For National Cupcake week I decided I’d ask the community on my Facebook page what they’d like to see me make. There were calls for Ferrero Rocher cakes, Kinder Bueno, Sherbet Lemon, all sorts of drool worthy ideas but the second I saw the shout for Lindt Lindor I knew I had to go with that. So here we are. Cupcakes topped with a salted caramel butter cream and a Caramel Lindt Lindor centre.

I made a batch with a Lindor baked in, and a batch with it added after. Testing variables like this is all part of how I develop my recipes and normally helps me to recommend the best way to do something. This time however, the jury was out so I’ll give you directions for both options in the recipe. You can choose between baking the Lindor in to the cake transforming its center in to a permanent liquid caramel chocolate or popping one in after baking, giving a firm bite and no mess. My cake tester (Mum) preferred the molten version, but for me the solid Lindor was the winner. It’s up to you, you could always do half and half.

The cupcake its self isn’t caramel flavoured, I feel that would have led to a case of ‘too much of a good thing’ as caramel can quite quickly become sickly. The icing sugar I’m using is courtesy of Sugar and Crumbs who make twenty-five different icing sugar flavours and although it’s a bit more expensive than standard stuff, I was blown away by their salted caramel flavour. I don’t think I could replicate it easily any other way.

This recipe makes 6 large cupcakes/muffins, perfect for small house holds or solo bakers, but feel free to double or even treble up for a bigger batch. You’ll need:

100g Softened butter

100g Sugar

100g Self raising flour

2 Eggs

1 Tsp Baking powder

6 Caramel Lindt Lindor

60g Softened butter

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius and line a muffin tin with cake cases. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and baking powder in one large bowl and beat until the mixture is well incorporated and smooth. If using an electric whisk or food processor, it takes around 2 minutes.

Spoon the mixture in to the cake cases until half full. If you’d like to bake your Lindt Lindor in, rest one on top of the mixture in each case. There’s no need to press them in, the cake will come up to cover them.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the cakes bounce pack when pressed and are golden brown.

Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool. If you’re choosing to add the Lindt Lindor after baking, use a cupcake corer or the handle of a teaspoon to cut out the centre of the cake to fit the Lindor leaving the base of the cake intact. Whilst the cakes are still warm, push the Lindor in to the hole, trimming excess cake from the cut out before placing back on top.

Once cool combine the butter and icing sugar, mixing until smooth. Using a small spatula (courtesy of OXO), place around two teaspoons of the buttercream on top of each cupcake then use the spatula to spread over the cake top.

Now, I’m going to end this blog post sharpish- I’m pretty sure I can hear them calling me from the cake tin…