My niece, who lives in Australia, recently shared photos of her visit to a local cafe called The Silva Spoon. More specifically, she posted a photo of a yummy-looking cupcake served in a tea cup...and she assured me that those alone were worth a visit to Australia. Since I don't think I'll be in Australia anytime soon, I just borrowed the concept of serving a special dessert in a tea cup. We had some birthdays to celebrate over here...and had a girls' luncheon. For dessert, we each had our own wee cake served in a family heirloom tea cup.
I used our family favorite apple cake recipe...which made 18 large cupcakes. I made a Caramel Butter Cream frosting (recipe to follow)...and piped it onto the cupcakes with a tip of my choice. Make that my second choice...since I couldn't locate the tip I was after. I drizzled a little caramel sauce on top...and added a sprinkle of sea salt. And those were our Salted Caramel Birthday Cupcakes-in-a-Teacup.
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Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup salted butter, at room temperature
- 4 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 3/4 cup Caramel Sauce, cooled completely (recipe below)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Add icing sugar and blend on low speed until combined.
Add caramel sauce and vanilla and beat until well blended.
Caramel Sauce
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup salted butter
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat sugar and water over medium heat, whisking constantly to dissolve sugar.
- Once mixture reaches a boil, stop stirring and allow mixture to boil until it turns amber, swirling pan occasionally.
- Add butter; whisk until butter has melted then remove from heat.
- Wait 3 seconds then carefully pour in cream, whisking until smooth.
- Allow caramel to cool completely.
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Use your imagination. Find a cupcake liner that fits nicely into your teacups (likely extra-large). Bake your favorite cupcake; cool, then transfer to a tea cup and decorate as you please. They will want to have dessert first. I know!
That is why, one of the wee birthday cakes seemed to have a piece missing when it came time for dessert!
