Caramel Coma

Last week I was out shopping with my husband when we came upon a product by Kraft - they were caramels that looked just like what we would call Jersey Caramels back in Aus, just with out the white fudge centre. So I started thinking instantly of all the things I could do with these soft and chewy caramels, and convinced my husband that I had to have them.

The very next day our Family Readiness Group posted they were going to have a bake sale. Obviously, we were going to bake some donation cupcakes, but what kind? I suddenly had a flash of these chewy caramels and thought what better time to experiment than with a bake sale! So I placed my chewy caramels in the freezer, hoping it would slow the melting process down when it came to the baking. I also got a bunch of them in a bowl with a tablespoon of water and microwaved it for this wonderful sticky caramel syrup that I drizzled on top of the frosting.

When it came to the taste test, the square fudge piece sunk to the bottom and became quite chewy. I had envisioned something almost like when you buy a tub of ice cream and you get this lovely, luscious, sticky, swirl of caramel. Unfortunately, it was a little more sticky and chewy than I had hoped. So chewy that you couldn't take an actual bite out of the caramel. Rather, you ended up with a mouthful of hard chewy caramel that almost bound your teeth together, taking away from the cupcake experience.

However, as a result of this early attempt I had 2 orders for these cupcakes. My exact words "They still need tweaking, Ive got an idea for a solution - let me try those and you can have them!"

My idea was to use my caramel made from boiling cans of condensed milk. What I would do is core out my baked vanilla cupcake and pipe the caramel in place. Then I was going to finish with a vanilla butter cream and drizzle over the caramel syrup. However I had a request (you know who you are) for as much caramel as possible - and my husband let slip that I do a salted caramel frosting. So with that instead of the vanilla butter cream, after tasting half of one, I was on an instant sugar and caramel rush! It was Ahhhhhhhmaaaaazing!!! I just hope my lovely customers enjoyed them as much as I did!!!

Anyway, see for yourself what all the fuss is about..

Caramel filling..

Working hard, or hardly working? In this one picture you can see, caramel cupcakes, rainbow cupcakes, mini chewy caramel cupcakes, salted caramel frosting by the bucket load, and lamingtons! Not to mention the diet root beer ;)

The finished product, ready for delivery.

Inside the coma....