October 29, 2018
Butterscotch Cupcakes!
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Deliciously sweet butterscotch cupcakes with a butterscotch sauce centre, butterscotch frosting, and a butterscotch drizzle!
All things butterscotch!
After posting my first butterscotch recipe recently, my butterscotch cheesecake, I caught the butterscotch bug. Butterscotch is sweet, delicious and incredibly moreish. It’s sweet and kinda savoury, kind of like salted caramel would be, and I just want more and more and more. I’ve already said ‘Butterscotch’ nine times so far in this blog post, so my eyes feel like they are going cross-eyed, but its DELICIOUS.
Because my butterscotch cheesecake was quite the success with a lot of you, I thought after many requests for more cupcake recipes on my blog, it would be best to combine the two! I do have a tonne of cupcake recipes on my blog already, and I will admit that these do look incredibly similar to my salted caramel cupcakes, but they taste so different!
Caramel vs butterscotch
I’ve mentioned this in my butterscotch cheesecake, but I’ll explain it again just so I can justify posting such a similar recipe! Caramel and butterscotch can look so so similar, and often people get them confused, but butterscotch is made with dark brown sugar, whereas caramel is made with white sugars. The dark brown sugar makes such a deeper flavour and it’s incredible.
Butterscotch vs toffee
Butterscotch Sauce is quite difficult to find in supermarkets, as they’re often named toffee sauce. Toffee is very similar to butterscotch but is actually a harder candy-like substance which is cooked for a lot longer. However, brands and companies will often call something toffee instead as its a shorter name, and more easily recognised by people as being something sweet and yummy.
Baking cups
I used some gorgeous confetti baking cups from Iced Jems for my cupcake cases, and they are gorgeous! I was introduced to baking cups a while back when I started talking to Jemma and visited her shop, and I’ve never looked back. The regular baking cups are the ones that you would use for cupcakes/muffins, and the mini ones really are mini and work well for miniature cupcakes, or truffles and such!
Cookie scoop
The amazing thing about using the baking cups is that they can be put onto a flat tray, rather than in a cupcake or muffin tray, so you can fit more in the oven! I use a 5cm cookie/ice cream scoop to split my cupcakes evenly between the cases. You don’t have to, but honestly, it makes it so much easier. I also use the same scoop for all my cookie recipes, such as my Terry’s chocolate orange cookies, my Toblerone cookies and so on!
Piping
I used my trusty old favourite, a 2D closed star piping tip for this one, as I couldn’t resist. Quite a few of my others have been using a large round tip recently so thought I would go back to swirls. I didn’t want to completely drench the tops of the cupcakes in the butterscotch sauce as there is already a hidden centre of the sauce, as well as the buttercream being flavoured, so I went for a mini drizzle instead.
Hidden centre heaven
Honestly though, just LOOK at the cupcakes. The below picture shows how incredibly spectacular they are with the hidden centre of heaven. They are definitely ‘showy’ cupcakes, but that’s okay! This entire blog is about treats and the spectacular kind of desserts, not your every day bakes. I hope you love these as much as I do, enjoy!! X
Butterscotch Cupcakes!
Ingredients
Butterscotch Sauce!
- 115 g unsalted butter
- 100 g dark brown sugar
- 125 ml double cream
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cupcakes!
- 150 g unsalted butter
- 150 g dark brown sugar
- 150 g self raising flour
- 3 medium eggs
Buttercream!
- 150 g unsalted butter (not stork)
- 300 g icing sugar
- 75 g butterscotch sauce
Decoration
- Butterscotch sauce
Instructions
For the Butterscotch Sauce!
- Add the butter to a pan, and melt on a medium heat.
- Add in the sugar, cream and salt and boil for 4-5 minutes on a medium-high heat.
- Take the pan off the heat, and add in the vanilla and stir.
- Transfer to a container to cool fully. It will thicken a bit as it cools.
For the Cupcakes!
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan, and get your cupcake cases ready! I use the Iced Jems baking cups, on a flat baking tray.
- Beat together your butter and dark brown sugar until light and fluffy!
- Add in the self raising flour, and eggs and beat until smooth.
- Split between the cupcake cases using a 5cm ice cream scoop, and bake in the oven for 17-20 minutes!
- Leave to cool fully once baked!
For the Frosting!
- Make sure your unsalted butter (not stork) is at room temperature, and beat for a minute to loosen and make smooth!
- Add in the icing sugar in halves, and beat each time until combined.
- Add in the butterscotch sauce and combine until beautifully delicious!
For the Decoration!
- Cut out a small hole in the cupcakes, and fill with a teaspoon of butterscotch sauce.
- Pipe the buttercream on, and sprinkle with sprinkles if you wish!
- Drizzle over a small amount of butterscotch sauce!
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Making your own butterscotch sauce is optional, but totally worth the effort!
- I use the dark brown sugar to make sure it matches with the butterscotch sauce, but you can use light brown sugar or caster sugar if you wish!
- I really wouldn't recommend using Stork or anything like it for the buttercream, only use unsalted butter!
- These will last for three days once made at room temperature!
- I used these beauuuutiful Iced Jems baking cups!
- Butterscotch sauce recipe was inspired by Just a Taste!
Find my other recipes on my Recipes Page!
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J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Made these for my husband’s birthday since he loves the flavor of butterscotch. They tasted incredible! He even brought them to work and his co-workers devoured them. Thank you for this amazing recipe and helping me make my husband’s birthday special!
