Caramel buttercream icing

Caramel buttercream icing goes really well with my dulce de leche cupcakes. It is simple to make and tastes absolutely delicious. It can go really well with other flavours of cupcakes so feel free to experiment.

Sometimes finding the best recipe for you can be quite challenging considering the numerous blogs and websites out there claiming that theirs is the best. It really might be good for someone else but maybe not just for you so when you do find the right one, you just keep going back to it over and over again.

I am not much of a fan of butter icing but I do like the way it transforms a rather simple cake to something absolutely stunning. That, coupled with a few sprinkles, takes the humble cupcake to entirely new levels.

Ingredients

• 226 grams (1 cup) butter, softened
• 320 grams (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar
• 3 teaspoons of warm water (or more or less depending on the consistency you are after)
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3-4 tablespoons of dulce de leche
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Method

• Beat butter in a bowl, with an electric whisk, for about 2 minutes to make it smooth
• Add icing sugar, salt and water and beat until light and fluffy. The longer you beat the fluffier it gets, do not worry about over beating ( I have been told that this does not happen). You can even beat it for a minimum of 30 minutes.
• When the icing is ready stir in your dulce de leche with a spatula or wooden spoon. Dulce de leche is readily available in a lot of major supermarkets where I am. If you cannot find it you can make your own using condensed milk.
• Put in a piping bag and decorate your caramel flavoured cupcakes. This video will show you three simple ways to decorate cupcakes with.