Caramel Bliss "Cup Cakes"

I am in heaven.

These are delicious.

If you are a reader of my blog you will know that the Workaholic's work mates had a whip round in support of my baking recently.

I had been eyeing off a couple of recipes that require a hand beater over a stove. So, with a little cash in my pocket, I went down to the local Kmart and purchased one, along with a few other bits and pieces. Thank you, work mates!! However, once you taste these tomorrow (at Victoria's farewell - :( good bye Victoria) you may think it is a fair trade.

I used the hand beater to whip up my first ever batch of hand made marshmallow to top a butternut snap cookie filled with some caramel sauce - Jennifer from The Crabapple Bakery calls it the Caramel Bliss Cup Cake (oops, I have slipped back into cupcakes!) and she is right. The combination of flavours are too die for.

The recipe seems quite simple on the surface, but it is time consuming. The base is just store bought Butternut Snap Biscuits, warmed over patty pan trays and then "pushed" down to form a cup when they are soft.

The filling is a tin of condensed milk, boiled on a stove for 2 hours (yes, TWO HOURS) immersed in water before whipping some cream through it.

Those first two steps are simple, although the boiling is time consuming.

The next step is a little tricky or laborious - hand beating the ingredients for the marshmallow topping. The recipe calls for corn syrup. Corn syrup?? You do remember I live in Alice Springs? Anyway, searched high and low. Finally found it at my local corner store, not the majors, for a decadent $9!! Thank goodness you don't have to use a lot, so the bottle will last for ages.

The whipping of the marshmallow caused chaos in the kitchen, splatters every where, thought I was going to have to call in the crime scene clean up crew! Luckily my trusty apprentice (aka the Workaholic - thank you, thank you, thank you!) was on hand and cleaned up around me as we went. Reminded me a bit of the guy at the end of the cartoons sweeping up the set!! LOL!

Finally, I drizzled some chocolate on the top.

Some of the family had a sneak taste today and loved them, although I do notice the biscuits are a bit soft or soggy, so eating them is a bit messy. Not sure if it is the heat here at the moment or something else. Judging by the oohs and ahhs from the taste testers, I think the whole flavour combination will make the sticky fingers worth it!

So, there you go, another "new" experiment in the kitchen.

It is the Workaholic's birthday tomorrow and I am going to embarrass the man but taking the kids and a cake into work. Happy Birthday honey!