Wednesday Baking | Texas Cupcakes with Caramel Icing
You who fear kneading and yeast can rejoice today, as this week's Wednesday Baking post requires absolutely no yeast or kneading. And it doesn't require a stand mixer either! Our recipe today comes from a Taste of Home magazine.
If you've ever made a Texas sheet cake before, you'll notice that these cupcakes are made in a similar fashion (and they have the same wonderful texture as a Texas sheet cake).
These are really easy to make, so easy that I think these are just as fast as a boxed mix (and much tastier).
Here's how.
Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
Combine the cocoa, water, oil, and butter in a saucepan, and bring to a boil.
Combine the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.
Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Then add the buttermilk/yogurt/vanilla mixture, and stir well.
Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners, or if you don't have any liners, you can grease your muffin tins. This makes it more difficult to removed the finished cupcakes, though. Pour the batter evenly into the muffin cups. I find this to be much easier when I pour the batter into a measuring cup first, like so.
I do still end up with drips on my pan, though!
Bake the cupcakes in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
These are still very soft when they first come out of the oven, so let them sit in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool.
Now, here's the part where I should show you how to make the frosting. However, I made these on a very busy day. See what all I baked that day?
And so I didn't manage to take any pictures of the frosting process. I'm sorry. But, the directions for making the frosting are below, and next time I make the frosting, I'll try my best to capture the process with my camera and update this post.
Because this recipe is already printable on Taste of Home's site, I didn't bother uploading a PDF here. Just go to the cupcake recipe page and click on "print" (and please enjoy their photo of a frosted cupcake, which is much more beautiful than mine!).
This recipe makes two dozen cupcakes, but you most certainly can cut the recipe in half if you prefer.
Texas Cupcakes with Caramel Icing
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup baking cocoa
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup butter, cubed
2 eggs
⅓ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
CARAMEL ICING:
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup butter, cubed
¼ cup milk
* 2 to 2-¼ cups confectioners' sugar
Directions
1) In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. In a large saucepan over medium heat, bring cocoa, water, oil and butter to a boil. Gradually add to dry ingredients; mix well. Combine eggs, buttermilk and vanilla; gradually add to batter and mix well (batter will be very thin).
2) Fill paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 ° for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
3) For icing, in a heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter and milk. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium. Do not stir. Cook for 3-6 minutes or until bubbles form in center of mixture and syrup turns amber. Remove from the heat; transfer to a small bowl. Cool to room temperature. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar. Spread over cupcakes. Yield: 2 dozen.
Wow you are a baking machine!!!
What could I use to replace buttermilk? I have not seen it anywhere around here!
You can add a little bit of vinegar to regular milk (I think it's a teaspoon per cup) and let it sit for 5 minutes or so...that will curdle it a bit. You can also buy powdered buttermilk...maybe you could look for that on the internet?
I used 1T lemon juice. But you can use either lemon juice or vinegar. Most places say:
Milk (just under one cup)
1 Tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice
Thanks :), will def be trying that....
You can get it at the grocery store. Powdered buttermilk comes in a canister and when opened can be kept in the fridge to keep it fresh. Then you just add water when you want fresh buttermilk to use in cooking or baking.
It's been a while since I've been to Cairo - is heavy (cow's) cream available? If you wanted to go whole hog you could make your own *real* buttermilk. (The stuff we buy in stores in North America is cultured and doesn't taste the same.) Put the cream in a large jar and shake, shake, shake till the butter comes. This typically takes 10-20 min, depending on how vigorously you shake. Then strain. The stuff in the strainer is butter, the stuff in the bowl underneath the strainer is real buttermilk.
This is just plain evil. 🙂
But delicious evil, nonetheless.
Ill probably try the vinegar thing.... Most people won't deliver to Cairo.... Can't even get bloody amazon here!!
Now all I need is a muffin tin.
Thanks :),
Forest.
Oh goodness! I didn't know you were in Cairo. lol I'd imagine it IS difficult to get things delivered there.
Excuse me for asking this but when you are talking about Cairo are you talking about Cairo, Eygpt? I have two sons that are presently stationed in Eygpt with the US National Guards of Kansas. I apologize for the interuption if this is not Cairo, Eygpt. By the way I have really enjoyed reading all the stuff on "the frugal girl" God Bless you girl.
Thanks! I need a new recipe for study group. These look yummy.
P.S. Scored a muffin tin and a rolling pin at the goodwill for a dollar each. WOOOHOOO
Well, you answered one of my questions today. I was wondering if you did all of your baking on a single day. Looks like it. Your weekly menus always include so many homemade baked goods that I wondered....I thought surely you wouldn't be baking bread 3 or 4 days a week. Inquiring minds want to know these kinds of things:0)
Cupcakes sound yummy. I could go for one right now.
