I love a good cupcake, so when my roommate decided that she wanted to relieve our friends from studying and papers by hosting a dinner party I quickly called making the dessert. I asked, what kind of cupcake I should make (already kind of knowing what I wanted to do--chocolate chocolate chocolate) My roommate yelled out "Salted Caramel!" she has a strong love for all things salted caramel! So with their encouragement (my last attempts at caramel all ended in a disaster), I gave in. Dark chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting and some salted caramel flair on top.

Dark Chocolate Cupcake:

1/2 cup fresh strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup chocolate cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees and line your cupcake pans.
2. In a sauce pan melt butter on medium-low heat. Whisk in cocoa powder until all blended and smooth. Pour in the heavy cream, vanilla extract, and brewed coffee. Heat until just barely simmering, then remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt, then set aside.
4. In another medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream and eggs.
5. Slowly pour the chocolate mixture in the egg and sour cream mixture and whisk until smooth--be sure to do this slowly so the eggs do not cook.
6. Pour that into the large bowl with the flour mixture in three parts to make the mixing easier. After the batter is all incorporated, blend the mixture on medium for a minute.
7. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full with the batter then bake for 17-19 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean).
8. cool in pans for about five minutes the remove and place them on a wire wrack to cool completely.

Now for the salted caramel-- because I was failing so miserably when trying to make caramel before to fill some macarons, I found this easy recipe:

Salted Caramel Sauce

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tbsp salt

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan
2. Whisk in the brown sugar, heavy cream, cornstarch, and lastly the salt.
3. Put in a heat safe package and refrigerate so cool down and solidify.

The Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar

1. Cream together the cream cheese and the butter, then slowly blend in the powdered sugar until it all incorporated.

Now just assemble! When the cupcakes are completely cooled pipe on the cream cheese frosting, and then add the salted caramel. I drizzled mine on top of the frosting in a spiral. Something else you can do is fill the cupcake with some of the caramel sauce then put the frosting on top of that. The Caramel sauce added some salty sweetness to otherwise more savory cupcake.

My roommate also wanted to make little party favors for our friends to take home, she elected for some hot chocolate stirring spoons.

She melted Dark Chocolate (the melting candy kind) mixed in some smashed up candy cane bits, scooped the mixture onto a plastic spoon (for take home purposes), and garnished the tops with mini marshmallows and candy cane. They cooled and hardened within minutes.



I of course cared more about the presentation than the actual favor, so I opted to make the wrapping for the favors. We bought little gift bags from our local Michaels Craft store, that I stamped with gold and wrote little holiday sayings then finished it off with a little bow.























After feasting on some great pasta, we all sat around our Yule Log fire and sang some Christmas carols. Such a sweet night and just the right amount of social interaction for this introvert!

*The cupcake recipe is from javacupcake.com