These Rolo caramel cupcakes take everything good about a Rolo (the chocolate and the caramel) and magnify them into a bigger and better dessert.
One of my favourite desserts is anything in the caramel family. Caramel, fudge, even toffee. I just find it all so delicious, hence these Rolo caramel cupcakes.
The chocolate cupcakes
The cupcake base is a delicious chocolate sponge cake. It uses ingredients that you'll likely already have in your kitchen, takes less than 10 minutes to mix together, and bakes in 15 minutes.
Start with creaming together the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time, making sure each one is completed incorporated before you add the next one.
Next, gently mix in the flour, cocoa powder and raising agents, making sure that you don't overmix the cupcake batter at this point.
Scoop you the batter evenly into the cupcake tray. I find an ice cream scoop is really handy for this - it makes really quick work of it too.
Bake the cupcakes for 10-12 minutes. You'll know when they're done because they'll have risen beautifully and when you insert a skewer in the centre, it'll come out clean.
The caramel filling
The middle of the cupcake is where the magic happens.
Once the cupcakes have cooked and cooled down, you scoop out some chocolate sponge and fill it with caramel sauce. I just a little knife for this, but you can get special cupcake coring tools which would work too!
I fill a piping bag with Carnation caramel, but you can add your favourite shop-bought or homemade caramel sauce, and just use a spoon.
The Caramel Buttercream
Start by mixing the butter for a good five minutes, until it's really light and very pale in colour. Slowly mix in spoonfuls of icing sugar, and mix really well each time. This makes sure that the icing sugar is fully incorporated, and stops the buttercream having a gritty texture.
The caramel buttercream is flavoured with caramel spread. I used the Cadbury caramel spread, and just spooned out the caramel parts. It took a few minutes, but is worth it for the flavour! Mix this into the buttercream.
Assembling the cupcakes
Once you've filled the middle of the cupcakes with your favourite caramel sauce, spoon the caramel buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a big piping tip (I use Wilton 1M).
Pipe tall swirls of buttercream onto each cupcake. Use a spoon to drizzle a little bit of caramel sauce on top of the swirls, then gently press a Rolo to finish off.
This Rolo caramel cupcake recipe makes a batch of 12 cupcakes. I'd recommend buying some extra Rolos in case you bake smaller cupcakes and end up baking additional ones. If there are any Rolos left over, you'll just have to eat them!
For more ideas for delicious cupcakes, check these out!
Rolo Caramel Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 cupcakes 1x
- Category: Cupcakes
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
Light chocolate cupcakes with a caramel filling, topped with creamy caramel buttercream and finished with a Rolo
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 275 g unsalted butter
- 275 g caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 240 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 35 g cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
For the filling
- 100 g caramel sauce
For the buttercream
- 350 g icing sugar
- 125 g butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100 g caramel spread (I used Cadbury's)
- 12 Rolos
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan)
- Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake liners
For the cupcakes
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter for 3-4 minutes until creamy
- Add in the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg. Mix in the vanilla extract.
- Fold in the flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking powder until combined. Don’t overmix
- Scoop the cupcake batter evenly into the cupcake liners (I used an ice cream scoop)
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown
- Leave to cool for two minutes in the tray, then move the cupcakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely
For the filling
- Use a cupcake corer, or a knife, to cut a hole in the middle of each cupcake. Pipe, or spoon the caramel sauce into this hole
For the buttercream
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, vanilla extract and caramel spread for 5 minutes
- Add a few spoonfuls of icing sugar and whisk until combined. Repeat until all icing sugar is mixed in
To assemble
- Using a piping bag with a tip of your choice (I used Wilton 1M), pipe the buttercream frosting onto the cupcakes. Top with some caramel sauce and a Rolo
*photos updated 23 January 2022
Leave a Reply