December 8, 2018
Salted Caramel Pretzel Cupcakes!
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Pretzel biscuit base, delicious homemade cupcakes, salted caramel sauce centre, salted caramel frosting, and even more pretzel! Perfect salted caramel pretzel cupcakes!
Salted caramel!
How many times can you say ‘salted caramel’ in one summary of a recipe?! Far too many… and I still have so many more times to say it!
Honestly though, salted caramel is one of my favourite things in the world, ever, so I’m not complaining. If you don’t like it, this definitely isn’t the place to be right now!
When you ask me how much I like salted caramel, you get what is probably described as my version of puppy dog Eyes… I get a craving as soon as it’s mentioned, and it’s all I then want to eat. So, when you add in ‘pretzel’ into the mix I am SO up for it! My salted caramel cheesecake features pretzels, and it’s one of my favourite recipes on this blog.
Salted caramel pretzels!!
I asked some of my favourite taste testers what they were craving, and they mentioned salted caramel, so hellooooo idea planning. I wanted to make the recipe festive however, as we really are in the thick of December now, and when I strolled past some salted caramel festive pretzels I knew this was the winner. Of course, any old pretzel will do… but seriously, salted caramel pretzels people!!!
Inspiration
This beautiful recipe was inspired by Cupcake Jemma, as I had no idea how else to get pretzels into the cupcakes, and I didn’t just want them to be a decoration on top.
I came across her youtube video of these, and her pretzel biscuit base was the one! It definitely gives the cupcakes another level of crunch, just like a cheesecake base would have!
Similar recipes
The rest of the recipe, is suitably inspired by my own salted caramel cupcakes, and my homemade caramel sauce combined. I realise, the only real difference between my salted caramel cupcakes is that they have pretzels added in, but I am okay with that.
Adaptations
I personally adore all things sweet and salty as you can probably tell from the rest of the bits you have read, but honestly.. if you don’t like salt, but like caramel, you can leave the salt out! Or, if you want slightly less caramel, you can leave the gooey caramel centre out, and just have it in the buttercream frosting.
Homemade or shop brought
Personally, I have become addicted to making my own homemade caramel sauce, as I’ve caught the bug, and make it ALL THE TIME.
It’s much easier to make than you think, and it’s nicer to have the homemade things in your baking, but I get that it can’t always be done. Even myself, when making certain treats, I will buy some shop-bought bits to make life easier. I hope you all love these as much as I do!! x
Salted Caramel Pretzel Cupcakes!
Ingredients
Pretzel Base
- 100 g pretzels (Salted Caramel Flavour)
- 35 g unsalted butter
Cupcakes
- 150 g unsalted butter
- 150 g light brown sugar
- 150 g self raising flour
- 3 medium eggs
Frosting
- 150 g unsalted butter (Room temp)
- 350 g icing sugar
- 100 g salted caramel sauce
Extras
- Pretzels
- Salted caramel sauce
Instructions
Pretzel Base
- Preheat your oven to 180/160C Fan, and get your 12 cupcake/muffin cases ready. I used Iced Jems regular baking cups!
- Blitz your pretzels down to a fine crumb, and mix in the melted butter.
- Split between the 12 cases, and press down firmly.
Cupcakes
- Beat together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy, and add in your flour and eggs and beat again.
- Split between the 12 cases, and bake in the oven for 18-22 minutes, until they're baked through!
- Once they are baked, leave to cool fully on a wire rack.
Decoration
- Core out the centres of the cupcakes slightly, and fill with a delicious salted caramel sauce.
- Beat together your unsalted butter (it's best at room temperature) for a couple of minutes on its own.
- Add in the icing sugar 1/3 at a time, beating fully in-between each addition.
- Add in your salted caramel sauce and beat until smooth and delicious!
- Pipe onto your cupcakes with your favourite piping tip.
- Pop two pretzels on to each cupcake and sprinkle on some crushed pretzel dust!
Notes
- This recipe was inspired by the wonderful Cupcake Jemma!
- These will last for 3 days, at room temperature!
- I used my homemade caramel sauce with a smidge more salt in, but shop bought stuff will work fine too!
- The Pretzel base is optional, but it gives the cupcakes more crunch or more pretzel!
- Yes, the pretzels will soften eventually, but it doesn't matter. Eat them fresh!
- I used salted caramel flavour festive pretzels from Sainsburys, but any will do!
- You can buy the cupcake cases from Iced Jems!
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J x
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if I use mini cupcake pan what would the bake time be?
Could you use chocolate digestive biscuits instead of pretzels ?
Yes, that should work!
Hi Jane
Can you tell me the type of nozzle you have used to ice the cupcake also do you have any demos online to follow?
Hiya! I use a 2D closed star – and you can find many how-to piping videos online! Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane,
Would the same recipe work if I did not add the pretzel base?
Thanks,
Fatma
Hiya! Yes absolutely this will be fine! Enjoy! x
I am going to try this at weekend! could you tell me which shop brought caramel would work best please?
I use carnations!! x
Hi if I used your salted caramel cake recipe would it work the same if I added the pretzel base to it?
I haven’t tried it on an entire cake (As I imagine it would all fall off when moving the cake about) x
Hi I made your cupcakes and my family loved them I was wondering if it was possible to make this into one big cake for my cousins birthday?
I haven’t tried it (because of the base of the cupcake) but usually I say one batch of cupcakes makes one decent 8″ cake (which takes about 30-35 minutes to bake) x
Hi Jane! These were lovely as always. The only thing is when I added the caramel it looks as if my buttercream curdled/separated 😫 I used carnations caramel for this as I couldn’t find any other brand. Do you know why this would happen? My butter was room temp also so I’m at a bit of a loss as to what I did wrong!! Do you have any tips?
Oh no! What type of butter did you use? x