You are Gold...Wispa Gold!

You will be surprised to see that I have not used mint Oreos or any of my American goods for this little snippet of baking! Shame on me...sorry to keep you in suspense! but I have a love of Wispa Golds...you may say it's a bit of an obsession, and you may or may not have noticed I'm quite an obsessive person.  Just recently Byron asked me why I had to be 'obsessed' with cupcakes, why couldn't I just have decided to 'like' them! well I just can't help myself...the liking turns into loving and next thing you know I'm hooked! It was the same with Wispa Golds...I saw the adverts around when they were first brought out, I thought hmm they look yum I must try one of those, and then the very next day went out of my way to two different garages to see if they did have them (they did not) and from then on it became a hunt to find them anywhere I could! When the shop on my drive home from work did start stocking them it became a necessary stop each evening to buy one, yes sometimes it was two (don't tell Byron!) and so of course I am upset that they no longer grace the shelves of that little shop on the way home from work and I am left without my Wispa Gold fix...until now that is!

I found this little gem of a website that sells food rather cheaply due to a forthcoming expiry date.  I was pretty excited to see I could buy 4 Wispa Gold's for £1, that's 25p each! My daily WG fix used to set me back 65p so that's a pretty good saving.  I promptly added 12 to my basket, and then found out I had to pay £5.25 for the postage.  I'm pretty sure that hefty postage fee no longer makes my 4 for £1 seem like such a great deal, but since you can't get them in shops anymore I made the sacrifice.

I had big plans for these cupcakes! I had been dreaming them up ever since I made the order, but in the end due to a rather hectic week and with a possible imminent move to Turks and Caicos (but I'll save that news for another day!) it ended up being around midnight when I was making these ready for my last day of School today and so I did away with my idea of chocolate and caramel swirled frosting and just had to settle for caramel by itself.

Usually I make mini's when I take them into work, the teacher's feel much less guilty about the indulgence if it's mini size! but I had planned to bake little chunks of the bar into the cupcake and so they needed to be fairly sizeable so I opted for fairy cake size...not too big and not too small either.

I used my delicious chocolate cake recipe from the Primrose Bakery, and also ended up using their caramel buttercream recipe too.  I had planned to throw some dulche de leche into vanilla buttercream to just be done with it, but after discovering I had used up my last tin I decided making it from scratch was my only option! I was a bit apprehensive, the words in the recipe cautioned not to let it burn you! and the boiling sugar process when I should have been fast asleep didn't sound like the best idea, Byron even suggested driving to the 24hr Sainsburys to get some dulche de leche instead which showed how much faith he had in my caramel making skills! but I persevered and it turned out great.  I knew I wouldn't have enough to do my usual mound of frosting and I wasn't about to whip up another batch, and as it turned out it was quite rich frosting anyway so I think it was the right amount on each cupcake in the end.  

I chopped up an extra little piece of Wispa Gold and stuck it on the top, when I awoke this morning the caramel from the piece of chocolate had melted down into the frosting which was a nice surprise! and added extra moistness and yumminess!

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Makes 16

From Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery

115g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids - I used Lindt)

85g unsalted butter, at room temperature

175g light soft brown sugar

2 large eggs, free range or organic, separated

185g plain flour, sifted

3/4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

250ml semi skimmed milk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

1. Break the choc into pieces and melt in 30 second intervals in a glass bowl in the microwave.  Set bowl aside to cool.

2. Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl for 3-5 minutes until the mix is pale and smooth.

3. Put the egg yolks in a separate bowl and beat them for several minutes, slowly add the egg yolks to the creamed butter and sugar and beat well. 

4. Add the cooled chocolate to this mixture and beat well again.

5. Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a separate bowl.  Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a jug.  Add one third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well.  Pour in one third of the milk and beat again.  Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.

6. In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form.  Carefully fold the egg whites into the main batter using a metal spoon (Do not beat or you will take the air out of the mixture).  

7. Divide the mixture evenly between the cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.

8. Insert a skewer in the centre of one of the cakes, it should come out clean if cooked.  Leave to cool.

Caramel Frosting:

From Cupcakes From the Primrose Bakery

60g unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 tablespoons milk, at room temperature

220g light soft brown sugar

240g icing sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract

Place the butter, milk and brown sugar in a heavy saucepan over a high heat and stir to combine.  Bring to the boil, stirring continuously, and allow it to boil for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat and stir in half of the icing sugar.  Leave the mixture to cool slightly, then add the remainder of the icing sugar and the vanilla extract and stir until it thickens to the desired consistency. 

The icing is best used immediately.  If you do need to make it in advance, thin it with a little double cream and beat well before using.  Alternatively heat the icing for 10 seconds in the microwave.

To assemble:

Pipe swirls of caramel frosting on to your cupcakes once they are cool.  Cut thin slices of Wispa Gold and top the cupcakes with them.  If you leave them overnight in an air tight container, the caramel from the piece of Wispa Gold will have drizzled out over the cupcake - delish! 

I have been absolutely loving these past few days, every day has bought new cards and gifts from various people related to my employment as I'm winding down at my job now.  School finishes this week and then I finish with the little girl I work with in 2 weeks time, and luckily for me the gifts and cards are appearing in all kinds of fun cupcake forms!

Check out the amazing personalised cupcakes card! and this little beauty of a paperweight which I am just in love with! it is too cute!

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