Taking inspiration from both formerly working at Starbucks and from Pinterest, I decided to make Salted Caramel Chocolate cupcakes since salted caramel and chocolate always reminds me of fall. I used a chocolate cake base, a salted caramel buttercream frosting, and a salted caramel filling for the desired flavor.
I decided for whatever reason that the first time I was going to make these cupcakes would be on camera for the video that I submitted to this contest. Looking back, I wish I did a practice run with the recipe before I went in and filmed myself making them, but in the end it was fun going back and watching myself figure it out on camera.
Making the chocolate cupcakes themselves wasn’t too bad, but the frosting and the filling was where I had a bit of trouble. I have never been good at frosting cupcakes and this was no exception. I realized afterwards that I should have let the cupcakes cool a bit more and maybe even put the frosting in the fridge for a few minutes before trying to frost. I also tried to use a piping bag that I borrowed from my aunt for the first time, but that did not go well either. To my surprise, inserting the filling went well though!
If I were to make this recipe again, the biggest thing that I would change is that I would want to buy a specific tool to hollow out the inside of the cupcakes. Cutting the middle out of each individual cupcake with a knife is hard work! Oh, and I would want to practice frosting cupcakes a few more times of course too.
I graduated from the Ithaca College Park School of Communications back in December 2020, so I already had some film equipment that I could use and that I was familiar with. I initially set up and shot most of the recipe completely by myself, but once my boyfriend Brian came home he decided to give me a hand as well. Not only did he get some really nice shots with his camera, but he also helped me with some steps of the frosting that definitely required more than two hands. Although Brian did offer to help me edit, I actually edited the video entirely on my own as well. It was a bit of a challenge as I have not edited footage in any capacity since way before I graduated. I wanted to reteach myself how to video edit for a while now though, so this was a nice way to reintroduce myself to that.
Overall I am very happy with how my cupcakes came out! They were so much fun to make, and all of my friends that tried them seemed to like them as well. Making these cupcakes definitely helped me get into the fall mood and it inspired me to experiment with other fall flavors this season as well. I would definitely make these again!
—By Emily Rosato
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