Merci buckets

This weekend the boy and I are going on our jollies for a couple of nights, so my lubberly friend Toni and her fella Andrew are coming to stay at mine to dog-sit for Bobby and Amy... and what better way to thank them than with cake!!

Of course, this means getting out the little pink bible and finding a couple of yummy recipes to knock together. I still had a bowl full of Whoopie Pie filling sitting sweetly in my fridge, so my first pick was the yummy-looking chocolate whoopie pies and, just a few pages further on, I fell in love with the caramel cupcakes.

I set to work making up the chocolate whoopie mix and popping it in the fridge to chill out while I threw together the caramel cupcake mixture and spooned into muffin cases ready for the oven...

I left these to one side while I baked my whoopies - I love this recipe... they only take ten minutes in the oven and cool so quickly, perfect for if you don't want to spend hours slaving away in the kitchen but want something that looks cute and delicious!

I wasn't sure how good the left over whoopie filling I had would be, but after giving it a quick mix and a taste test I thought it was fine, so I set to work filling and sandwiching my pies while the caramel cupcakes were baking away in the oven - multitasking at its best!

The (other) best thing about this recipe is the lack of need for neatness... the filling is all hidden so you can whack it in any ol' how, and I think the cracked tops on the "pies" make them look rustic and beautifully homemade - perfect!

The caramel cupcakes, on the other hand, are a work of baked art... the golden sponge is intensified by the caramel condensed milk and I can imagine (as I haven't tasted them yet) this also helps keep them moist and sweet.

Naked cupcakes!

I had a go at a bit of a "shallow" Hummingbird swirl...

For the finishing touch I "blobbed" (yes, that's a technical term!) some extra caramel on top of the icing, et voila! I have just had a thought that some very tiny chopped caramel pieces would finish these cupcakes off perfectly - will try this next time I make these little beauties!

Oh, and another note - I only made up half of the caramel icing... I quite often have a lot of icing left over from Hummingbird recipes and I thought the caramel cupcakes would be sweet enough without oodles of gorgeous buttercream, so I simply halved all the ingredients. For 18 cupcakes, the amount was perfect!