Creme Brulee Cupcakes
For Hubby’s birthday, I told him I’d make a treat for him to take in to work. As I’ve mentioned before, his favorite dessert is creme brulee. I’ve made it twice for him already. But, creme brulee doesn’t travel to work very well. So instead, I gave him a list of 10 desserts that are at the top of my must-bake list.
When I added this recipe as the last option for him, I knew there was no point in even giving him the list. Sure enough, he chose his favorite dessert in cupcake form for his birthday treat.
I have to admit that I’m very glad he chose this recipe, because it’s amazing. The cupcakes really do taste like creme brulee. I made the cupcakes and frosting the night before his birthday and then we torched them in the morning before heading to work. Hubby said they only lasted about 10 minutes in the kitchen at work.
The other great thing about these cupcakes is that I found my new favorite way to frost a cupcake. I just loved how the cupcakes looked with a good portion of the cake peaking out, but there still being plenty of frosting. I decided at that point that I will be frosting cupcakes like this again (as I did for my Red Velvet cupcakes).
As a side note, for those of you who know, Hubby’s birthday is in February. This post is going up in April. I tend to do this unless there is a deadline for a blogging event. When I make something to be blogged, I add the pictures, recipe and link to the original source, then save it as a draft. Then on some random day, I go back and finish up the post and set it to publish at some point in the future. So on an evening like tonight, I can bust out about 10 posts while Hubby plays video games with his buddy. Then if I don’t have time to write blog posts for another month, it’s ok.
Creme Brulee Cupcakes – Adapted from Clara, originally from How to Eat a Cupcake
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus a pinch for the egg whites
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 cup milk – I used 1/4 c water + 3/4 c heavy cream
3 tablespoons caramel syrup – I used Smuckers ice cream topping
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Alternately beat in dry ingredients and milk.
Add caramel syrup and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. Gently fold whites into batter.
Spoon batter into cupcake papers, filling cups about 2/3 full. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool.
Brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream
1 cup light brown sugar
4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
Put sugar, egg whites and salt into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees). Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes total.
Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and continue beating 1 minute to reduce air bubbles.
To assemble cupcakes
Remove center of cupcake using the cone method. Fill cupcake with buttercream. Sprinkle brown sugar on top and caramelize with creme brulee torch.
I’m entering this in Joelen’s Tasty Tools event for April. She’s featuring muffin pans this month!
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
CRAVING Lofthouse now! Haha. Well, now I know how to make my own 😉 Thanks, this will definitely be one I try out soon!
beantownbaker — July 3rd, 2013 @ 5:06 pm
Sorry about that. These are seriously so good. My frosting was a bit runnier than the Lofthouse frosting, so be careful when you’re adding the milk so the same thing doesn’t happen to you!
Could I halve the recipe?
beantownbaker — July 3rd, 2013 @ 5:07 pm
I don’t see why you couldn’t. Halving an egg can be difficult sometimes though…
Ohhh nononono. This is a problem. This type of cookie is one of my all-time biggest weaknesses. Apparently this recipe needs to happen immediately.
beantownbaker — July 3rd, 2013 @ 5:07 pm
It definitely does. Trust me, they’re so good!
Just made these. I cannot say thank you enough. The Loft cookies have always been a weakness of mine and I honestly think these came out better than them. Now to figure out how to make the Key Lime frosting my friend wants hers frosted with.
beantownbaker — July 7th, 2013 @ 11:54 am
OOhhh key lime frosting is a great idea. I’m sure you could find key lime extract online? I want to try to make these with lemon flavoring next.
I made some today and it has turned out great. I halved the recipe and used two eggs! Thank you so much for such an easy and yummy recipe!
beantownbaker — July 30th, 2013 @ 5:49 pm
So glad it worked out for you to cut the recipe in half! Glad you enjoyed them.
These sound delicious. I have 2 questions as I would like to make for a bday party. Does regular food coloring work or does it need to be a special kind? Will they hold up well if made 2-3 days in advance?
beantownbaker — September 25th, 2013 @ 4:17 pm
Since I didn’t use any, I’m not sure. I tend to prefer the gel food coloring instead of the liquid kind just because it’s more concentrated.
They do stay fresh for a couple days in an air-tight container.
I can’t wait to try this recipe! Do you think the dough is the right consistency to roll out for cookie cutters?
beantownbaker — November 24th, 2013 @ 6:04 pm
It probably could be rolled out. I don’t think it would hold shapes very well though. But you could roll it out and make round cookies without any issues.
