“I hate the notion of a secret recipe. Recipes are by nature derivative and meant to be shared – that is how they improve, are changed, how new ideas are formed. To stop a recipe in it’s tracks, to label it “secret” just seems mean.”~Molly Wizenberg

This is my secret vanilla cupcake recipe. I guess now it is not so secret.

I like this recipe because it makes about 6-8 cupcakes. That’s a good thing for me because I can’t resist eating them when I they are in the house.

My son is the main inspiration for the extreme decadence in this particular cupcake expedition. First he wanted peanut butter frosting. Then saw a picture on Pinterest of a caramel filled cupcake and had the great idea to put a caramel (we had some chocolate eclair lollies at our house, but I think the most appropriate would have been a Jersey Caramel, actually) in each cake. Gooodness me!

Luckily I had the opportunity to spread the gluttony around and leave none of these in my home for me to get into.

What you need:

• 3/4 cup S.R. FLour (I use unbleached flour)
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1/2 tsp  baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup butter (I use salt reduced butter), softened
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp  vanilla extract

What to do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degC (160 fan-forced)
2. Cream the butter, sugar and egg in an electric mixer. Then add the milk , salt and vanilla.
3. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
4. Fill each cupcake paper about 2/3 full. It is at this point we put a caramel on top of each cake. You don’t need to cover it with cake batter. It sort of sinks as the cake cooks.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Keep checking them. Over cooked cupcakes are rather dry!!

You can find the peanut butter frosting we used here. You should definitely halve this recipe as it makes A LOT of frosting. Which is dangerous. Because it is insanely good.