Chocolate, Cinnamon and Salted Caramel

Oh my!
I decided to make cupcakes for my father in law’s birthday about a week ago. He loves chocolate cake, but I wanted to make something a little different then the normal chocolate cake, with chocolate icing.
I found this great recipe for chocolate cupcakes from www.food.com

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup oil

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon vinegar

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together until moist and well blended.
Pour batter into lined cupcake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees

Now for the icing…

I had a lot of leftover cinnamon buttercream icing from my mini pumpkin cupcakes that I made last week, so I decided to use that to ice these chocolate cupcakes. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
3-4 tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
Directions:
Combine these ingredients and mix with either a hand or stand mixer.

I made a squiggly design on the cupcakes, just for something a little different!

Now for the salted caramel. Trader Joe’s sells these:

I took about 10 of the caramels, threw them in a sauce pot and melted them down over low heat:

Then using your spatula or spoon, drizzle the melted caramel over the icing:

There they are, my chocolate cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream icing, topped with salted caramel… Yummo!