Thanks for the recipe – these turned out great! So simple and yummy. I’m taking some to a cookie exchange tonight. 🙂 Cheers!
beantownbaker — December 9th, 2013 @ 5:47 pm
I’m sure they’ll be a hit at your cookie exchange! I love how soft they are.
Hey there! How would these be afterthought a batch in the freezer?
beantownbaker — December 17th, 2013 @ 10:53 am
I haven’t tried freezing them. I think you could probably freeze the dough, or even the baked (but unfrosted) cookies. I wouldn’t freeze them after frosting them though.
Can I leave the dough in the fridge over night?
beantownbaker — December 17th, 2013 @ 10:57 am
I think the dough would be fine sitting in the fridge overnight.
My mixer doesn’t have a paddle attachment. Is it necessary?
beantownbaker — December 18th, 2013 @ 1:02 pm
Use whichever attachment you usually use. I assume you have something that isn’t a dough hook?
Do you think the cookies taste better the next day……taste like bread. They look pretty though.
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:28 am
The cookies themselves are not very sweet. The combination of the cookies and the frosting is what makes these so great. Hope you enjoyed them.
these cookies are awesome…for the first couple of days…then not so much….they become very dry and kind of bland on the cookie end….great for bake and eat affairs,….they do not store well beyond day 2
beantownbaker — January 10th, 2014 @ 10:44 am
Thanks for the feedback, I’ll update the recipe to reflect this. They never last that long in our house…
My dough came out VERY thick. Is that normal?
Ah, please disregard my last comment. The cookies came out fine!
beantownbaker — February 3rd, 2014 @ 4:55 pm
Glad they worked out. I was sitting here thinking for a few minutes if that dough was thick or not…
When I tried my dough it was kind of salty is this okay?
beantownbaker — March 9th, 2014 @ 10:18 am
It shouldn’t be overly salty… Did you use table salt or kosher salt?
Does the taste get better when you let them cool?
I am not very impressed. I made these for my friends but they crumpled EVERYWHERE every time I I would touch one it would fall apart! How am I supposed to ice? The batter is good but I’m really mad that they crumpled and I even doubled and made around 60. I ended up tossing all of them because you couldn’t eat them unless you used a spoon :/ not the
best recipie..,,
These are the best cookies I’ve ever made. I still can’t even believe they came out of my kitchen (she said, her words muffled by cookie…)
I wanted mint chocolate cookies, so I switched it up a bit by substituting 1/2 cup of the flour with cocoa, and 2 tsp of the vanilla with mint extract, and used 1/2 vanilla 1/2 mint for the frosting.
They’re soft and cakey and melting in my damn mouth. I’ll be making these again for sure!!
beantownbaker — April 16th, 2014 @ 5:58 pm
Wow – that sounds great with those substitutions. I’m going to have to try that out.
Since I was eight my parents would leave me home alone and they would come home to a batch of cookies, cupcakes, pies, and turnovers. I am eleven now and i still love baking and want to be a baker when I grow up. These are my favorite cookies in the world ,but i didn’t know the name of them so i couldn’t cook it. I finally learned the name last week and i have been searching all over the internet for a good recipe and I think the best one i saw is your. I am going to make the tomorrow ,because my parents are going out and i work best when my parents are gone. I think my parents an my two younger and one older brother are going to LOVE this. Thank you for the recipe i hope it works.
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 6:59 pm
Hope these cookies worked well for you. We love this recipe!
How many serving does this make?
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:31 pm
About a dozen cookies.
How would you make these into Pumpkin cookies? I made these a few times and loved them and would like to make a pumpkin version. I made a different recipe last night that were pumpkin lofthouse style and was a little dissapointed because I was hoping they would have been more like these cookies. Any insight would be great. I love Fall!!!
I just made these and for some reason the cookies didn’t bake well…this made about 15 cookies (a batch of 9 and a batch of 6). I put the batch of 9 in the oven for 10 minutes, they weren’t cooked all the way through, so I put them on for 2 more minutes, still weren’t cooked completely, so I put them on for 5 more minutes and I’m still not convinced they’re completely cooked…they’re extremely doughy…Any idea what I could have done wrong?
family are big chocolate lovers so I made these and then I made my homemade chocolate frosting to top IG . They turned out great ! I think these are better than Lofthouse thanks so much for the recipe !
I eat the Walmart frosted sugar cookies about 1 a day. Are these cookies the same as Walmart’s? I would love to make them at home.