster Bars, Cherry Garcia Cake and Phish Food Pie.
Round two, we’re getting a little scandy.
Karamel Sutra? I mean, Ben. And. Jerry. I’m blushing.
Let me explain what Karamel Sutra Ice Cream is. Think chocolate and caramel ice cream with fudge chips surrounding a giant core of caramel.
Let’s have a look-see…
Can you even believe that is a real thing?
So when we were deciding on B&J flavors to replicate this week, there was no way I wasn’t choosing the completely inappropriately named Karamel Sutra.
Here’s my spin: A devil’s food cake cupcake, filled with caramel sauce, topped with a chocolate buttercream & caramel frosting swirl, garnished with completely optional, but not optional at all chocolate curls. Basically the best Chocolate and Caramel Swirl Cupcake you will ever have.
It’s a lot of steps for one cupcake, I understand…and certainly there are ways to cut corners…so dissect it the way you’d like, anyway you do it, you will not be disappointed.
How to Make Karamel Sutra Cupcakes
I actually started by making the caramel filling and the frostings the day before. I did this because there is a bunch a cooling time needed for the caramel, and thought it would be easier.
I started by making the caramel filling. Annnd I also completely forgot to take pictures. It’s pretty easy, just boiling some sugar and butter together for a bit, add some cream, stir and cook more and then cool. Got that? Sorry, the full instructions are in the recipe.
*If you’re feeling like you don’t want to make caramel filling, you could totally use the wrapped caramels. Rule of thumb for me is 1 pound caramels + 1/2 cup heavy cream melted together make a good consistency for caramel filling.
Next up I made the chocolate buttercream. This frosting, by the way is my new favorite chocolate frosting ever ever ever. I think I might devote an entire post to it next week.
All you do is melt some butter and chocolate chips together. Yep, that’s it.
Let that cool completely. Honestly I stuck mine in the fridge and let it chill overnight until I was ready to use it.
When it is chilled it will form a solid block. Don’t worry. Just use a hand mixer, or stand mixer and beat it up. It will magically become the softest, fluffiest chocolate frosting ever.
I also made the caramel frosting the day ahead, but that’s, again, because it will need to cool at least an hour before you are able to add the powdered sugar.
And also because I have been all plan-aheady lately. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
Just melt your butter and sugar together, add milk, boil some more…let it cool…add powdered sugar and that’s it!
Finally when you’re ready to bake, make your super simple devil’s food cake cupcakes.
And by super simple, I mean literally add all your ingredients in a bowl and then mix. No creaming, no gradually adding, no alternate dry and wet.. just add and mix. The end.
Your batter will be runny, but it’s ok.
When they are baked and cooled hollow a little bit out and fill them with the caramel sauce you made earlier…
Then fill your piping bag with frosting. I filled my piping bag with chocolate frosting on one side and caramel on the other…and squeezed a bit out until they swirled together.
There you go.
And in case you were wondering what it’s guts looked like…
Now, let’s talk about some more Ben and Jerry’s, ok?
Kristan is doing some crazzzzy Everything But the…Brownies. Yes, sir.
Julie is making magic with Americone Dream
And Peabody is also doing Everything But the… but in a totally different way.
Hop over and say hi to each of these girls, they are fan-freaking-tastic!
Print
Karamel Sutra Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 15 cupcakes 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Karamel Sutra Cupcakes are inspired by the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor. They’re super moist and decadent chocolate cupcakes with a caramel sauce filling and a chocolate buttercream caramel swirl frosting!
Ingredients
Caramel Filling
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp light corn syrup
- 1 cup whipping cream
Chocolate Frosting
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- 2 cups butter
Caramel Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
Devils Food Cake Cupcakes
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup brewed coffee
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
Chocolate curls (Optional)
- 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vegetable shortening
Instructions
Caramel Filling
- Melt butter in heavy saucepan over medium low. Add sugar and corn syrup and cook 6-8 minutes until mixture is a deep caramel color, stirring constantly. Add cream slowly while stirring and cook 2 minutes more until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely (about 2 hours).
Chocolate Frosting
- In a large saucepan melt butter and chocolate chips together until smooth. Allow to cool completely. (I let mine sit in the fridge overnight) It will become solid. With hand mixer beat the solid chocolate until it becomes light and fluffy.
Caramel Frosting
- In medium saucepan melt butter and sugar together. Bring to a boil and then add milk, stirring until smooth. Allow mixture to come back to a rolling boil and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. When caramel is cool beat in powdered sugar and vanilla.
