Caramel icing on chocolate cupcakes.....

I had a serious chocolate craving this evening and decided I was going to make some of the wonderful cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World.  Once they were baked I couldn't work out what kind of icing I wanted.  Hubby voted for mint, which was a good idea but there was no mint extract in the house so that was out.  Instead, I went flipping through my cookbooks for inspiration, and found....Caramel Buttercream Icing!  This got me so excited - its gorgeous and easily made dairy free too.

Caramel Buttercream Icing on Chocolate Cupcakes

So here it is; Caramel Buttercream Icing from The Primrose Bakery Book which is supposed to be for a triple layer cake (it would be amazing on my triple layer cake too) but I reduced the amount and used it to ice my cupcakes.  I've halved the recipe here for you to use on the cupcakes, so if you want to use it on a layer cake, just double it.

Caramel Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

45g butter (I used Pure Spread, vegetable)
4 1/2 tbsp semi-skimmed milk (I used soya milk)
165g light, soft brown sugar
180g icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Method

1. Combine the butter, milk and brown sugar in a heavy based saucepan and put on a high heat.
 
2.  Stir constantly with a bamboo spoon till melted and boiling. 

3. Boil for one minute, then remove from the heat and stir in half the icing sugar.

4. Allow the mixture to cool then add the rest of the icing sugar and vanilla extract.  Beat until smooth.

5.  Ice the cakes using a small spreader.  If the icing thickens too much as you are spreading it on the cakes, simply warm a little and beat again.

Apparently this keeps in the fridge for up to a week, so put any leftovers into a prep bowl and put a lid on it. (Not in our fridge - I'd have it eaten direct from the bowl well before the week was up.)

To use just warm a little and beat till smooth.