Start with a moist chocolate cupcake, smother it with a luscious salted caramel frosting, and drizzle it with more caramel for the best chocolate salted caramel cupcakes! Salted caramel and chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations, and makes for a cupcake that’s great for all occasions.

Of all the classic flavor pairings out there, chocolate and salted caramel is one of my favorites. Have any of you tried the Sanders dark chocolate sea salt caramels that they sell in bulk at Costco? They occasionally go on sale and I will, during those occasions, for less than $10, buy more dark chocolate sea salt caramels than I can ever finish.

It’s a good thing I have people to share them with.

Anyways, chocolate + caramel = great. I’m sure you can agree since you’re here reading this post on how to make these delicious cupcakes.

These chocolate salted caramel cupcakes are moist, decadent, and topped with a luscious salted caramel frosting. We’re going to make an easy homemade caramel sauce to beat into the frosting and drizzle on top. This may seem intimidating, but it’s actually really easy! Honestly the only tedious part (if you even think of it that way) of making the caramel sauce is standing over a hot stove and making sure to constantly stir the sauce.

The cupcake recipe is also very similar to the one I used for some of my other chocolate cupcakes! Like these dark chocolate peppermint cupcakes or stuffed peanut butter chocolate cupcakes.

Ingredients Needed

I divide the ingredients for these cupcakes into three sections: cupcakes, caramel sauce, and frosting.

Chocolate Cupcake Ingredients

• All-purpose flour
• Baking soda, baking powder, and salt
• Unsweetened cocoa powder: you can either use regular cocoa powder or dark cocoa powder. Use the latter for a dark chocolate cupcake.
• Boiling water: we will use this to bloom to cocoa powder
• Granulated cane sugar
• Light brown sugar: this helps add some additional moisture to the cupcakes
• A neutral oil, such as vegetable oil or avocado oil
• Two large eggs, at room temperature
• Sour cream and milk, both also at room temperature (a quick 10 seconds in the microwave will get the job done)
• Vanilla extract

Caramel Sauce Ingredients

• Granulated cane sugar
• Light brown sugar
• Unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• Heavy whipping cream
• Vanilla extract
• Fine sea salt

Salted Caramel Frosting Ingredients

• Unsalted butter
• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Fine sea salt
• Some of the caramel sauce that you are going to make

How to Make Caramel Sauce

Here is a step by step on how to make the caramel sauce that’s used in the frosting for these chocolate salted caramel cupcakes!

1. Place brown sugar, cane sugar, and salt into a nonstick saucepan.
2. Turn your stove on to slightly higher than medium heat. Begin melting the sugar, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to prevent it from sticking and burning. Cook it until the sugar is fully melted (around 4-5 minutes).
3. Add butter, continuing to stir until the butter is melted and fully combined into the sugar. Cut your butter up into slices or cubes beforehand to ensure that it melts evenly.
4. Pour in heavy whipping cream, which will begin to bubble pretty immediately after you add it in. Continue to–you guessed it–stir constantly. Continue letting it cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until the sauce starts to thicken. At this point, immediately stir in the vanilla, and then remove the caramel from heat.
5. Pour the caramel into a jar or separate bowl and let it cool down completely. It will continue to thicken as it cools.

Make sure to keep and close eye on it the whole time and stir, stir, stir!

Tips for Making The Cupcakes

Now that we’ve addressed the caramel sauce, here are some of my key tips for making better chocolate cupcakes!

• Use room temperature ingredients: use room temperature eggs, sour cream, and milk. To warm up the eggs, place them into a bowl of hot water (but not boiling) for 5-10 minutes. To warm up the other ingredients, heat them in the microwave for around 10 seconds. Warm ingredients blend better and give your cake a a more tender crumb.
• Don’t over-mix the batter: whisk in the flour until it is just combined. Over-mixing will result in tough, gummy cupcakes due to too much gluten build up.
• Use full-fat ingredients: to ensure very rich, decadent, chocolate cupcakes, use full-fat ingredients whenever possible! While it may be tempting to use reduced fat or fat-free sour cream/Greek yogurt, full fat will yield better flavor. Same with the milk–whole milk will beat out fat-free milk every time. Fat will also help contribute to a better crumb in your cake.

If you need any other help or advice, feel free to drop me a comment or send me an email and I’d be more than happy to help!

How to Store Leftovers

Store leftovers in an airtight container on the counter for up to 4 days. You can also freeze unfrosted chocolate cupcakes for up to 3 months.

Where Can I Buy Those Caramels You Were Talking About?

If you want to get your hands on some of the Sander’s dark chocolate sea salt caramels I talked about at the beginning of this post, here a few places you can buy them! They’re sooo good.

From Sanders themselves, Costco, Amazon, Target.

Did You Make This Recipe?

If so, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment, rating, or take a picture and share it with me on Instagram @toppedwithhoney. Looking forward to seeing your decadent cupcakes!

If you’re not ready to bake yet, no problem! Simply hover over any image in this post (pick your favorite), or tap if you’re on mobile, and click the pin icon in the corner to save for later.

Have fun cooking and check out some other cake recipes here!

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Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes