I know you've missed me, you big babies. I was really busy celebrating the birth of our nation, and more importantly - the birth of yours truly. This past weekend I celebrated the big dirty thirty, and my sister and her mister were sweet enough to throw me a little shindig. Since they had so much on their hands, I offered to make my own birthday cupcakes, because I had to be involved somehow. Plus, I'd really been wanting to try to make salted caramel frosting. There are a handful of recipes for this on the ol' webbernets, but of course, I went with the one that looked relatively easy, which I found on Bake and Destroy. You can just as easily visit her page (which is totally bad ass) for the recipe, but I'll paste it here for you as well.

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup powdered sugar (possibly 1 1/2 cups)
  

Stir sugar and water together in a small saucepan, bring it to a boil and cook without stirring over medium-high heat until it turns dark amber. About 6-7 minutes. Remove from heat and slowly add cream and vanilla, stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth. Cool for 25 minutes. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and salt until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and beat until well mixed. Turn the mixer off and add the caramel. Beat frosting on medium-high until mixed well. Add more powdered sugar if it seems soupy. Cover and refrigerate about 45 minutes. Your frosting will likely still be more liquidy than you like. Switch to your whisk attachment and whip the frosting until it’s light and fluffy.

I will say this - making your own caramel isn't for 'tards. My first batch came out relatively well and yielded a decent amount, but I did have one lumpy candy bit that had to be pitched. There's really no notation on how cool to let the sugar mixture get before adding the cream, and it will harden very easily. But, I had just enough for the icing, which turned out magnificent. I'll also add that I don't have the kind of kitchen space needed for a stand mixer, but there's always room for improvisation. Never be intimidated by not having exactly the right equipment, or exactly the right ingredients. Besides, I was dying to test drive this beauty that had arrived from our wedding registry earlier in the week, compliments of the lovely Andres.

Clearly, frosting cupcakes isn't really my strong suit, but not all food needs to be pretty. It just needs to be delicious.