I actually do usually bake all through the week. But this day I was making a meal to take to my husband's grandma, so I made the cupcakes for dessert and the challah to go with our soup. And the loaves were for communion the next day (well, one was for communion and the other was for us! lol).
Do you think that recipe would work in a 9x13? I hate making cupcakes!
There are lots Texas sheet cake recipes that fit into jelly roll pans (which I think are 18x12 or something like that)...I'd give one of those recipes a try. Go look on the Taste of Home site...I know they have one that I've used.
I make TX sheet cake all the time but I never thought of trying it in cupcake form (which would be so much easier!) The frosting sounds great too....yum! Thanks for posting this recipe.
🙂 Claudine
I always make a mess with cupcakes and never thought to first put the batter into a measuring cup... that's a great idea! Also, why are they called "Texas" cupcakes?
I don't know why they're called Texas cupcakes! But both my cake and cupcake recipe start with boiling the cocoa powder, water, and oil together, so they are related somehow.
The measuring cup works with this batter because it's so thin...most cupcake batters are too thick to be poured. Because this one is so thin, it's nearly impossible to spoon it neatly into the muffin cups.
I found an article that talks about the origin of the name.
http://tinyurl.com/yvpvy4
So apparently... no one knows! ^_^
Thanks for another wonderful baking post, Kristen.
Huh...kind of like Monkey Bread, then. Most everyone calls it by that name, but no one knows WHY it's called that!
Yum! I love Texas sheet cake so I will have to try these!
Lent!!! Lord, spare us from temptation, but remind us of this recipe after Easter!
Oh dear. I'm sorry, Magadalena! Are you sworn off all sweets until Easter? Maybe you should skip my blog on Wednesdays until then and just catch up later. lol
I love your site and all of your wonderful info. I am a Mom of 6 and am trying to live a more frugal lifestyle. I love all your recipes and was wondering if there is an easy way to look over all your recipes on the sight. It would be great if they were all in one section. Maybe a tab at the top for recipes. I have no idea how hard that is to do but just thought I would make the suggestion. Keep up the great work. Thanks for inspiring me to do better for my family. Colossians 3:17
Yup, over in the drop-down categories menu on the right side of my blog, there is a Recipes category. I'll go put a tab up top for you too, though!
Just found the drop down menu. That is so great!! I will be using it often. Thanks for putting the tab at the top too. I just love your sight. I get new ideas everyday!
Kristen-
You have inspired me to bake bread from scratch (I have used 2 of your recipe's so far) and now cupcakes from scratch with no boxed mix....my husband and kids are going to wonder what has come over me. I am trying to get up the courage to make your homemade yogurt! Your photos are the best and I enjoy reading your blog everyday.
Kristin
If you can make bread from scratch, you can totally make yogurt. lol
I always assumed it was called monkey bread because we pick at it with our fingers like monkeys picking off each other... 🙂
This looks like a yummy recipe! I want to know how you get the icing swirled so prettily? Mine always looks messy unless I pipe it on.
Why oh why did I even click on the message when I saw the title? I LOVE all things caramel!!! I just used some buttermilk for some coconut cupcakes and was wondering what to do with the leftovers.
YUM.
Kristin your posts always make me smile. The photos are so beautiful.
These looks fabulous! Though I'll need to quarter the recipe! If I had 24 cup cakes just sitting around I think I would have one an hour....
I used sour milk and made this for dessert last night. So rich, and so delish!
I've found that my ladle (which holds 1/4 cup) is the perfect tool for filling my waffle iron and muffin tins. I've also had Texas sheet cake before and really liked it, but I think I'd like these cupcakes even better. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Kristen!
Hopefully you'll get this comment, even though it's not on your latest post. I love reading your blog and I was just going back through it again today and admiring your lovely photographs. In particular, I think that your eighth (I counted... it's the one of the backed cupcakes from above) is rather nice. 'tis a rather quirky thing to comment on, but I just love the asymmetrical feel of it. Okay... that's all. haha. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to have my own kitchen so that I can (and have to) start my own experiments!
I made these last night for my son to take to daycare for his 2nd birthday....I just ate one and they are SSSSOOOO good! Mine didn't look as pretty as I had to frost them while still warm with warm forsting so it melted but still so good!!! Thanks for the great posts and recipe's!
WOW! These are SO-O yummy. I whipped them up on Thursday night, took half to playgroup on Friday morning and half to an Oscar party last night and everyone LOVED them! (Including a friend who is a professional pastry chef.) My two tweaks - I used mini-muffin tins and then sprinkled a little flaked sea salt on the top of the frosting, following the trendy salted carmel craze. Even though they were minis, the cupcakes were so moist and delicious and the nutty carmel taste complimented it so well. This recipe is a keeper for sure!