Salted Caramel is one of my favorite flavors! It’s an elevated take on the classic caramel flavor. While it can be very fall (think salted caramel lattes) I think it’s a great flavor year round. Enjoy the gooey caramel center of these easy salted caramel cupcakes with fluffy mascarpone frosting!
These cupcakes are infused with flavor but they’re easy to make! Start by baking my easy vanilla cake recipe, hallow out the centers and fill with delicious store-bought salted caramel sauce, cover with an easy frosting and sprinkle with kosher salt!
Could you make your own salted caramel sauce? Yes- but these are much faster and still so delicious! So stock up at Trader Joe’s or find your own favorite brand of salted caramel sauce.
The frosting is easy too! It’s got a special ingredient mascarpone which is an Italian cheese that’s similar to cream cheese but because it’s made with heavy cream rather than whole milk, it’s richer & creamier. It’s delicious!
Equipment Needed
- Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer: Since we’re reverse creaming the butter into the dry ingredients it’s best to use a mixer for this recipe.
- Scale: The most accurate way to measure ingredients.
- Optional Piping bag & tip: I like to frost my cupcakes with a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M piping tip. This gives the cupcake a professional looking swirl of frosting. It’s not necessary- your cupcakes will taste just as good if you frost them with a knife.
Ingredients
Cake Flour
- I recommend using cake flour for this recipe- it gives your cupcakes a lighter and fluffier texture. You can find cake flour in most grocery stores in the baking aisle, I recommend King Arthur brand.
- If you don’t have cake flour on hand- you can make a substitute with all purpose flour and cornstarch sifted together. Measure 1 cups AP flour, remove 2 tablespoons of flour, add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Sift twice.
- If you only have all purpose flour- you can use that but note your cupcakes will be a bit denser than intended.
Sour Cream
- Sour cream adds moisture and fat to the cupcake which makes it taste great. I don’t recommend leaving this out, as it will significantly change the texture of the cupcakes.
Mascarpone Cheese
- An Italian cheese which is like American cream cheese but richer & creamier because mascarpone is made from heavy cream while cream cheese is made from whole milk.
- You can find mascarpone cheese in the cheese section of most grocery stores, not with the cream cheese.
- If you must substitute, you can use cream cheese to make a cream cheese frosting which while not the same will still taste good with this cupcake and filling.
Heavy Cream
- You’ll see the frosting calls for heavy cream, this helps to keep it rich as it makes it a little thinner.
How to make Easy Salted Caramel Cupcakes with Fluffy Mascarpone Frosting
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 325°F convection setting (or 350°F standard)
- Prep your cupcake/muffin tray with 6 cupcake liners
- Measure the sour cream, canola oil and vanilla extract into a bowl and set aside. These are all of your wet ingredients.
- In the bowl of the stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the dry ingredients together: cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
- With the mixer on low, add the room temperature butter in small pieces to the dry ingredient mixer. Keep the mixer running until you create a sandy texture with the butter broken up into evenly sized pieces, about 2 and half minutes.
- Scrape down the bowl
- With the mixer on medium, slowly pour in the liquids mixture. The batter will look lumpy at this point, but that’s okay, just keep mixing until it is evenly combined.
- Scrape down the bowl, ensuring there are no clumps of flour stuck at the bottom of the bowl
- Add 1 egg white and mix on low until it is fully absorbed, about 1 minute
- Scrape down the bowl
- Add the second egg white and mix until it is fully absorbed
- Bake for 30 minutes at 325°F convection setting (or 350°F standard), until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
- Cool on a cooling rack for 15 minutes before removing from the cupcake pan and then cool completely before frosting (about 1 hour).
For the Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, add the mascarpone cheese and the butter
- Beat for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy in texture
- Gradually add half the powdered sugar, while the mixer continues
- Stop the mixer, scrape down the edges of the bowl.