I doubled the recipe and made a 3 tier 7inch cake and the left over butterscotch was the perfect consistency for a drip effect, thanks 😊
Hi there, can I use the butterscotch sauce as a drip on a 8” cake?
Hiya! I personally have not tried this but I don’t see why not! Let me know! x
Hey it came out perfect. Thank you xxx
Hi jane how long does the butterscotch sauce last for in fridge pls. Thankyou
Best cupcakes I’ve ever made!! Incredible. Thankyou!
I was curious about if the butter should be softened or melted for the cupcake batter?
If using baking spread you can use it cold, but if using block butter room temp is fine but not softened or melted.
I haven’t made the cupcakes but I did adapt the recipe to make a two layered 6″ cake as a request by my cousin for her boyfriends 30th Birthday. I made a practice one before I made hers to taste and it was absolutely delicious. Thank you!
I love these cupcakes they were super easy but could these be made into a cake? I found a cake recipe but it uses melted butterscotch chips and I think I’d rather have actual butterscotch through it.
Yes so I usually say one batch of cupcakes makes one decent 8″ cake – so double and split into two for a two layer cake etc! The sponges would take about 35 minutes to bake x
Can this recipe be baked in to one 6″ cake tin?
Personally I usually say one batch of cupcakes is one 8″ cake x
Do these cupcakes freeze well?
Yes they do!!
The cake looks perfect and fabulous to bake for a special day. Yes, its definitely the best butterscotch cake. Lovely!!
This is a beautiful recipe, thank you very much. My question is how long would the left over buttercream and butterscotch sauce keep in the fridge for please?
Ahh yay! Buttercream can last in the fridge for two weeks, and the sauce can as well in a clean container x
I made these last night and they were delicious! I made 48 mini cupcakes instead of 12 large ones because we were having guests over for lunch.
I hit some roadbumps whilst making these but thankfully they were easily fixed. My butterscotch sauce split while it was cooling so I added a bit of milk and double cream and heated it again and it was fine. The butterscotch frosting was a bit stiff and I had difficulty piping it onto the cupcakes so I added a bit of milk and it was good to go. I also sprinkled some chopped pecans onto half of the cupcakes because I love the combination of nuts with caramel/butterscotch, I’m thinking I might add chopped pecans to the cupcake batter next time for the extra flavour and texture.
Thanks so much for the recipe, it is definitely a keeper! The fam has been popping them like pills!
Hi I’ve just made the sauce put it into the fridge to cool and it looks like Its split? It’s lumpy and you can see the butter has seperated 😩 I was stiring when cooking are u meant to? Or just leave It to boil
Thankyou
Hey! So it might have got too hot – and then its split in the cooling process. This can sometimes be solved by adding it back into a pan and heating gently, and adding in some water. Then, you boiling the water off and it should come back!
Hiya!
When making the butterscotch sauce, do you need to keep stirring whilst it’s boiling for the 4-5 minutes? Or just leave it?
Thanks
I stir it occasionally xx
Lovely cakes! My partner took them into work and everyone asked for the recipe (I’ve forwarded the link) and even commented they’d pay for cakes like that!
I’m a complete beginner but had no trouble with these
Hiya – is the butterscotch sauce in the buttercream used out of the amount made for the buttercotch sauce? Or do i need to make extra for this? Thank you!
Used out of the amount!
I don’t have time to buy the baking cups, could I use muffin or cupcake cases instead ?
Cupcake!
Hi, is it possible to make the butterscotch sauce with single cream? Bought the wrong one and wondered if I’d still be able to make these?
Unfortunately, you really do need double cream for it to work correctly!
The recipe is super dope! I have just made it and the smell and taste is heavenly. I can’t wait to use it on my butterscotch cake I baked yesterday. Thank you so much Jane.
Hi, I’d love to try make this into an 9″ cake with 2 layers. What would be the quantity of batter I’d need! And how long would I bake for?
I usually do one batch of cupcakes = 1x 8″ cake. For most 9″ cakes, you would then add on another 1/3 of batter (this is getting a little confusing), timing wise though I am unsure as I never baked 9″ cakes! x
Hi.
This looks lovely and I’m dying to try it but we don’t get self easing flour where we live. Can I use all purpose flour instead ?
Thanks
Hi Jane, trying out your recipe tomorrow and can’t wait!! We do love your stuff..! I’m trying to make this into a cake would doubling up the recipe be enough for a 7” round? Thanks xxx
I stick with the rule that one batch of cupcakes = 1x 8″ round. So for two layers, you’d need to batches of cupcakes!
I have literally made this receive 5 times in the last 3 weeks! Really is one of the tastiest I’ve tried. Today I am attempting your biscoff cupcakes for my hubbys team meeting tomorrow!
Awh yay!!
Hi Jane.
Can the butterscotch sauce be made the day before the cupcakes? If so do you just store at room temperature? Wondering if it might go hard. Any advice?
Hiya! It can, and I would store it in the fridge. It will firm up, but just microwave it for 10 seconds or so to bring it back to room temp x
My butterscotch sauce gets absorbed by the cupcake..what am I doing wrong?
Are you putting it in before baking? Or if not, maybe not enough? The cupcakes are meant to be cooled fully before putting the sauce in, so there is no reason it should absorb? x