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. 
Oh wow, I don’t think I’ve had an oatmeal cream pie in FOREVER, but I’m sure I’d love a homemade version. Definitely adding these to the list! 🙂
Sues
I used to love those oatmeal cream cookies when I was growing up to! I haven’t had one in over ten years and this recipe brought so many memories back!
awesome! My grandparents are in town for the weekend and always have Little Debbie cream pies at their house – might have to try to whip these up this weekend because I bet they would love it!
Those things look amazing! 🙂
And i would like to give a shoot out to the One-year ago link “Best Dang Thing You Ever Tasted Bars”= the name says it all!
I’ve never one either, which is clearly why I ought to make these for myself.
i LOVE oatmeal cream pies and haven’t had one forever, but a homemade one… that’s worth trying out!
Be still my heart (it’s fluttering). This is the most satisfying cookie of all time and yours looks absolitely perfect.
These look great Jen!
These look AMAZING!!
Oh my, such a childhood favorite!!! They look fabulous!!!
Are we the same person? My senior year (in high school AND college) I was the co-yearbook editor and ate a disgusting amount of these. FYI the off-brand ones are terrible. I made that mistake during one 3am deadline. I’m definitely making these soon!!
You’ve totally made my day with this post! I’ve been searching for the perfect oatmeal cream pie recipe forever, ever since a former coworker of mine brought in her version and wouldn’t share the recipe! I’ve tried other recipes but it’s always the cream portion that ends up being different or disappointing. I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Ahh… the yearbook memories. I can’t believe how many of those we ate. If only that metabolism was still in place!
I so need to make these! I was totally obsessed with the Sara Lee oatmeal cream pies when I was in high school, and I can only imagine they are WAY better when you make them yourself! Yum. 🙂
I used to live on those pies! I used to love those things. This has been on my list to make for awhile- Everyday Food by Martha had something similar in this months magazine!
Ooooh those were a childhood lunchbox staple for me! Fun 🙂
Oh wow, I’m saving this recipe – I also used to love oatmeal cream pies!
I just made these this weekend and they are a HIT in my house! Oh, and they’re way better than the boxed kind. Thanks for sharing!
These look great! The oatmeal pies were one of my favorite Little Debbie snacks. I bet the homemade version is a million times better!
i used to love these!! i bet they’re heads and shoulders above what i remember 🙂
Definitely bookmarking these! They look amazing!
My husband might love you more than me after this. His favorite cookie is the oatmeal cream pie!
I love the Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies but after one or two you really notice how “processed” they taste. I finally had time to make these late Friday night and they came out quite yummy! They were great with coffee in the morning and we just had some for dessert at a family dinner (we’re even talking about making them for our sister-in-law’s baby shower and coloring the filling).
I do have two tips. One – make the cookies first. I had read about the filling setting as it rested, so I figured I’d do that first, but that was a mistake. By the time I was ready to fill the cookies the cream was more like marshmallow and I had to mix in some corn syrup to thin it back up. Two – keep a close eye on your first few batches of cookies until you get the timing down. My oven is low quality but predictable; however these cookies still seemed to vary batch-to-batch, with the average about 4-5 minutes. However, even the ones that were a little dark on the bottom still tasted good.
Good point Sarah – Definitely make the cookies first. They have to completely cool prior to filling them anyways.
Gah! I wish I would have read these comments before I started! Sarah – my oven was the same as yours. Five minutes per batch of cookies was plenty. I left my first batch in for over ten… oops!
Aside from the 12 cookies that went straight to the garbage can, these were INCREDIBLE. I still can’t get over how chewy they are. Thanks for the fantastic recipe!
I made these for a family beach trip two years ago and they were AMAZING. They are very good the day you make them but if you can wait a day before eating…ooooh my goodness. Eat your heart out, Little Debbie. I’m headed back to the beach this coming week with some girlfriends and decided to bring these again. I cannot wait!
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:27 pm
So glad you enjoyed these!!