These Caramel Cupcakes are a soft yellow cake filled with salted caramel and then topped with a swirl of Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream. The combination of the rich yellow cake and salted caramel is divine!
Sift together cake flour, cornstarch, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
In a small bowl whisk together milk and sour cream. Set aside
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time followed by egg yolks, scraping down the sides of the bowl after every two eggs or so. Add the extracts with the last bit of eggs.
Switch the mixer to low and then alternately add the flour mixture and sour cream. I don’t wait until all the flour has incorporated until I add the next batch. I just keep adding with two hands. Pro-style. I do stop the mixer to add the last of the sour cream because I like to scrape it all out with a rubber spatula.
Scoop or pour into prepared muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven until a cake tester comes out with a few clinging crumbs. This will take about 10-12 minutes depending on your oven
Cool about 5 minutes in the tins then turn them out onto a rack. Allow to cool completely.
Transfer some of the salted caramel to a piping bag and inject some of the caramel into the center. You can also cut out a small piece and the fill it completely but that always seems unnecessary to me these days.
Frost with your favorite buttercream! I used my caramel Swiss meringue buttercream.