Recipe Recap: Brownie-Stuffed Cupcake with Caramel Buttercream

Don't wait to make these. Seriously, stop reading, go buy some yellow cake mix and brownie mix, and make these rightnow.
















These cupcakes are going to be staples in the McKitchen. I made them with a caramel buttercream this time around, but I want to try them with peanut butter frosting as well as chocolate.
















After reading some reviews, I arrived at my method for assembling these cupcakes. I put a little more than 1/8 cup of cupcake batter in the bottom of each liner, followed by a generous dollop of brownie batter, then topped that with a layer of cupcake batter, which I gently spread to cover the brownie layer. Yes, it was a touch time-consuming and I don't think I'll try making them again on a Wednesday night when I don't get home until 8:00 after my spinning class, but I do have to say they were totally worth it.

Mmm, fudgy brownie layer...
















I'm still working on being a good baker. I would say more often than not, my stuff turns out slightly overbaked. I've blamed my oven before and I'm going to continue to do so - I think it runs hot. Unfortunately, I haven't developed my own gut feeling about when something's done and I'm still figuring out just how many crumbs stuck to a toothpick equal "baked to perfection."

But this time around? I don't know if it was a fluke or I'm finally getting the hang of things, but I would have to say that these were baked for precisely the right amount of time. The cupcake was done but moist, and the brownie layer was ever-so-slightly gooey.





















For the frosting, I used this recipe. It's not super-caramelly, which is good because it's a pretty basic recipe that can be used on a variety of cakes. I did have to experiment a bit with it because I only had 4 cups of powdered sugar. I did a little looking on the interwebs and it turns out you can blend (literally use a blender) a cup of regular sugar with one tablespoon of cornstarch until it's powdery and use that in place of powdered sugar. Phew, crisis averted!














So, which are you craving more right now, a cupcake or a brownie? Or maybe you're all about the frosting? I worked with someone once who would only eat the frosting off cake and cupcakes. So for her birthday one year, in addition to a small cake for the rest of us, I got her a quarter-pound of frosting from the Harris Teeter deli. She thought it was perfect.

{Cupcake recipe}
{Frosting recipe}