Caramel Mocha Cupcakes

So the weather in Santa Barbara this week...  kind of sucked.

There really is nothing better than a cup of hot cocoa or coffee on a cold, windy day but since I like to bake... instead of making a warm drink.. we decided to make cupcakes! (obviously) I had seen this mocha cupcake recipe a while ago and we decided to try it out!

It called for fresh brewed coffee which I was hoping would make the cupcakes extra mocha-ey, but they didn't turn out with too strong of a coffee flavor, which I think most people ended up liking. The batter was actually super runny and basically a liquid

which was a bit weird but it ended up making such rich cupcakes! Once again, it gave me wayy more batter than the recipe said it would, so I made some mini cupcakes too! In order to make these true caramel mocha cupcakes, we cored all of the big cupcakes and put fresh homemade caramel into them!

then we put the tops back on...

The caramel ended up being sooo good that we think we might have to try to incorporate it into another recipe sometime soon! We topped them with some whipped cream frosting and added bits of coffee bean, sugar, and chocolate to the top!

I found this grinder at Trader Joe's and have been waiting to use it on something and this was finally the chance! It was a great addition to make them a bit more mocha flavored.

We wanted to give these away because they ended up so yummy, so I put out my premade sign that signifies that they are not free to be eaten quite yet!

After we gave some away and everyone had tried them, one of my roommates Erin said that it was her favorite item that I had baked so far! Success!

 

recipe: ericasweettooth