Caramel Cupcakes with Two-Tone Icing

What is it about Mondays?!
I suppose it didn't help that it was first day of school after the holiday (why so brief?), or that we are still living in a damp and drizzly cloud. Honestly, you open the door and the mist just comes inside and lurks. The cookies I iced on Saturday still hadn't dried by this morning. And the cookies themselves had become soft and soggy. Grrr. And this weather is set to last this whole week...and next.
Thank goodness this Friday's class is cupcakes, and not cookies. It's the first of the Scary Things! classes, and I can't wait!

Enough about the weather (enough already, weather!)
If you are looking for a sweet treat to pick up your week...have a bite of this:

Caramel Cupcakes with Caramel / Chocolate Two-Tone Swirls

125g butter, cubed
100g white chocolate, chopped in pieces
120g brown sugar
90g golden syrup
160 ml milk
1 egg
200g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp caramel essence
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 175'C.
Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake cases.

Heat butter, chocolate, sugar, syrup and milk together in a saucepan. Stir until all melted and smooth.
Transfer to a bowl, and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
Whisk egg into cooled mixture. Add vanilla and caramel essence.
Sift flour, salt and baking powder into the cooled chocolate mixture, and whisk until combined.
Spoon into the prepared cupcake cases.
Bake for approx. 25-30 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Two -Tone Icing:
Caramel Cream Icing
Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

There are a few ways to get the two-tone effect - but in this case I placed an icing bag loaded with the chocolate icing inside another bag, and loaded the outer bag with the caramel icing...I hope that you can visualize it, I was icing these at 7.30 this morning, and photos were the last thing on my mind.
And then just to make Monday Monday, my 2 1/2 year old daughter tried to help me by pulling the   cupcake carrier off the counter...Needless to say, the cupcakes didn't look so pretty by the time we had tea at Tots class. Oh, well. They're just cupcakes. (I wasn't quite that sanguine at the time, though!)

Have a sweet week!

xxM