Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

We had a work potluck this past week, and, against my better judgement, I polled my coworkers to see what kind of cupcakes I should bring this time.  Last month's s'mores cupcakes were a huge hit, as were the mid-month chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes, so I felt like I had to live up to my own standards (ugh...who needs standards!!  I just need chocolate!).  I was thinking people would have been tired of chocolate at this point, and was kind of secretly hoping to do a lemon and berry cupcake or something, since spring has definitely sprung in Colorado Springs.  Boy was I wrong.  I greatly underestimated people's need for chocolate in their lives.  Well, that, and I work in an office dominated by women, and if there's one thing I know about my fellow women, they LOVE chocolate (but really, what's not to love??). 



I like to pretend that I'm salty-sweet, just like this beauty.

And so, Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes were born.  I didn't want to do just chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, because, really, chocolate and caramel is just better.  And salted caramel?!?! Fuggetaboutit.  I modified Brown Eyed Baker's dark chocolate cupcake recipe, mostly adjusting for altitude (that process I'll explain in a bit), along with Sprinkle Bakes' recipe for salted caramel buttercream, along with her recipe for the salted caramel filling.  And the result?!  Sooooo gooood......droooooollll....

They're that much more tempting when you can see the middle...

There are some recipes that I bake that, even before they go into the oven, I know are going to be the best thing I've ever eaten.  This cupcake recipe was one of them.  My thought, as I was mixing up the batter was, "Oh my god, this looks like pudding!!!  I'd eat the crap out of this without even baking it!"  I wouldn't have had the awesome caramel filling or caramel buttercream had I done that, but I wouldn't put it past me to make the buttercream anyway, and just eat a bowl of frosting (...and that ladies and gentlemen, is why I run).

I mean, come on now.  So good.

And now, to explain a little bit about adjusting for altitude.  I intend to do a full post about this sometime soon, because it's interesting to me, and it's good to know the science behind why certain things are done.  But for now, an abbreviated lesson.

Altitude can really mess up a good baking session.  You can be trucking along, thinking that your cupcake batter is the best thing ever, with visions of deliciousness dancing in your head.  You follow the recipe to the T, and pop those suckers in the oven with the greatest confidence.  When you come back to check on them, you'll be horrified to discover a mess of gooey, over-risen cupcake batter spreading all over your baking tins, and burning on the bottom of your oven. 

Embarassingly, I'd lived in Colorado Springs (charted average altitude of 6,035 feet) for almost four years before I could figure out why some of my baked goods turned out so terribly.  That last paragraph, sadly, describes many an afternoon in my kitchen.  Finally, I realized, "Oh, duh, Sarah, you live at a pretty high altitude, maybe that's your problem."  I searched and searched for recipes adjusted for altitude, but there really aren't that many out there.  So, through a lot of trial and error, I taught myself how to adjust most recipes.  I still can't figure out cookies, but, with these cupcakes around, who needs a cookie?!?

I was playing with the fun effects in my camera...

The long and the short of adjusting for altitude is that leavened baked goods rise faster than they would at sea level.  With breads, that means the rise time can be much shorter than indicated in the recipe.  With cakes and cupcakes, that means that what seems like a reasonable amount of batter can run all over your oven before it has time to develop a good dome.  So, the basics are this: increase flour, decrease baking powder and soda, increase protein content (eggs).  Some websites suggest altering your sugar and liquid contents as well.  I've usually done well with just adjusting the flour, leavening agent, and protein contents.  For example, with this recipe, rather than using 3/4 cup of flour, I increased it to one cup.  I used about 25% or so less powder and soda, and I used three eggs rather than two. 

One of these days, I'll do a post showing what a recipe that's not adjusted for altitude looks like, versus one that is adjusted for altitude.  The tricky part about all of this is that, depending on where you are in the world, you'll have to adjust further.  A bit higher or lower can require further tweaking.

But for now, off to dream about new and delicious baked goods...