Best. Cupcakes. Ever.

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine hosted a Thirty-One party. While she didn't ask us to bring anything (other than our favorite wine for a wine tasting contest), my family had dinner with hers before the party, and so I decided to make some cupcakes to bring (there were plenty for the men and children to enjoy before we booted them out for the party). They were delicious.

Now, I had originally planned to make these:

But I did not have any buttermilk on hand like that recipe called for. So, I improvised and combined the two a bit. I followed the recipe for what you see in the first picture, but instead of embellishing with chocolate sprinkles and Rolos, I used chopped pecans, chocolate sauce, and caramel sauce. I cheated and used Hershey's caramel sauce; I attempted to make my own but that didn't turn out so well.

The cupcakes were a huge hit. Think I might make them again soon.

The recipes I used:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

Chocolate Turtle Cupcakes