Perfect Buttermilk Caramel Cupcakes in 1-Hour
These perfect little buttermilk caramel cupcakes are the kind of thing that you can have a hankering for at 3pm and be eating by 4pm. It’s one of those quick, no fail recipes that I find myself coming back to over and over again because the cupcakes are just so deliciously accessible. Using ingredients most of us have in our cupboards or pantries this recipe will give you soft, perfect little golden cupcakes and an addictive caramel frosting in about an hour.
Also… there’s caramel frosting dripping down the sides. Who can resist a cupcake with caramel frosting dripping down the sides??? Not this girl. Not ever.
Most of us have a couple of recipes like this in our back pocket. That perfect thing that can be whipped up at a moment’s notice for no other reason than you suddenly have a craving and you probably have all the ingredients on hand.
That cake (perfect Devil’s Food), or cookie (Giant Chewy Oatmeal Raisin), or brownie (Sheet Pan Frosted Brownies), that shows up at every birthday party, potluck, and backyard BBQ because it’s a surefire hit with everyone, always.
No frills. Unfussy. Simple. Always delicious.
That’s what these buttermilk caramel cupcakes are
The cupcake batter takes about 15 minutes to make and about 20 minutes to bake. Whip up the frosting in about 10 minutes, no spreading, piping, or decorating required (except maybe some sprinkles because sprinkles are awesome).
Simply pour the caramel frosting over the top of the buttermilk cupcakes while it’s still warm, letting it drip deliciously down the sides, all excessively self-indulgent like.
And then, there’s nothing left to do but eat.
Tips for baking perfect cupcakes
Use room temperature ingredients
At room temperature, eggs and dairy form a creamy emulsion that traps air. This is a good thing because all that trapped air expands in the oven, giving you light, fluffy cupcakes. Also, room temperature ingredients mix together better.
Creaming the butter and sugar (beating them with an electric mixer until light and creamy) is impossible if the butter is cold. Same goes for the eggs – if they are added to the cupcake batter straight from the refrigerator, they just won’t incorporate well.
The whole point of these cupcakes is that you can whip them up when the urge strikes. No one wants to wait an hour or two for the butter, eggs, and buttermilk to come to room temperature. Here’s how to bring dairy and eggs to room temperature quickly.
Salt is your friend
I am a firm believer in using a generous amount of salt in sweet treats. Salt brings out the flavor of food – helping you taste nuances that your tongue might not pick up on otherwise. Think about how bland tasting the base ingredients for these cupcakes are on their own – unsalted butter, eggs, flour. I mean…
Would you make scrambled eggs without salt? Put unsalted butter on your dinner roll? Make the coating for fried chicken without a generous measure of salt?
Add just a bit of salt to eggs, butter, or flour and suddenly they have flavor. It’s kinda magical. You don’t need a ton of salt in sweet treats like cupcakes. But, I feel you generally need more than most recipes call for.
So, if you think that a full teaspoon of salt is a bit much for cupcake batter, try it anyway. Your cupcakes will not be salty – they’ll just be more flavorful.
The Perfect Oven Temperature for Perfect Cupcakes
Even when using paper liners, spray your cupcake pan with non-stick spray
Sprinkle while the caramel frosting is warm
More Popular Cake Recipes:
Perfect Pound Cake
The perfect pound cake is buttery, not overly sweet, with a fine, tender crumb and a texture that's dense but not anywhere near tough. That's what you'll get from this well-tested recipe.
Lemon Loaf Cake with Tart Lemon Glaze
This simple lemon loaf cake is exceptionally moist, tender, and flavorful thanks to olive oil, lemon oil, and a generous drizzle of tart lemon glaze.
Mini Lime Pound Cakes
Tender, sweet little lime pound cakes brushed with rum and covered in a buttery tart icing.
German Chocolate Cupcakes
Dark Chocolate Devil's Food Cupcakes topped with a generous spoonful of rich, caramel German Chocolate topping packed with toasted pecans and coconut, and covered in a drizzle of chocolate ganache.
Coconut Cream Cake
This coconut cake is light, tender, and exceptionally soft and fluffy. Filled with a super thick layer of coconut cream and covered in coconut buttercream, every bite is so rich and creamy it practically melts in your mouth.
Funfetti Cake or Cupcakes {All-Butter Recipe}
Don’t let the sprinkles fool you. This moist and tender all-butter Funfetti Cake is more than just a pretty face with a party attitude. For all it’s lighthearted whimsy, this is one of the most seriously delicious cakes I’ve ever eaten.
Red Velvet Cake or Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Buttercream & Ganache
Buttery three-layer Red Velvet Cake or Red Velvet Cupcakes, slathered with Perfect Cream Cheese Buttercream and drizzled with Chocolate Ganache. This recipe creates super fluffy and tender cake, with just the right amount of chocolate flavor and red color.
The Most Flavorful Vanilla Cake Recipe
If you’re looking for a go-to vanilla cake recipe for wedding cakes, birthday cakes, shower cakes, anniversary cakes, or just because cakes, that will have everyone who tastes it coming back for more, this is it.
Devil's Food Cake
This sinfully dark chocolate Devil's Food Cake is so obscenely rich and fudgy that it elevates chocolate cake to a whole new level of decadence. Being bad never felt so good.
