I've found it last week. I've found the cupcake of all cupcakes. I now know the recipe, and it will probably be my downfall because I may just eat way toooooooo many of them!
I first had these at Loves Cupcakes, a bakery near the school I go to. I was so intrigued by the idea of salt and caramel because I never tried it. And boy, was I glad that I did! Those cupcakes were the BEST I ever had! But of course... you can't just go buy a cupcake all the time because that does add up at 3.25 a piece for a regular or 1.75 for a mini cupcake.
I've been searching for recipes on this cupcake for months, and always finding recipes that didn't seem like the right one. This is mainly because of the fact that most other bakers would make a chocolate cake and chocolate frosting type of variation, not the one that Loves did. Their cupcake was a caramel one with an Italian buttercream. The one I found is pretty close... a brown sugar cupcake with a cooked buttercream, drizzled with caramel and lightly sprinkled with fleur de sel.
I got the recipe off a new favorite blog, How to Eat A Cupcake. The only real difference is that when I made it, I had 12 regular sized cupcakes and used the rest for minis (which came out to at least 12 more). I also added about 1/3 of the caramel drizzle to the buttercream for a light taste of caramel. The only difference I would probably make is halving the recipe for the caramel drizzle. I've got tons left over so I plan on making a chocolate cupcake version soon... probably tonight!
Anyways, as I said... best cupcake ever. I can usually only eat 1-2 max before I don't care to have anymore. But these... I swear I had like 3-4 of the regular sized ones and at least 4 of the minis within a day or two.
