There was a small family gathering at our aunts house on Friday, so we made some chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with caramel brown-sugar frosting to bring along. They were quite delicious! The frosting contained brown sugar, which made the frosting a bit granular and crunchy, but it was still smooth and piped out very well. The cupcakes were cake-mix-doctored, so they weren't from scratch but they were more special than straight from the box made cupcakes. And they only took about an hour!
Here is the recipe for the buttermilk cupcakes (adapted from the Hello, Cupcake! Cupcake Book; see link below):
1 box of Chocolate Cupcake Mix (any other flavor works, too- just not angel's food)
1 cup of buttermilk in place of the water called for on the box
4 eggs (it's usually just 3)
The amount of oil it says to use on the box
Follow the directions on the box, and bake the same amount of time! The batter may seem more watery, but it's supposed to be that way.
And for the frosting, this is adapted from the More From Magnolia recipe book. It says caramel frosting, but it tastes more like a brown sugar frosting that true caramel. Oh well, it's still lip-smacking good!
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup of milk
1 tablespoon dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Cream the butter and both sugars on low speed in a bowl for 2 minutes until it's smooth. Add the milk, corn syrup and vanilla and beat until creamy (3-5 minutes). When you first add the milk, vanilla and corn syrup, it seems to make the frosting too watery and weird looking, but keep mixing it and it will turn into fluffy, workable frosting. Enough to frost 2 dozen cupcakes.
