In September 2009, I started a cupcake adventure. (At this rate, I may never finish! And, I'm not sure I even want to, so, ha!) If you haven’t read about it yet, you can do so here. ***
Doesn't that just look yummy?! You can almost taste that sweet caramel on top, can't you? Mmm!
These cupcakes start with dry ingredients mixed together and set aside while the butter and sugar get creamed together.
Egg yolks are added and whites are saved for later.
That makes the base of our batter.
Milk comes next...
and alternates with dry ingredients...
...to form a more complete batter:
Then the real excitement begins! Grab a tube of caramel ice cream syrup.
And add it to the batter.
Nom nom!!
Remember those eggs whites we set aside earlier? They are going to come into play now.
Whip it...whip it good!
Until the whites form stiff (but not dry) peaks like so:
Fold the beaten egg whites gently into the batter.
Portion out your batter into cupcake papers and while those are baking, mix together the ingredients for the frosting.
Over low heat, melt together the frosting ingredients.
It'll start to get frothy as it warms up.
We want to slowly bring the mixture to a boil, stirring non-stop, for one minute.
We allow that concoction to cool a bit, add vanilla, and beat until it's thick enough to spread.
Now that these beauties are done baking, it's time to top them off!
I wouldn't necessarily call this "frosting"...probably more like a glaze. It took several tries to figure out how much to put on top of each cupcake. Too little and they didn't get adequately covered (and a cupcake frosting shortage is a shame!); too much and it dripped over the edges.
But there were some, like this one, that were p-e-r-f-e-c-t!
Here they are, packed and ready to go...off to the home of a hungry family!
If this recipe (or any other from the Abbi/Gail Adventure) intrigues you, I highly recommend getting Gail's book. Your local library may even have it. This Creme Brulée recipe is on page 93!