These cream and caramel filled cupcakes are topped with a rich caramel frosting.
A few months ago I visited Sprinkles cupcake shop in Chicago. My favorite cupcake was the salted caramel- because of the frosting. It was so thick and creamy and had a wonderful buttery caramel taste. I’ve been obsessed with recreating it and I think I have finally come close- thanks to my sister-in-law who recommended her mom’s Penuche frosting. I’d never heard of Penuche frosting before– I learned that Penuche is a fudge-like candy made by caramelizing brown sugar with butter. So penuche frosting…? Well…its pretty much amazing.
The cupcakes aren’t anything crazy. I used a Fun-da-Middle mix again and added caramel sundae topping in the middle with the cream (sooooo yummy!) Use any mix or recipe you like– it is all about the frosting today!
INGREDIENTS:
- Fun-da-Middle cupcake mix (with eggs, oil and water to make according to box)
- 1 cup caramel ice cream topping
- 3/4 cups butter
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 cups confectioners sugar
DIRECTIONS:
- Make cake mix according to box, but after adding cream to centers, spoon a little caramel ice cream topping into centers as well.
- For frosting: Melt butter and stir in brown sugar.
- Bring to a boil and then simmer for 2 minutes (stirring constantly)
- Carefully add milk and bring to a boil.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- After cooled, add salt and vanilla. Stir well.
- Beat in 4 cups of confectioners sugar.
- Frost cupcakes immediately (frosting hardens quickly and becomes hard to spread).
My thoughts: What a yummy and beautiful frosting. This recipe makes enough to frost about 16 cupcakes if you pipe quite a bit on. I’d use less next time as it is a VERY rich frosting. You could easily frost 24 cupcakes using a little less on each than I did. I keep think of other things to use this frosting on….you might see this recipe again someday soon… enjoy!!!! -r
EASYBAKED 
That frosting looks amazing!! I love Sprinkles cupcakes in Chicago too…haven’t had the salted caramel flavor yet though. Will have to try it on our next trip. Their seasonal pumpkin cupcake is really delicious 🙂
Thank you! I’ve been there twice- last weekend I tried Marshmallow…oh. my.!!! I will have to try and get there for the pumpkin this fall. I’m addicted.
These look awesome!! Great job! I have never tried fun da middles mix before but I’m going to now with this recipe! 🙂
Seriously- such a good cupcake mix! You’ll have to let me know how you like them!! 🙂
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These look DELICIOUS!!!
I wanted to contact you with a question, but can’t find your email address anywhere on the blog. Can you shoot me an email.
Thanks!!
Sure Lori- I will do that right now.
These cupcakes look so delicious! I would like to showcase this recipes on my cupcakes recipes & ideas blog if you agree!
Absolutely! Feel free- and thanks for asking!
Nothing makes my day more than a photo of perfectly piped cupcakes like these. I love the sound of that icing! xx Smidge
Thanks Smidge 🙂
Hi Friend!!!! I am making this recipe tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes.
So, these turned out great!!!! They taste just like when we went to Sprinkles, and I love the Fun-Da-Middle cupcakes!!!!
YAY!!! Thanks for giving me feedback Meg– glad they reminded you of Sprinkles 🙂
This was yummy, but you are right very hard to pipe on and had to hurry and spread the last few. Any tips to make it easier?
I don’t have any tips other than to just have a piping bag prepared ahead and your cupcakes ready to frost. When your frosting is done just get it in the bag and pipe fast :). The alternative is to just spread it on- which would be a faster technique. What I love about this frosting though is it gets that nice crust on top which makes these cupcakes really easy to arrange and transport.
Hi there can you tell me please how you fill the cupcake with the cream and caramel?
Hi– the cream filling actually comes with this particular cupcake mix- its called Fun-da- middle and there are instructions on the box for using the cream filling. I just added a little caramel ice cream topping with the cream filling to make it a caramel cream.
Plz tell me that ice cream shuld be frozen or melt ? Bocoz it will melt after some time . how can we fill ice cream in the cup cakes? With the piping bag? And can we make home made vanilla cup cakes for this recipe? Thanks. AK
Hi– you don’t actually add ice cream in the cupcakes– you add a caramel ice cream TOPPING. You could use a homemade cupcake recipe with the caramel frosting, but you won’t have a cream filling, because the cream filling is included in the Fun-da-middle cupcake mix. I’m sure a homemade vanilla cupcake with caramel frosting would still be yummy though!!
Silly question, do you put the topping in before baking the cakes or insert it into the middle after the cakes have been cooked and is it best to wait for them to cool first? Is there a way of adding cream to the centre as we don’t have that brand here in Australia? Thank you.
Hi! With this brand of cake mix, you put the fillings in before you bake. But since you don’t have this brand available to you I would recommend making cupcakes with your own recipe, cooling them and then cutting a small core out and piping any kind of cream filling inside with some caramel sauce. My next recipe post (going up Friday morning) is a cupcake recipe with a really yummy caramel cream inside. You could use that cream with yellow cupcakes and this caramel frosting…hope I’ve helped!!!
Thank you so much for replying…that is great information. What kind of cream would you use…would you use whipped cream?
You could use whipped cream- take whipping cream and add a little powdered sugar (you guys call it icing sugar I think?) and then whip it. Or, you could even use a little butter cream in each (recipe here), since the frosting is so different- I think that might be a bit too sweet, but you could try it. Check back tomorrow for my caramel cream recipe- I think its the best of both worlds- it has the cream, but also the yummy caramel taste.
how much vanilla do you use in the frosting?
One teaspoon– thanks for catching that!! 🙂