Sugar Shock: Salted Turtle Cupcakes w/ Coconut....yup

If you know me and have been following my baking habits these past 7 years, you know I only bake breakfast type cakes.
Loaf cakes, olive oil cakes, simple cakes that are not too sweet and definitely no butter-cream frosting.

Here, we have a different story.

I started this recipe by trying my hand at candy making.

A nut brittle would be my first experiment. I added walnuts, almonds and peanuts, and added some cinnamon, cumin and cayenne to the maple syrup and corn syrup butter mixture.

Major FAIL.

The candy never hardened, so I had a lovely sheet of gooey soft, though delicious, caramels.
I guess my brittle never got to the right temperature (I think 305F).

I threw most of the tray out, but figured I would try and use the rest in a cake batter.

So I adapted this most disgusting sounding recipe and turned out the most DELICIOUS coconut salted turtle cupcakes!

SAVE!

I did not make the buttercream frosting, though go ahead if you want some cavities....instead I just did my usual powdered sugar w/ a tbsp of milk and fresh coconut on top.

These were really amazing, they had a caramel thru them, loaded w/ nuts and coconut (I threw some shredded coconut in the batter too!).

I don't expect you to make these, but always want to give you the option.

By the way, these are great for PMS.

:)