Sometimes you don't need 24 cupcakes. Sometimes 6 is plenty... These deeply chocolatey cupcakes with a sweet caramel frosting is garnished with toasted pecans, chocolate chips and a bit of caramel drizzle.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and spray with vegetable spray. Set aside.
In a small bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda and whisk until well combined.
In a small bowl whisk together the egg, vegetable oil and buttermilk and add it to the dry ingredients. Stir together until just combined and then whisk in the hot coffee. Batter will be thin.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for 16-17 minutes or until the center of the cupcakes springs back when lightly pressed. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.
For the Caramel Frosting:
While the cupcakes bake, in a small saucepan add the sugar and shake the pan around until the sugar is in an even layer at the bottom of the pan.
Place the pan over medium high heat and let the sugar start to melt without stirring, about 2-3 minutes. When sugar begins to melt, gently stir any granules that haven't melted into the the melted part.
Sugar will go from a clear to golden color over the course of a few minutes, but goes from golden to dark very quickly. Take it just to the edge of burnt without going over -- should be a dark amber color.
When the caramel reaches a dark amber color and no sugar granules are left, pour in the cream and remove from heat. The caramel will splutter and hiss -- that's normal.
Let it bubble without stirring until it starts calming down, then whisk it to combine. Set aside and let the caramel sauce cool. (Do not add hot caramel to the frosting).
When the caramel sauce has cooled, stir 2-3 tablespoons of caramel into the frosting until well combined. Frost the cupcakes with the frosting, or fit a pastry bag with your favorite icing tip and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.
Sprinkle the cupcakes with chopped pecans, mini chocolate chips and a drizzle of remaining caramel.
Notes
Note, you'll have a little leftover caramel sauce, store it in a glass container in the refrigerator. It's great over ice cream or drizzled over apples -- just microwave for a few seconds to heat it up.