Fluffy, rich chocolate cupcakes filled with pools of Vanilla-Bourbon Salted Caramel and topped with a creamy Chocolate Buttercream. These Chocolate-Bourbon Cupcakes are sure to impress your friends and family, and are perfect for every occasion (or just your everyday, let’s be honest lol)!
Chocolate-Bourbon Cupcakes
If you’ve been looking for the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe, look no further! These light and fluffy chocolate cupcakes filled with pools of vanilla-bourbon salted caramel taste like they literally fell from Heaven… I’m serious y’all, this is a good one!
What are Chocolate-Bourbon Cupcakes?
I’ve been making these chocolate cupcakes for the longest time. They’re always a crowd-pleaser, and I promise you they beat out the classic store-bought chocolate cupcakes by a landslide every. single. time. They’re rich, creamy, fluffy, gooey, alllll the things you want in a perfect chocolate cupcake!
Once I nailed down the chocolate cupcake recipe, I decided it would be AMAZING to fill them with a caramel sauce… specifically a vanilla-bourbon salted caramel (cue the heart eyes). There’s just something about the combination of sweet and salty, not to mention the absolute marriage in your mouth that happens when you combine chocolate and bourbon (cue more heart eyes). I’m telling you, this one is a showstopper and you’re gonna want to keep reading to find out how I made them 🙂
Ingredients for Chocolate-Bourbon Cupcakes
- All-purpose Flour: As an option, you can substitute cake flour here, and omit the cornstarch.
- Cocoa Powder: It’s best to use dutch-process cocoa powder for these chocolate cupcakes. If the packaging doesn’t say “dutch-process” on the front, simply look in the ingredients list for “alkali,” this means that it is dutch-process cocoa powder.
- Cornstarch: This is going to help with the fluffiness of our cake. As an option, you can substitute the all-purpose flour for cake flour, and omit the cornstarch.
- Baking powder: our leavening agent for these chocolate cupcakes, aka what gives the cakes some rise.
- Salt, Sugar, and Vanilla: for flavor, of course!
- Canola Oil: I love using canola oil in cake recipes because I really feel that it retains the most moisture in my cakes. As an option, you can use vegetable oil or any other non-fragrant oils.
- Eggs: Please PLEASE make sure these are room temperature, this will ensure that everything combines properly in our batter.
- Milk & Sour Cream: Also room temperature please!
- Instant Coffee: Honestly there’s just something about the combination of coffee & chocolate that makes the chocolate taste that much better. This is definitely an essential ingredient! Feel free to use decaf if you don’t want the caffeine 🙂
Ingredients for Vanilla-Bourbon Salted Caramel
- Heavy Cream: What helps make the caramel sauce nice and creamy after it’s finished cooking.
- Vanilla Bean: We’re only using 1/2 of the vanilla bean pod here, but as an option you can use 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract.
- Bourbon: The beautiful ingredient that matches so well with chocolate. Don’t worry, the alcohol cooks out 🙂
- Sugar: The base of our caramel sauce!
- Lemon Juice: This ingredient is ESSENTIAL. This will help the sugar refrain from crystallizing, and makes the caramel sauce failproof!
- Unsalted Butter: Added at the end of the caramel sauce
- Sea Salt: ALLLL The flavor here folks!
For the Chocolate Buttercream:
You can find my recipe for Chocolate Buttercream here. You’ll just need 1 batch of the buttercream to top the cupcakes with!
How to Make Chocolate-Bourbon Cupcakes
- Whisk the dry ingredients: This includes the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
- Whisk in the oil, eggs, and vanilla: The mixture may start off a bit thick, but it will all start to come together.
- Heat the milk, sour cream, and instant coffee: We really just need to heat these because this will allow the coffee granules to dissolve before adding it to the chocolate cupcake batter.
- Bake! We’re going to bake these chocolate cupcakes for 16 to 18 minutes. You’ll know they’re done if you press on the top of one and it springs back at you when you remove your finger. Or you can test it the old-fashioned way by placing a toothpick into the top of one of the chocolate cupcakes, and removing it. If the toothpick comes out clean, then the cupcakes are done 🙂
How to Make Vanilla-Bourbon Salted Caramel
Ok, I’m walking you through step-by-step for this one, because I know making your own caramel can be daunting and a little bit scary! I PROMISE you it’s much easier than you may think. Follow along with me below:
- Heat the heavy cream, vanilla bean pod, and vanilla bean seeds in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring it to a simmer (this should take about 5 to 10 minutes), and remove it from the heat.
- Pour the bourbon into the cream mixture, stir, and set aside.
- Combine the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan (or you can use a high-walled skillet here) over medium-high heat and stir until it’s all combined. As soon as it’s combined stop stirring.
- Let the sugar cook, without stirring, 10 to 12 minutes. You’ll see the outer edges of the sugar start to brown a little bit, this is what we want!
- Once about 1-inch of the edges are browning, begin swirling the pan. This will ensure that all of the sugar will cook evenly.
- When all of the sugar turns a deep-amber color, whisk in the cream mixture. It will bubble up really high, but this is what we want! Continue simmering the caramel sauce until it’s completely smooth.
- Remove the caramel sauce from the heat and stir in the butter and salt. YAY! You did it!
Assembling Chocolate-Bourbon Cupcakes
To assemble these chocolate-bourbon cupcakes, you’ll just need to take a large piping tip, turn it upside-down, and press it into the tops of the cooled chocolate cupcakes. Be careful not to go all the way to the bottom! Remove the piping tip, and this should remove a center portion of the cupcakes.
Once you do this, simply add 1 to 2 Tbsp of the Vanilla-Bourbon Salted Caramel into the center, and top with Chocolate Buttercream.
I hope you all love this recipe as much as I do, and be sure to tag me @sarahsdayoff if you make them so I can see your beautiful chocolate-bourbon cupcakes!
XO,
Sarah
Chocolate-Bourbon Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa powder*
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup whole milk at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp instant coffee
For the Vanilla-Bourbon Salted Caramel
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
- 3 Tbsp bourbon
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Instructions
For the Chocolate Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl until combined.
- Add the oil to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Add both eggs and the vanilla, and whisk until combined.
- In a small bowl combine the milk and sour cream. Microwave 15 seconds or until warm. Stir in the instant coffee until dissolved.
- Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Fill each cupcake liner 2/3-full and bake 16 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcakes comes out clean. Cool completely on a rack.
For the Vanilla-Bourbon Salted Caramel
- Heat cream, vanilla pod, and vanilla seeds over medium-high heat in a small saucepan; bring to a simmer, remove from heat, stir in bourbon, and set aside.
- Combine sugar, water, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan or high-walled skillet over medium-high heat; stir to combine. Cook, without stirring, 8 to 10 minutes or until 1-inch of the outer edges of the sugar begin browning.
- Begin gently swirling the sugar around the pan and cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes or until the entire pan of sugar turns a deep-amber color.
- Remove the vanilla pod from the cream mixture and slowly whisk cream into caramel sauce. Continue simmering mixture until smooth, another 2o to 3 minutes.
- Remove from heat, whisk in butter and salt until smooth. Transfer to a container and cool completely.