Lemon Berry Snack Cake
uttery three-layer Red Velvet Cake or Red Velvet Cupcakes, slathered with Perfect Cream Cheese Buttercream and drizzled with Chocolate Ganache. This recipe creates super fluffy and tender cake, with just the right amount of chocolate flavor and red color.
Happy baking!
Buttermilk Caramel Cupcakes
No-fail, perfectly domed buttermilk cupcakes with a tender, buttery crumb, covered in 10-minute caramel icing that drips deliciously down the sides. If you don't have buttermilk on hand, add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup and add enough milk to measure 1 1/2 cups. Stir and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
Ingredients
FOR THE BUTTERMILK CUPCAKES:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 16 tbsp salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
FOR THE CARAMEL FROSTING:
- 12 tbsp salted butter
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 & 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp whole milk
- 3 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar
- 3 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. (This recipe makes 30 cupcakes. *See note.)
- Add the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt to a bowl and stir with a wire whisk to combine.
- Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add 2 of the eggs. Beat on high until completely incorporate. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the other 2 eggs plus the egg yolk. Beat on high until the eggs are fully incorporate and the batter is perfectly smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk. Add the flour and buttermilk in alternating additions: 1/4 of the flour, 1/3 of the buttermilk, 1/4 of the flour, 1/3 of the buttermilk, 1/4 of the flour, the last of the buttermilk, and the last of the flour. After each addition, mix on low speed just long enough to barely incorporate. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl a time or two. After the last addition of flour, use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to stir the batter, ensuring all the ingredients have been well combined.
- Divide the batter between the 30 cupcake cups. (*See note.)
- Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for 13-15 minutes longer, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out without any batter on it.
- Remove from the oven and place the pans on wire racks. Let cool for 5 - 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan, set on the wire racks, and allow to cool completely before frosting.
MAKE THE CARAMEL FROSTING:
- Add the butter, salt, and brown sugar to a medium size saucepan set over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar is melted and the mixture is just starting to boil. Stir in the milk and bring back to a boil.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla with a wire whisk until smooth.
- Pour the caramel frosting over the cupcakes while it's still warm.
Notes
- If you only have one or two cupcake pans, bake the cupcakes in shifts. It can be useful to fill the cupcakes all at once so that you know you're filling them evenly - just set extra paper liners on the counter top and distribute the batter evenly amongst all 30 cupcakes.
- One reader wrote to tell me that she cut the recipe in half to only make 12 cupcakes, using 2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk, and only 3/4 cup sugar in the cupcake batter. She said they came out perfectly.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 30 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 216Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 66mgSodium: 291mgCarbohydrates: 24gFiber: 0gSugar: 15gProtein: 3g
© Of Batter and Dough. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Some of the links above are affiliate links, which pay me a small commission for my referral at no extra cost to you! Thank you for supporting Of Batter and Dough.
These were so delicious! The perfect cupcake for when you need something a little sweet in a hurry.
I’m so glad you enjoyed these Amy! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know! xo
These sound wonderful! How should they be stored? Thanks, Rebecca!
Hi Michelle! It depends on how long you want to store them. Once frosted, they’ll remain fresh uncovered for about 12 hours at room temperature. (And, to be honest, I ate one just this morning that sat out for 24 hours uncovered and it was perfectly delicious.) The caramel frosting keeps the cake from drying out. After that, cover them loosely with plastic wrap, and they’ll keep for another day or two at room temperature. The cupcakes themselves can be frozen (unfrosted) for up to 6-weeks. Just put them in a single layer in ziptop bags and place them on a flat shelf in the freezer, let them thaw at room temperature for about 4-5 hours, frost and serve. Let me know if you have any other questions! And, if you make them, please let me know what you think! xo
These cupcakes are awesome!! Super easy too!! This is my go to cupcake recipe.
I am so happy to hear that Nanc! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know! I really appreciate it. xo
I’m not sure if I did something wrong or not. These came out the same size as they went in the oven. Although they were very tasty and the texture and crumb were nice. I was wondering if this is more of a genoise type cake??
Hi Cynthia! These cupcakes don’t rise super high… but they should rise some. As you can see from the photos, they are intended to rise just above the paper liners, with tops that aren’t super domed, so the caramel icing doesn’t all just run off. If yours didn’t rise at all, there could be a couple of reasons. The first thing I would check is your baking powder. Add a teaspoon or so to a small bowl and pour in about 1/4 cup of boiling water. If it fizzes, the baking powder is active and good to use. If it doesn’t fizz up, or if the fizzing is pretty lackluster, the baking powder has expired and needs to be replaced.
If that’s not the issue, it could be that not enough air was incorporated into the batter. It’s important to beat the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy – this encourages air to get trapped in the butter and sugar molecules, which is important for the cupcakes to rise. It’s also important that the butter and eggs are at room temperature. If they are too cold, it will inhibit the amount of air in the batter.
To answer your question about whether this is a genoise cake – Genoise cakes don’t use any chemical learners (like baking powder), instead relying entirely on the air trapped in the batter from beating butter, sugar, and eggs. So, this recipe doesn’t qualify. This recipe is considered a butter cake because it calls for creaming butter and sugar and uses baking powder for leavening.
Does that help at all? Do you think one of those things might have been the issue?