You can’t beat these easy Dulce de Leche Cupcakes! Homemade vanilla cupcakes filled with delicious dulce de leche and generously topped with a luscious dulce de leche buttercream.
So excited to share these cupcakes! Made with a fluffy but tender vanilla cake batter, then cored and filled with a spoonful of dulce de leche. The perfect topping to these cupcakes is, of course this creamy, addicting dulce de leche buttercream!
This is the first recipe I’ve created with dulce de leche, but it’s definitely not my last. I’m already thinking of cake recipes that I can use with this buttercream!
This isn’t my first recipe for stuffed cupcakes. If you love fruit filled desserts, you need to try these Strawberry Filled Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes. cupcake recipe, For a more decadent filled cupcake, definitely try these Nutella Stuffed Cupcakes! Dulce de Leche has a slight caramel/butterscotch taste to it. If you love butterscotch, check out my Butterscotch Cream Cheese Cupcakes!
WHAT IS DULCE DE LECHE?
Dulce de leche is a sweet, gooey Latin American confection. It’s made from slowly heated sweetened condensed milk.
WHAT IS THE FLAVOR?
It is sweet and thick like caramel. Even though it has a similar color and texture as caramel, it definitely has its own unique taste.
WHERE CAN I BUY DULCE DE LECHE?
You should be able to buy it in the grocery store. I have seen it both in the baking aisle and the international foods aisle.
You can also make your own dulce de leche. Epicurious’ Homemade Dulce de Leche recipe includes two methods for making it.
THESE CUPCAKES HAVE THREE PARTS:
- EASY VANILLA CUPCAKES: I reduced the sugar in the batter so that the dulce de leche filling and buttercream wasn’t too sweet. This cupcake batter is similar to the one from my Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes.
- DULCE DE LECHE FILLING: The filling is optional but very highly recommended! I like to add 1-2 teaspoons of dulce de leche in each baked and cooled cupcake.
- DULCE DE LECHE BUTTERCREAM: It’s creamy and rich and flavored with dulce de leche!
HOW TO MAKE THESE CUPCAKES
- Preheat oven to 350°F and place paper liners in your muffin tin.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream the butter with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Add the sugar and mix for 2 more minutes. Add the vanilla.
- Add the eggs one at a time.
- Alternatively add the dry ingredients mixture and milk.
- Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of a cupcake.
- Cool for about ten minutes in the muffin tins and then remove to a rack to cool completely.
- Once cupcakes are cooled, core them. Set cupcakes aside to make the buttercream.
TIPS FOR MAKING BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
- Use Room Temperature Butter: I leave my butter out overnight in the wintertime. The amount of time you leave it out depend on the temperature of your kitchen. To be on the safe side, allow butter to sit out for at least 1-2 hours before using it.
- Add More Powdered Sugar: If you find your buttercream is too thin, gradually add more powdered sugar to thicken it.
- Add More Heavy Cream or Milk: If you find your buttercream is too thick, very gradually add more heavy cream or milk. By gradually, I mean a little splash (around a teaspoon) at a time. Definitely don’t add a whole tablespoon at a time.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
If you plan on making a lot of filled cupcakes, I recommend getting a cupcake corer. They are inexpensive and make coring cupcakes so much faster and easier. Boston Girl Bakes has a thorough post on How to Fill Cupcakes. In her post, she suggests using a melon baller, a butter knife or small paring knife, piping tip, or an apple corer.
Dulce de leche is Spanish for sweet or candy of milk. The ce in dulce sounds like an s and the e at the end of the words is not like ee. It’s like eh. It’s pronounced dool seh deh lehcheh.
Dulce de leche and caramel look and taste a lot alike. The big difference between them is that dulce de leche is made by heating milk and sugar or sweetened while caramel is made by cooking down sugar and adding a little water.
You won’t believe how easy or delicious these Dulce De Leche Cupcakes are. Whether you’ve tried dulce de leche before or not, you will love them!
Print
Dulce de Leche Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 cupcakes
- Category: Cupcakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Everyone will love this easy recipe Dulce de Leche Stuffed Cupcakes with dulce de leche buttercream frosting! Made with an easy vanilla cake batter and stuffed with store bought dulce de leche. Topped off with delicious buttercream frosting!
Ingredients
FOR THE VANILLA CUPCAKES
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 cup milk
FOR THE FILLING (OPTIONAL)
- 1–2 teaspoons Dulce de Leche per cupcake
FOR THE DULCE DE LECHE BUTTERCREAM
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 3/4 cup to 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted to break up lumps
- 1/2 to 1 1/2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cup dulce de leche
- pinch of salt
Instructions
FOR THE VANILLA CUPCAKES
- Preheat oven to 350°F and place paper liners in muffin tin or grease and flour muffin tins.
- In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream the butter with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Add the sugar and mix for 2 more minutes until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after the addition of each egg.
- Alternatively add the dry ingredient mixture and milk to the sugar mixture, mixing well after each addition and be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of a cupcake. Cool for about ten minutes in the muffin tins and then remove to a rack to cool completely.
- Once cupcakes are cooled, core them (save the tops for bite sized snacks). Set cupcakes aside to make the buttercream.
FOR THE DULCE DE LECHE BUTTERCREAM
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a hand held mixer, cream the butter for one minute. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on medium for 3-4 minutes, until creamy. Add 1/2 tablespoon of the heavy cream or milk. Slowly beat in the dulce de leche a little bit at a time. Beat in the vanilla followed by the salt.
- If buttercream is too thin, add more powdered sugar, if it is too thick, add more milk or heavy cream until it is the consistency you desire. To firm buttercream up a bit more before piping, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 20-30 minutes. Pipe the frosting on top using a wide star tip or scoop it on using an ice cream scoop!
Keywords: dulce de leche, cupcakes, stuffed, filled, buttercream, cake, vanilla
Sound so delicious and look Divine!
★★★★★
Thank you so much! They are so delicious!
Made these for ladies night at our church everyone loved them. I had to play with the frosting a bit but overall they were great!
★★★★★
Thank you so much for making these dulce de leche cupcakes, Dora. I’m so happy everyone enjoyed them 🙂 Thank you for the feedback about the frosting as well! Natalie
These turned out amazing 🤩 and tasted delicious! Thank you for another great recipe
★★★★★
What would happen if I were to replace the milk with buttermilk please? Also do you have the measurement in grams?
Hello Suraiya, I haven’t tried these with buttermilk so I can’t say how they would be exactly, but I think they’d be delicious! Unfortunately I do not have the measurement in grams. I will work on getting a converter on my site though because I know that it’s not fun to have to convert a recipe! So sorry about that. Please let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂 Natalie