Salted Caramel Frosting

Okay, so this icing did not turn out like it the picture. I don't know what I did and it tastes fantastic, but it doesn't look very appetising at all. I followed the recipe for Salted Caramel Frosting on Chow.com to the letter, except I probably took my caramel off a little early. I'm a bit skittish when it comes to candy-making. I've never had an icing recipe turn out like this?

I did not read the comments before I tried the recipe and I probably should have. Many commenters have suggested cutting back the butter and increasing the caramel. Some have also said it was too salty.

Personally, I didn't specifically notice the fattiness due to the butter until I read it on the comments. Then I realised that it was quite fatty. It didn't bother me at the time as the awful consistency of my icing did not allow me to pipe it onto my cupcakes and I had to spread. I'm much more conservative with the amount of icing I use when I spread than when I pipe, so each cupcake had a pretty mimimal amount of icing. The consistency also made it extremely hard to spread, so that may have helped too.

I thought that there was a nice caramel flavour present in the icing, but it was very subtle. Doubling the caramel may have assisted with the spreadability. I haven't decided if I'll make this again, but if I do I will double the caramel.

As for saltiness, my icing wasn't too salty. That being said, I wouldn't have wanted it to be any saltier. I used fleur de sel in the amounts specified in the recipe, so I can definitely see how it could be too salty using kosher salt.

I enjoyed the icing and it paired really well with the Chocolate Malted Cupcakes, but I am really perplexed as to what I did to get the consistency so wrong. I may have to try it again just to see if it does this again.