A few weeks back Josh and I had a housewarming party to celebrate our move to our new apartment! It was a dressed to impress occasion with lots of good friends, great wine, and of course a lot of food!

Here’s a picture of our spread… the panko goat cheese ball was amazing! If you want the recipe, you can find it here: Parmesan Crusted Goat Cheese with Basil Oil

Of course a party just isn’t a party without CUPCAKES. I was perusing around the grocery store before the party looking for inspiration and stumbled across some mini Rolos.  Now, I’m a bit of a sucker for all things small and cute so I just had to buy them.  The result? mini Rolo cupcakes with a salted caramel buttercream.  Mmmmm….

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ¾ cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 bottle caramel sauce
• 1 bag of mini Rolos

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Line mini cupcake pans with liners.  Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
• In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
• Reduce speed to low, and add vanilla.
• Add eggs one at a time, scraping bowl after each addition.
• On low speed, alternately add flour mixture and milk. Start and end with the flour mixture, continue to mix until smooth.
• Pour the batter into prepared cupcake liners so that each cup is half full.
• Spoon 1/2 tsp. caramel syrup into each cup and cover with a little more batter.  Liners should be about two thirds full.
• Press 1 mini Rolo in each cup (the Rolos do not have to be totally immersed in the batter).
• Bake for 10-13 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Let the cupcakes cool for 5-10 minutes then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

Source: Cupcake recipe adapted from Rolo Cupcakes by Live, Love, Pasta

Salted Caramel Buttercream

• 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp + 2 tsp (40 mL) cream
• 2 egg whites
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• Put 1/4 cup of sugar and water in saucepan over medium-high heat. Do not stir of you will get sugar crystals, but you can swirl the saucepan gently. It will bubble itself into a deep amber. Remove immediately from heat and add cream (careful – it will bubble up furiously). Stir until smooth and set aside.
• Put the egg whites, salt, and 1/4 cup sugar in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture reaches 140 degrees. Transfer to bowl of standing mixer.
• Beat on high until stiff peaks form. Add butter a bit at a time, and continue beating on medium. Reduce speed to low, add vanilla extract, and then caramel (you may need to gently rewarm the caramel in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time until it is workable but not burning hot). Beat for 4-5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Source: Icing recipe taken directly from the Salted Caramel Buttercream recipe by Foodess