Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

Thanksgiving. The table at Steve and Patty's, the full table: Ryan and me, Steve and Patty, Matt and Kristin, Dziadek Wally. Owen and Nora in their chairs. Babcia Rose's chair empty, as it was last year, and the year carries that knowledge differently now — not raw, not new, but present, held, acknowledged in the way you acknowledge the people who shaped you even when they are no longer in the room.

Patty and I made the pierogi on Tuesday. Second year of this tradition. We stood at her kitchen table and worked: I made the dough, she made the filling, we folded together in the way we have developed, side by side, the slight crimp at the edge, seam-side down. Forty-eight pierogi this year, which is more than last year, because we know what we are doing now and we have the time. We sauteed them in Babcia Rose's cast iron skillet. They were right. They were right in a way that last year's were right but different: not trying to be something, just being it. Patty and Amanda's pierogi. Ours now.

Dziadek Wally ate and watched the children and held Nora's hand for a while at the table. He is slower than last Thanksgiving, the months showing in him, but he is here and he is present and when he put his hand on the back of Babcia Rose's empty chair it was not the same gesture as last year. Last year it was acute. This year it was greeting, acknowledgment, a gesture between an old man and the absent woman he has been married to for sixty-nine years. He touched the chair. He picked up his fork. He ate another pierogi.

I said the same thing I said last year, after dinner: I am grateful for every person at this table and for the people who are not here and who are still everywhere in what we made today. Ryan touched my hand. Wally touched the chair. Patty said "pie" and we had pie. The repetition is the tradition. The tradition is what holds. Next year we will do it again.

Patty said “pie” and we had pie — and that line still makes me smile, because it was exactly right, the way the best endings of hard-beautiful days are exactly right. The almond in these cupcakes is what pulled me toward them: there is something in that flavor that sits in the same register as the pierogi dough, as Babcia Rose’s kitchen, as the particular sweetness of a table where you feel everyone who is there and everyone who isn’t. The salted caramel buttercream is the part that says: you made it through, now have something good. These are what I’d bring next year, alongside the pierogi, alongside everything we’re building into tradition.

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 45 min (plus cooling) | Servings: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp fine salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp pure almond extract
1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature
For the salted caramel buttercream:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup caramel sauce, plus more for drizzling
1/2 tsp flaky sea salt, plus more for finishing
1–2 tbsp heavy cream, as needed

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until light, pale, and fluffy, about 3–4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add eggs and extracts. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract and almond extract until fully incorporated.
Alternate flour and milk. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions (flour–milk–flour–milk–flour). Begin and end with flour. Mix just until the batter comes together — do not overmix.
Fill and bake. Divide the batter evenly among the lined cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake for 18–20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the tops spring back lightly when touched. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting.
Make the buttercream. Beat the butter on medium-high speed until very pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the sifted powdered sugar, mixing until incorporated. Add the caramel sauce and sea salt, then increase speed to medium-high and beat until smooth and creamy. Add heavy cream one tablespoon at a time if the buttercream is too thick to pipe.
Frost and finish. Pipe or spread the salted caramel buttercream generously onto each cooled cupcake. Drizzle with additional caramel sauce and finish with a small pinch of flaky sea salt before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream — The Sweetness We Carried to the Table