Salted Caramel Cupcakes

I recently bought The Hummingbird Bakery book 'Home Sweet Home' and have been itching to try out some of the recipes. I started with this one as I have a particular weakness for Salted Caramel. You will need:

Makes 12-16 Cupcakes (I got 17 out of the mix)

For the Sponge
70g Softened Unsalted Butter
170g Plain Flour
250g Caster Sugar
50g Cocoa Powder (recipe says to sift but I didn't bother)
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
210ml Whole Milk
2 Large Eggs

For the Frosting
670g Icing Sugar
210g Softened Unsalted Butter
70ml Whole Milk
30g Tinned Caramel (or Dulce de leche)
Pinch of Sea Salt

For Filling and Decoration
100g Tinned Caramel (or Dulce de leche)
Pinch of Sea Salt

1. Preheat oven to 170ºC and line your muffin tin with paper cases

2. Using an electric whisk or freestanding mixer, mix the butter, flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together. The recipe says they should form a 'crumb like consistency', mine didn't. It seems very dry at this stage and tends to cover your kitchen in a coating of flour and cocoa powder. I gave up and added some liquid when it was clear it wasn't going to come together any more.

3. Mix the milk and eggs together by hand in a separate bowl. Pour half of this into the flour mixture and mix until thoroughly combined and smooth. Add the rest of the liquid and mix on a high speed until smooth and combined again.

4. Spoon the mixture into your paper cases. The book recommends using an ice-cream scoop to make sure you get even cupcakes, this is a great tip and works well. The cases need to be about two-thirds full.

5. Bake for 20-25 mins (mine were done after 20) until the sponge bounces back when lightly touched. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

7. To make the frosting mix the icing sugar and the butter together on a low speed. The recipe says they should combine but again, I found it was far too dry and just resulted in my kitchen being covered in a thin layer of icing sugar. I gave up and added a little of the milk to help bring it together.

8. Gradually add the rest on the milk while mixing, and then add the caramel and sea salt. Mix thoroughly and turn up the speed, beating until light and fluffy.

9. Once the cakes are cool, use a sharp knife (I found a fish knife was ideal) to remove a circular section from the top of each cupcake, about 2cm wide. I then used a teaspoon to hollow out the cake a little more before putting about 1 teaspoon of caramel into the hollow.

10. Replace the cut-out top of the sponge and press down gently so it sits as it was before.

11. The recipe says to spoon the icing and use a palette knife to swirl, I decided to pipe mine instead.

12. Swirl a little of the caramel over each cupcake, it is a little solid when straight out of the tin but it becomes runnier with a little stirring or a few seconds in the microwave if necessary, although make sure it doesn't get too hot. Finish with a very light sprinkling of sea salt.