White Chocolate Mud Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting

So with less than a week until I move house, an old work mate messages me asking for a favour. His wife, 8 months pregnant is having major cravings for ... yep, you guessed it, cupcakes! In desperation he so kindly asked if I would be able to bake for her to help satisfy his wife's mad cravings and help put him at ease. And of course, before even thinking: how am I going to have time for this? where are my piping tips? which box are my sprinkles in? I said I would be delighted to bake for her.
The flavours requested were White Chocolate and Salted Caramel. Two flavours I have never tried.

As my recipe books are all packed, I did the modern day thing and jumped onto google. Unfortunately it was a little disappointing at first, upon searching for white choc mud cake cupcakes, all that seemed to come up was cakes! Normally I would be fine with this, I would happily use a cake recipe and adapt it slightly if needed to suit cupcakes, however time was not on my side and so I wanted something quick an easy that I knew would definitely work. That's when I stumbled upon Tea for Six and her recipe for White Chocolate Mud Cupcakes. Simple, easy and makes a dozen ... Perfect!

Pink cupcake liners as my friends wife is having a girl

This recipe was super easy which was such a blessing and no kitchen mixer required, its all done by hand! Melt a few ingredients in a saucepan, then add to the dry ingredients.

  

Amazing, easy, fast and no mess!

The only adjustment I made was the cooking time. Her recipe said bake for 30 minutes or until cooked. I know every oven is different, but after 15 minutes mine were beautiful and golden and perfect, so out they came ...

Now onto the frosting. Again I googled recipes for salted caramel frosting, and surprisingly enough almost all the recipes I found were making it from scratch! Normally that would be a good thing, but lacking in time for precision I wanted a 'cheats' caramel. Luckily I remembered watching a video on My Cupcake Addiction recently for cheats caramel frosting with only 3 ingredients, perfect! exactly what I was after.

My caramel frosting ended up looking super delish, I simply added some salt to turn it into salted caramel frosting, easy right? of course!

When it came to piping my cupcakes, I got a little eager, my recipe was a little runny. I should have put the caramel frosting in the fridge to set and firm up a little, so that when it piped it held its shape. Unfortunately I didnt, so when I piped my frosting, it 'flopped' haha but thats ok, I tilted the cupcakes and allowed it to 'flop' and cover the whole cupcake and it left a pretty pattern from my piping tip. Phew!

The finished product

Unfortunately I didnt get to taste the cupcakes as I only made a dozen, but hopefully there were delish!

Have you ever had a recipe 'flop' or not turn out the way you planned?