Chocolate and caramel cupcakes

The new man in my life is rather obsessed with the combination of chocolate and caramel. I have nothing against this sinfully delicious pair but I do worry that readers of my blog will soon turn their noses up at 'yet another caramel recipe'.

At his request, I made these rich, decadent chocolate cupcakes filled with caramel and topped with chocolate buttercream. A friend of mine ate one and, judging by the way he scarfed it down in about 10 seconds flat, he loved it. My brother proclaimed these to be 'diabetes in a cupcake'. I say that as long as they are a 'sometimes food' you should be just fine.

I used my trusty chocolate cupcakes recipe. I used Fox Run liners and got 12 out of this recipe; however these liners are larger than the ones I usually use so you could probably get up to 16 out of one batch if you use regular liners.

I hadn't had a chance to boil up some dulce de leche so I nicked a can of Nestle Caramel Top N Fill from my boy's pantry and used that instead. I don't like the texture of this as much as true dulce de leche but it is a lot less sticky and easier to handle. It's good if you're in a pinch and don't have three hours to make your own dulce de leche.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, cut a cone shape out of the top of each one. Save the cone you cut out.

Fill the hole with a teaspoon of the caramel.

Replace the 'lid'. Shh, no one will ever be any wiser.

I then knocked together some chocolate buttercream and piped it one using a large Loyal plain round tip.

To decorate the buttercream I took a tablespoon of caramel, placed it in a bowl and heated it in the microwave for 20 seconds. I added a teaspoon of hot water and stirred it well before dotting it on the buttercream. Be very careful heating the caramel - ensure that the bowl you're using is deep, otherwise it will boil over. Hot caramel burns so don't get it on yourself. I'm speaking from experience on both these points (what can I say, I suffer for my art).

Enjoy!