Caramel Cupcakes with Caramel Hazelnut Buttercream Topped with Homemade Samoas

My birthday is on St. Patrick's Day, so when my husband lifted up a big box with Kitchenaid on the side with a big smile and a "Happy Birthday," it gave me another reason to thank my lucky stars for that man. 

Its not just any Kitchenaid, its the mother of all Kitchenaids, a Commercial 8-quart all metal part mixer with all stainless steal beaters. Do you get what this means??!! Yes, no more hand washing the beaters or scrubbing them profusely to get that metal grime off when they accidentally make it into the dishwasher. YAY!!!

Another great aspect of the new mixer is that is it extremely quiet. Much to my husband's delight, he can be in the kitchen while I'm making his favorite treats. 

So to give my new mixer a work out, I decided to make something that I've always wanted to try-homemade Samoas aka Caramel de-Lites. They came out so tasty that I may have ate half of the batch... I paired the cookies with Caramel Cupcakes with Caramel in the batch vs. a brown sugar cupcake, topped with a Caramel Hazelnut Buttercream.







Samoas

Toasted Coconut
preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 1/2 cup sweetened coconut

1. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Transfer to bowl to prevent from continued cooking on the baking sheet. 

Set aside to cool.

Shortbread

preheat oven to 400 degrees

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup caster sugar
5 ounces flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
up to 1 tbsp milk

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add salt.
2. On lowest speed, add flour and baking powder slowly until just mixed.
3. Add milk until dough comes together, you may need more milk or flour for desired consistency. You don't want to too sticky.
4. Roll out dough between two lightly floured sheets of wax paper to about 1/4 inch thickness.
5. Cut with circular cookie cutter. Optionally cut out the hole with a smaller circular cutter. I did some with and without.

Bake for 8 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool completely.

Salted Caramel

recipe adapted from My Baking Addiction

1 cup heavy cream
5 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

1 1/4 tsp fleur de sel, or sea salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

1. Combine the cream, butter, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, and salt. Heat over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and set aside.
2. In a large pan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling the pan occasionally, until the mixture is a light golden caramel color.
3. Slowly stir in the cream mixture to the sugar mixture as it will bubble up. Let simmer until until a candy thermometer reads 230 degrees. Remove from burner immediately.

Pour 8 ounces on to the Toasted Caramel. Set aside 1/4 & 1/8 cup for the Caramel Cupcakes and about 1/8 cup for the Samoas. 

Dark Chocolate Dip

6 ounces chopped dark chocolate

1. Place chocolate in microwave safe bowl to half power.
2. Melt dark chocolate 30 seconds at a time in the Microwave stirring between rounds.

Do not over heat.

Assemble

1. Spread some Caramel from the previous step onto the shortbread cookie. Add Caramel Coconut Mixture. 
2. Dip cookie into the dark chocolate, set on parchment paper to dry.
3. Using a fork, drizzle dark chocolate on top of cookie.

Set aside assembled Samoas for cupcakes.

Caramel Cupcakes

preheat oven to 375 degrees

12.5 ounces flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup cooled caramel
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk

1. In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda. 
2. In a 2-cup glass measuring cup combine milk/cream and vanilla; set aside. 
3. Cream butter and sugar. Add caramel, the caramel should  be pea-sized chunks.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Using a wooden spoon alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture, mixing after each addition just until combined.

Fill liners 3/4 full. Makes 24 cupcakes. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

Caramel Hazelnut Buttercream Frosting

4 tbsp caramel

1 tbsp cream

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 tbsp Frangelico Hazelnut liqueur

1. Thin caramel sauce with cream over the stovetop. Add more cream if necessary. Set aside to cool.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream butter, cooled caramel, salt, and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time alternating with liquids. Add cream or powdered sugar to achieve desired consistency.

Fill pastry bag with large tip and frost cupcakes. Add Samoa on top. Yum!