Elevate your favorite cupcakes to gourmet bakery status with a batch of this homemade salted caramel frosting. It meets all of your salty & sweet desires and is sure to make any dessert the hit of a bake sale, potluck, or party!
This salted caramel frosting is light and fluffy, with rich caramel flavor. I like to make homemade caramel sauce to use in this recipe, although it does take some advance planning since the caramel has to cool COMPLETELY or else it will melt the butter and the frosting will not work. But I’ve also done a semi-homemade version where I use store-bought caramel sauce when I’m running short on time.
I piped the swirls on these cupcakes using the Wilton 1M piping tip (affiliate link). My other favorite tips for frosting cupcakes are the Wilton 8B and the Ateco 828 and Ateco 808 (affiliate links). Using piping tips is a quick and easy way to make your cupcakes look professionally decorated, even if you are new to baking!
You’ll love the combination of salted caramel frosting with chocolate cupcakes, like in these photos. Or you can sandwich it between your favorite cookies, use it on yellow or vanilla cupcakes, top brownies with it, or heck, just spread it on graham crackers. It’s oh-so-good.
How to make this salted caramel frosting
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk or paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed for about 4 minutes until it’s light, creamy, and smooth.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and blend on low speed until the ingredients come together. Then add in the remaining powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt, and mix until combined.
- Add the caramel sauce and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, another 2-3 minutes.
- Add additional heavy cream or milk only as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time, to get the frosting to a nice pipeable consistency. You may not need any additional liquid depending on the thinness or thickness of the caramel you added to the frosting base, so this step may be unnecessary.
My Pro Decorating Tip!
You can taste and adjust the saltiness to your desired level. I really love the combination of salty and sweet, so I will even sprinkle flaky salt on top of my piped frosting and drizzle with a little extra caramel. It’s a bit messy, but it makes a beautiful presentation as well as giving that extra bump of flavor!
How do I store this salted caramel frosting?
Store any unused frosting in an airtight container inside your fridge for up to 1 week. Let it sit on the counter for about an hour to come to room temperature before piping onto any desserts.
The frosting can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Just thaw overnight in the fridge and let it sit out for a couple of hours to come to room temperature. You may want to dump it back into a mixer and beat it again to get it really nice and smooth before using.
Which caramel sauce should I use for this recipe?
I highly recommend my own salted caramel sauce recipe. It’s so good that I included it in my first cookbook since I make it all the time! But if you don’t want to make your own, you can buy a store-bought version. I’ve also used leftover buttermilk caramel syrup recipe in a pinch once and it worked fine, although the caramel flavor didn’t come through quite as strong.
There are also a number of good caramel sauce brands that you can purchase from the store, if you want to simplify a little bit.
More Fabulous Frosting Recipes
- Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Fresh Strawberry Frosting
- Homemade Rainbow Chip Frosting Recipe
- Eggnog Buttercream Frosting
- Dragon Fruit Buttercream Frosting
- Guava Frosting
- Graham Cracker Frosting
- Lemon Buttercream Frosting
Salted Caramel Frosting
Ingredients
Salted Caramel Frosting
- 1 cup salted butter at room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup [salted caramel sauce] homemade or storebought
- Heavy cream or milk as needed
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk or paddle attachment, beat butter on medium-high speed until light, creamy, and smooth, about 4 minutes.1 cup salted butter
- Add two cups of the powdered sugar and blend on low speed until the butter and powdered sugar come together. Add the remaining powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt, and mix until combined.4 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Add the caramel sauce and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy about 2-3 minutes.¾ cup [salted caramel sauce]
- Add additional heavy cream or milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, only as needed to get the frosting to a nice pipeable consistency. You may not need any additional liquid (I usually don’t, but if your caramel sauce is on the thicker side, you might).Heavy cream or milk
Notes
- If a store-bought caramel sauce instead of salted caramel sauce, increase the salt to ½ teaspoon, then adjust from there.
- This recipe makes enough frosting to pipe onto 14-16 cupcakes or frost a 2-layer cake. If spreading with a knife, you can cover 24 cupcakes.
Nutrition
Originally shared November, 2019.
Very good recipe. Used the link to the salted caramel sauce and that was great too. The frosting is very stiff until you add the caramel sauce and then it is creamy smooth and no milk was needed. I’ll be making this again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe, Colleen!
The salted caramel frosting looks amazing,I can’t wait to try it! I am making chocolate cupcakes and I was wonder if you could make the frosting a day ahead? I want to frost them the day I serve them.
You sure can! But there are a couple of things to know taking that approach. I would store in the fridge overnight, then pull it out at least 1-2 hours before you plan to use it. Stick it back in the blender and mix it up again so it’s nice and smooth before using it to frost your cupcakes. Chocolate and salted caramel is delicious!