CHAOS! A hamster running on a wheel going over and over the same information. It can be something small that just gets stuck in my head and even though the rational part of me knows that between the hours of 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. nothing can be solved (usually), but I still dwell. The remedy usually comes in the form of using my hands to create a delicious treat. It soothes my soul, quiets my mind and gives me peace – even if just for a few hours.

I knew this week that I had been craving something salty and sweet – not just salted caramel, but I wanted MORE! Since I already had pretzels and kettle corn, and chocolate, heavy cream, caramels, sweetened condensed milk, butter and more – I knew I could bang out a batch of cupcakes in no time. The creative team at my work has been slammed the past few weeks. They bust their asses on a daily basis and are asked for more favors than most people I know in our work place – they deserve the enjoy my salty and sweet treats!

For these cupcakes I made a basic chocolate cupcakes from Betty Crocker, only I made them with dark chocolate cocoa powder. You can also use a box mix – THERE IS NO SHAME IN CHEATING WHEN IT COMES TO BAKING/COOKING! I filled them with a basic and quick salted caramel (consisting of melting 2 bags of Werther’s soft caramels and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, and adding crushed sea salt to taste) and topped them with chocolate ganache (1 bag of dark chocolate chips and 1 sm. container of heavy cream – melted until smooth. I let this batch of ganache sit in the fridge to cool and whipped just before it set so it had the consistency of mousse rather than frosting). Then came the fun part – I broke up a few small pretzels to top half and opened a bag of Smartfood Kettle Corn mini bag to top the other half.

Sometimes it is the littlest and easiest detail that really makes things look like you slaved FOREVER on something that really took less than an hour. Google Images can provide you some great ideas! Put in something simple  – chocolate and caramel or brownies and cookie spread or fruit and chocolate. Skim through the images and see what catches your eye! A lot of times things only look detail or hard – don’t just a book by it’s cover. Don’t just overlook something because you think it my take too long or be too hard – you just never know what you might be missing!