- Add the heavy cream, vanilla and pinch of salt
- Mix
- Then add the second half of the powdered sugar
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again, ensuring everything is evenly combined
Assembly
- Ensure the cupcakes are fully cooled! Warm cupcakes will melt the filling and the frosting and you’ll have a gooey mess!
- If you have a piping tip- turn it upside down and use the back to press into the center of each cupcake and scoop out the center. You should go 3/4 of the way down into the cupcake to make a deep enough space to fill.
- If you have a spoon- poke a circle into the center of each cupcake using the edge of the spoon to cut into the cake. Once you’ve gone all the way around cutting the edge of the circle push the spoon down one edge towards the center and then press up, the center should pop out.
- The cake bits that come out of the center are your baker’s snack. (aka you don’t need them for the rest of assembly)
- Take your salted caramel sauce and spoon a scoop into the center of each cupcake. If it is stiff and won’t pour off of your spoon- you can microwave the whole container to liquify the caramel. But be careful- hot sugar can burn you! So just heat it up a little about 15 seconds at a time and stop once it is able to flow.
- The scoop of salted caramel should come a little bit over the edge of the hole you created, so each bite has a good amount of salted caramel.
- If you heated up the caramel sauce- let it cool again so the frosting doesn’t melt!
- If you have a piping tip-put your mascarpone frosting into piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip. Squeeze gently while moving the bag in a circle and gently bringing the bag up away from the cupcake to create a swirl which climbs to a point.
- If you have a spoon & knife- spoon a big scoop of frosting onto the cupcake, use the knife to smooth the frosting moving from the center out to the edge to get a smooth edge.
- Take a spoonful of caramel sauce (again heat it up a little bit if needed), and drizzle it over the frosting. Move your spoon back and forth over the cupcake to create little lines of caramel.
- Take a pinch of kosher salt in your hand and gently sprinkle it over the cupcakes.
- Enjoy!
Easy Salted Caramel Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting
Fully vanilla cupcakes filled with store-bought salted caramel sauce and topped with mascarpone frosting
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 59 g Sour Cream (room temperature, ¼ cup + ¾ teaspoon)
- 18 g Canola Oil (1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon)
- 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 81 g Cake Flour (½ cup + 2 tablespoons)
- 97 g Granulated Sugar (½ cup MINUS 2 teaspoons)
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 51 g unsalted butter (room temperature, ¼ cup MINUS ½ teaspoon)
- 2 egg whites (room temperature, in separate bowls)
Filling
- 8 spoonfuls Salted Caramel sauce
Frosting
- 46 g Mascarpone
- 38 g Unsalted Butter
- 150 g Powdered Sugar
- 5 tablespoons Heavy Cream
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 pinch Kosher Salt
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 325°F convection setting (or 350°F standard)
- Measure the sour cream, canola oil and vanilla extract into a bowl and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment. Mix the dry ingredients together: cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt
- With the mixer on low, add the room temperature butter in small pieces to the dry ingredient mixer until a sandy texture
- With the mixer on medium, slowly pour in the liquids mixture.
- Add 1 egg white and mix on low until it is fully absorbed, about 1 minute
- Add the second egg white and mix until it is fully absorbed
- Bake for 30 minutes at 325°F convection setting (or 350°F standard), until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
- Cool on a cooling rack for 5 minutes before removing from the cupcake pan and then cool completely before frosting (about 1 hour).
For the Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, add the mascarpone cheese and the butter and beat for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy in texture
- Gradually add half the powdered sugar, while the mixer continues
- Add the heavy cream, vanilla and pinch of salt and mix
- Then add the second half of the powdered sugar
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again, ensuring everything is evenly combined
Assembly
- Ensure the cupcakes are fully cooled!
- Using a piping tip or a spoon- hollow out the center of each cupcake
- Scoop salted caramel into the hole in each cupcake, filling all the way to the top of the cupcake
- Frost the cupcakes
- Drizzle caramel sauce over the cupcakes, moving hand back and forth to create lines of caramel
- Sprinkle kosher salt over cupcakes
- Enjoy!
