Now, don’t be hatin’, I didn’t mean to do it! I know you’re either gonna love or curse me for these. Sometimes a girl just needs her sugar hit, that’s my excuse for these outrageously good cupcakes and I’m sticking to it. That and the fact it was a rainy day when I baked them and I was bored. Boredom has never been so riveting, lemme tell you that!

Cupcakes are by far my favorite—they’re not too big, not too small, just enough to satisfy those pesky cravings I have now and then. These are light, fluffy and exactly sweet enough. Not to mention they have a hidden surprise: crunchy pieces of hard lemon caramel that become all yummy and soft during baking and give off the exact right amount of lemon flavor to spruce up your cupcake.

I topped them with a simple Dulce de Leche cream cheese frosting because, like the title says, they had to be caramel all the way.

Lemon Caramel:

4 tbsp sugar
zest from 1 big lemon

Cupcakes:

5 oz butter
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3 medium eggs (or 2 large ones)
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Frosting:

7 oz cream cheese
6 tbsp dulce de leche
2 cups confectioners sugar
2 oz butter
pinch of salt


Directions:

First things first. Let’s make the lemon caramel. Grate the zest off of one large lemon.

Get yourself a piece of parchment/baking paper.

Add 4 tbsp granulated sugar to a pan with a thick bottom. Place over low to medium heat until the sugar starts to melt. When it does, shake the pan around. Do not stir it, only shake the pan, gently. As soon as all the sugar has melted and has a uniform amber-gold color, turn off the heat.

Quickly dump the lemon zest in there and stir.

Pour the hot lemon caramel (be careful, this stuff can cause nasty burns!) over the parchment paper and spread it out a bit.

Let it cool off completely and chop it in tiny pieces. You could also do this with orange zest.

The butter, I always use softened salted butter. My baked goods need salt or they taste off to me.

Combine the butter with 1/2 a cup + 2 tbsp sugar.

I found this can of vanilla sugar and love it so much I doubt I’ll go back to using vanilla extract. You can even see the tiny black vanilla specks!

Add 1 tbsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract) and 1/2 a tsp salt (use 1 tsp salt when using unsalted butter). Whisk until it’s a creamy light and fluffy mass, this should take 4 to 5 minutes.

Add 3 medium or 2 pretty large room-temperature eggs. Wait until the egg is fully incorporated before adding the next.

Add the baking powder, self-rising flour and whisk or stir until just combined.

Finally, add the chopped lemon caramel and give it one last spin.

There’s your batter.

Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners, fill them 2/3 of the way with batter and bake them in a preheated oven at 350F (175C) for 20 to 22 minutes. Until golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Time to make the frosting. I should have made my own dulce de leche, mea culpa. But I didn’t. Because seriously, could you resist buying a jar that says “My Grandma”? Nope. Didn’t think so. Forget the fact I was strapped for time. 

Use cream cheese with a bite, the firm kind. For us here that’s MonChou. Combine it with the butter, dulce de leche and a pinch of salt. Get it all creamy and fluffy.

Add 2 cups confectioners sugar. Start at low-speed or it’ll look like you’re suffering from a bout of crazy dandruff from hell. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

Optionally you can add some vanilla extract. I didn’t. Put it in the fridge for a while to firm up. If only I could put myself in the fridge for that purpose, they’d have to drag me out by the hair. 

Pull the cupcakes out of the oven and let them cool on the rack.

Look at what the caramel did! It doesn’t just look great, but it tasted phenomenal. A light caramel flavor with just enough lemon to make it really interesting.

Pipe the frosting on to the cupcakes. I prefer to use those big Wilton 1M swirls, they’re pretty. Throw in a handful of decoration and you’re all done.

They were perfect. I so wish you could smell them! You really should try them soon or you’ll be missing out! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.