Caramel Cashew Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes filled with Cashew Pastry Cream, frosted with Salted Caramel Buttercream, topped with Caramelized Cashews to make these amazing Caramel Cashew Cupcakes!

Out of control.

These Caramel Cashew Cupcakes are rich, nutty and sweet. They are perfect to cure your biggest sweet tooth.

I am dedicating these cupcakes to #cupcakemondays, an initiative by two bloggers on instagram, Kelsie from The Itsy-Bitsy Kitchen, and Zeinab from A Classic Twist.

I’ve been trying to take part on #cupcakemondays every week. It’s a good excuse to bake cupcakes. And it’s fun. Have I mentioned there are cupcakes involved? Yeah, so that’s really all that needs to be said.

So far, I’ve made Macadamia Coconut Cupcakes, Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes, and Oreo Cupcakes. Which is your favorite?

This week, I’ve chosen to bake these Caramel Cashew Cupcakes because cashew is probably the most delicious nut, like ever!

Caramelized nuts

If you have never had caramelized cashews (or any other nut), you need to do this RIGHT NOW.

Grab any nuts you may have in your pantry. It can be pecans, cashews, walnuts, almonds.

Place it in a saucepan with some brown sugar and a touch of butter.

Cook nuts for a few minutes until a caramel is formed.

Turn heat off and let them cool.

Enjoy and you’re welcome.

You can make these nuts just to snack on them.

Or…

You can make them to place on top of cupcakes (or cakes, or pies)

These Caramel Cashew Cupcakes aren’t very hard to make. They sure take a bit because of all the steps. However, it’s so worth it. They are some fancy schmancy delicious rich bites of sweet heavens!

I suggest making this for sharing, since they are so perfect not to.

Spread the love, spread the joy. Bake for someone. Bake them these cupcakes! Put them inside of a box, and gift them to a friend!

I really love baking and sharing with people.

I think that’s why I had such a hard time charging people money when I used to have my little cake business.

I had a little cake business for a while. I still have people that ask me to make them cakes.

The reason why I stopped making cakes for people and closed my little business, is because I often got asked to make cakes I wasn’t in love with.

For a while, it didn’t bother me when someone showed me a picture of a cake and told me: I want this cake! Just like this!

I would study the best ways to replicate exactly what the person wanted.

And I learned so much doing that. I learned various techniques, and acquired a lot of experience.

However, after a while, I didn’t want to copy people’s work anymore. I wanted to be able to create my own.

Which is why nowadays, I will occasionally take one or two cake requests. If it really interests me, and if I am allowed to be creative and make a cake that fits my style.

And to this day, I still won’t charge people. I tell them how much I spent on ingredients, and if they want to give me something more, I would consider it as a gift.

Now, I’ve had people tell me how stupid this approach is, and how I am wasting my time in exchange of nothing.

And I can explain to you my strategy behind this.

First of all, I am grateful for the chance to be baking for someone and have the costs of ingredients covered.

I am always baking and sharing with people. Literally every week, I share lots of goodies with those around me because I bake a lot for my blog. So, if someone is actually paying me for the ingredients, it’s like being sponsored.

Secondly, the amount of learning I do when I bake something for a special request is huge!

 I make sure to do my homework and master the technique! When I make someone a cake, I want to make them a beautiful cake, but I also want it to be one of the best cakes they’ve ever tasted!

I believe that there’s no way to put a price on the learning, and the skills I’ve developed over the past few years of baking for others.

How about you, do you like to bake for others?

Tell me more, tell me more…

My favorite treats to bake for others are macarons (besides cake), such as my Matcha Macarons! I did share these delicious Caramel Cashew Cupcakes with some very grateful friends!

Caramel Cashew Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes. Filled with Cashew pastry cream. Frosted with Salted Caramel Buttercream. Topped with caramelized cashews.

5 from 10 votes

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Prep Time 4 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 5 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12 cupcakes

Calories 500 kcal

Ingredients

  

Chocolate Cupcake

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup brewed coffee
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup canola oil

Cashew Pastry Cream

• 1 1/2 cup cashew nuts roasted
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon butter

Salted Caramel Buttercream

• 2/3 cup salted caramel sauce about 160g.
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened (6 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cup powdered sugar about 290 g., sifted

Salted Caramel Sauce

• 1 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon salt

Caramelized Nuts

• 1 cup nuts cashews in the case
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

 

Chocolate Cupcake

• Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cupcake pan with cupcake liners or grease it with butter and flour.
• Sift flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
• In another bowl, mix coffee, vinegar, vanilla and oil. Pour wet mixture over dry. Whisk briefly, until incorporated. Be careful not to overmix. As soon as you see no more streaks of dry mixture, stop whisking.
• Distribute batter evenly in cupcake pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
• Remove and let it cool.

Cashew Pastry Cream

• Grind nuts until they are coarse. Don’t let them become a paste. You want some of the texture of the nuts in your Pastry Cream.
• Heat milk over medium high heat until it almost comes to a boil.
• While milk heats up, whisk the yolks, sugar and cornstarch for a couple of minutes, until very lightened in color.
• Add about 1/3 cup hot milk to yolk mixture. Don’t stop whisking.
• Add a little more hot milk and keep whisking.
• Finally, add all of the milk and whisk the mixture.
• Add cashews and custard mixture back to the saucepan where you heated the milk.
• Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula, until it comes to a boil and thickens, about 2 minutes.
• Pour pastry cream into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, directly on the surface of the pastry cream, so it doesn’t form a skin. Refrigerate until ready to use. Pastry Cream will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Salted Caramel Buttercream

• For this recipe you may use store-bought caramel if you want to. Just pay attention to the consistency of it and how that’s going to affect the smoothness of your buttercream. If necessary, add more powdered sugar, or more milk by the tablespoon to the buttercream to adjust the consistency. If you’d like to use homemade, here’s a recipe for you.
• Start creaming the butter with an electric mixer for about 1 minute. Add caramel sauce to it and beat until creamy and smooth, about 1 minute.
• With the mixer off, add all powdered sugar and vanilla in, mix on low until combined. Cream on medium high for 1 minute.
• Store buttercream in the fridge for up to 1 week

Salted Caramel Sauce

• Warm heavy cream in a small saucepan or in a microwave bowl until it almost comes to a boil.
• Place sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring it to a boil over medium heat, while stirring. Once sugar is melted and displays a deep brown color, take it out of the oven, add butter, stir until melted. Add heavy cream, bring it to a gentle boil for about 1 minute.
• Remove from heat, add salt and stir until combined. Let sauce cool before using. You can keep it in the fridge for about 20 days. Warm it gently before using. But if you are going to use it in this recipe, use it while room temperature, not cold and not warm either.

Caramelized Nuts

• Mix nuts, sugar and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until sugar and butter melt and form a thickened caramel that will coat the nuts. Make sure to stir constantly while it cooks. It should take about 4-5 minutes for the caramel to form. Don’t overcook, or you’ll have bitter caramel at the end.

To assemble

• With a small spoon, carve a hole on top of the cupcake, about 3/4 inch deep. Fill it with a teaspoon of the Cashew Pastry Cream. Pipe the Salted Caramel Buttercream on top. Top with caramelized cashews! Voila!

Keyword caramel, cashews, chocolatecupcake, cupcakes, saltedcaramel

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