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 325°
- Put all ingredients into stand mixer and beat for 3 minutes.
- Fill cupcake liners 1/2 way full and bake for 20 minutes until the centers spring back.
- Allow to cool completely.
Assemble cupcakes:
- Cut out small portion of center of the cupcake with a paring knife. Fill cupcake with approximately 1 Tablespoon of caramel. Place cored piece of cupcake back on top.
- Fill a piping bag with frosting fitted with a large tip. Spread caramel frosting on one side of the bag and chocolate on the other, so when you frost the cupcakes, the frostings will swirl together.
Chocolate curls
- Melt chocolate chips and shortening on a small saucepan over low heat. Once melted, spread chocolate thinly on a baking sheet. Freeze chocolate for 5-10 minutes until set and using a sharp spatula push the chocolate slowly along the edges to form the curls.
- Garnish cupcakes with curls.
Notes
The chocolate curls are totally optional. You could also garnish with mini chocolate chips.
Want To Save This Recipe?
Helpful Tip… Out of buttermilk?
These look INCREDIBLE! My daughter in law wants me to make a cake for wedding shower but I think this will be perfect! How far in advance do you think the cupcakes could be made & stored? I can frost day before. Thanks!!
Could it be more beautiful? 😀 *thumbs up*
Man you are way too good. May you be more better 😀
Hi,
For some reason the caramel filling didn’t come out. When cooled, the caramel set up too thick to spoon into the cupcakes, but not as hard as caramel candy. Also, it looked like the butter separated out of the caramel. I’ve tried other caramel recipes and this has never happened to me before. Any ideas? Thanks!
I made these last night and they were a HIT! I did have quite a few problems with them though. The chocolate buttercream was rock hard when I took it out so using a big metal spoon to break it up is your best bet, though time consuming. I put it in my stand mixer and beat the tar out of it until super light in color and fluffy. The caramel frosting gave me some problems too. I made the caramel and let it cool, added the confectioners sugar and it was incredibly gritty. It tasted like I was crunching on raw granulated sugar. I figured with the chocolate frosting it mask some of it and it sort of did. Another problem, when I bagged up the frosting (easiest way I have found when doing two different colors or flavors is to put each into two different disposable bag, snip off the tips and put them in a larger piping bag fitted with a tip. Works like a charm, every time.) even though I beat the ever living tar out of the chocolate frosting there were still large streaks of butter that clogged my tips. Disappointing, the first few with a star tip looked AMAZING! I had to take it apart and fit it with a round tip that the butter could move easily through. The caramel center was the best! People were looking at me wide eyed like they received a PRIZE! Like giddy little kids, “OHHHHH CARAMEL CENTER!” All in all the cupcakes were a hit, I (personally) didn’t like the grittiness of the caramel or the chunks of butter in the chocolate frosting.
What kind of coffee do you use when you make the cupcake mixture?
Just regular coffee.. or even decaf!
I made these cupcakes yesterday for a birthday party. In the end they wee amazing and I was told multiple times that they were the best cupcakes they have ever eaten. I loved hearing those comments being a 14 year old baker. I love these cupcakes but there were some things that were kind of tough. The main thing is the chocolate frosting. When you pull it out of the fridge it is a solid block and take forever to get it to the fluffy butter cream it is supposed to be. Then when you get it to the right consistency it tastes incredibly salty from all of the butter. Since I did not want that on my cupcakes I added 1 cup of powdered sugar which fixed it and made it a wonderful frosting. If anyone who wants to make these cupcakes is reading this I recommend having a lot of time on your hands because there is a lot of steps and when you are making the chocolate frosting, add 1 cup of powdered sugar after it is all mixed up and fluffy.
This sounds devine. Do you have a temperature that the Caramel should come to, to ensure that it doesn’t go grainy?
Hi. Im having trouble with the caramel. When i was cooking it it was perfect and smooth. But then i lwt it cool and now ita gone all grainy. Not a nice texture but the flavour is perfect. What did i du wrong or how can i stop this from happening.
That’s really strange… possibly did some of the sugar stick to the sides of the pan and crystallize and you stir it back into the finished product?
Or when you cook at too high of a heat, the sugar can crystallize. My tip would be turn the heat down a bit and don’t scrape the sides of the pan. Hope this helps!
I’m dying. Oh my goodness, how decadent.
I tried making these and the caramel center does not seem like the sugar dissolved. Any suggestions? At the end of the 8 minutes before you added the cream, it was not a caramel brown, therefore, I kept it on the stove a little longer until it turned brown. It has a really good flavor, just not a good texture.