Is there anyone in America who has never heard of Starbucks? A few years ago, there was at least one person who wasn’t familiar with it and I was around to enlighten him. One of my best girlfriend’s and I were consulting for a school district in a small town of Idaho. It was so small that when we arrived, the paved road rather quickly turned into a dirt road. We’re used to navigating Southern California freeways, so it was a bit of culture shock for us and we laughed our way through it. When we arrived, the superintendent pulled up on his motorcycle with an entree strapped to the back of his bike. He had us follow him to one of his teacher’s house who hosted a dinner for us. During dinner, Starbucks came up in conversation and one of the teachers asked what it was. He really had never heard of it, and when we told him the coffee was about $3.00 a cup, I thought he was going to fall off of his chair. It’s been a few years 
since our trip and I hope Starbucks has not invaded that little town. That was a great time!
My summer Starbucks drink of choice is a caramel frappuccino. Sadly, Starbucks was written out of my budget a year ago and it’s only on rare occasions that I indulge. I was daydreaming of a caramel frappuccino last night and decided to make my own version – cupcake style! They turned out amazing!!
I started with a recipe for chocolate coffee cupcakes from one of my favorite cookbooks, Little Cakes, From the Whimsical House Bakery. This is an awesome cupcake recipe!! The 1/2 cup of coffee added to the batter gives it a very subtle flavor, but makes this an amazingly moist cupcake. People who aren’t coffee drinkers will still love these. The frosting on the cupcake is a smooth, fluffy whipped cream. Unlike many of the other whipped cream frostings, 
this one is okay to leave out and not refrigerate. I could eat this alone with a spoon. It is that good! An easy and quick caramel sauce drizzled on top was the final step. The whipped cream and caramel recipe make a ton of extra. Perfect to put on sundaes later in the week!
The cupcakes are long gone already. No, I didn’t eat all of them, but I would have. They were way too dangerous to keep in the house. The pup and I went for a walk and delivered them to friends last night. That’s my secret for calorie control and my neighbors never complain!
Caramel Frappuccino Cupcakes
Chocolate Butter Cupcakes
Recipe from Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse
(Makes about 20 regular cupcakes)
1/2 cup of hot coffee
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1/2 cup of cold water
1 1/2 cups of cake flour
1 teaspoons of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350°F and have all ingredients at room temperature. Have your cupcake liners and pans ready. In a bowl, mix the hot coffee and cocoa powder together – no lumps! Whisk in the cold water. In another bowl, sift the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together. Using your electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly add in the eggs and the pure vanilla extract. Alternate the two bowls (coffee mixture and flour mixture) into the batter. Mix until smooth. Then using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into your cupcake liners. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
Whipped Cream Frosting (From allrecipes.com)
- 1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups heavy cream
Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.* Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and mix on medium speed until smooth. While the mixture is still whipping, slowly pour in the heavy cream. Stop and scrape the bottom of the bowl a couple of times while you continue whipping until the cream can hold a stiff peak.
*You can use a hand mixer with beaters, just be sure to whip until you can form peaks in frosting.
Easy Caramel Sauce (from cdkitchen.com)
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons lightly corn syrup
1 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil, and boil briskly 3 minutes, stirring. Cool
When cupcakes and caramel sauce are cool, place a dollop of whipped cream on each cupcake and drizzle with caramel sauce.
