Salted Caramel Buttercream Recipe & How to Make Caramel (2024)

I recently did a baby shower where all I served was desserts. I promised you all the recipes, and

I swear I am building up to the shower. I had intended to have a sweet week where I just showed all the dessert recipes one after another. However, I thought you might get bored of that. Also, I was distracted by our character development series and Valentine’s day, so I’ve had other content I’ve wanted to give you. For the shower, I did mini-cupcakes with a salted carmel buttercream as one of the options. The concept was to do a bunch of mini desserts so that people could sample a few different things. A friend of mine is a chef. We were talking the other day about baking, as she has enjoyed more of the pastry side of her job lately. She said, “I have a mean salted caramel recipe, and I don’t say ‘I have a mean…’ about anything.” I asked if she would be willing to share, and she was. I made it, and she was right. It is really good. I haven’t experimented much with buttercream, but I’m glad I gave it a chance. It was a hit at the shower. Part of this recipe includes making a caramel, which can be challenging. I added photos to help walk you through the process.

The first step is to make your caramel.

Caramel Recipe

1 cup sugar

1 Tbsp water

4 Tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tsp sea salt

1. Combine sugar and water and cook on medium high heat. Stir just until the sugar dissolves.

2. Don’t stir when boiling and getting darker.

3. When caramel is a nice, dark amber color remove from heat. Gently whisk in heavy cream and swirl in butter.

4. Add sea salt. Return to low heat and whisk until smooth.

5. Let cool so it is cool to the touch.

6. This caramel will thicken as it cools, and that is OK for the buttercream as long as it doesn’t thicken too much.

Salted Caramel Buttercream

Caramel sauce (made as directed above) – should be just cool to the touch

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature

5-6 cups powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients together until fully combined.

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