Rich, decadent chocolate cupcakes filled with sweet, creamy dulce de leche, sprinkled with some coarse salt, and topped with luscious chocolate buttercream frosting.
Chocolate Cupcakes
My husband and I decided to start making videos for my blog. Videos have been extremely popular for a while now and we finally decided that we wanted to make some videos as well. The problem for me has always been time, because videos are quite time consuming. Between actually shooting the video and then editing, it could take a few hours, and even days, to present a finished video.
Since my husband is a huge fan of making videos and always makes a ton of home-videos for us, he really wanted to help me with this project. With the two of us, time doesn’t present as much of a problem anymore. We also wanted to make videos that stand out, that are not like the “ever-so-popular” food videos that have been populating social media lately. You know, the ones that show recipe preparation from above, where you see hands adding the ingredients in, and so on. I like watching those videos as much as the next person, but we wanted to do something a little different with our videos.
My husband has been messing around with some stop motion animation for our home videos, so we thought it could be a fun idea. We also decided to make our videos funny and more for entertainment purposes, rather than straight cooking videos. We’ve only done a couple videos so far, so we are still in a learning stages of our project. I hope you will stick around to see how we progress with our fun food videos.
I made my chocolate cupcakes for a frosting video idea. I made two of my popular recipes and put together these new chocolate cupcakes. They turned out AMAZING! First of all, this is my all-time favorite chocolate cupcake recipe because the cakes come out SO soft, moist and fluffy, they are totally addicting. Adding a filling of dulce de leche is perfect with a chocolate cupcake and chocolate frosting. And, adding a sprinkle of coarse salt to the middle and top of the cupcakes creates a perfect sweet and salty balance.
Depending on how generously you will frost the cupcake, you might have some left over. Sometimes I do and if my son and husband help frost, I don’t have much left. If you do have some left, it makes a fantastic dip for strawberries. One of my close friends used to always request that her birthday cake have this chocolate buttercream and that I make her an extra batch just for dipping strawberries.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Dulce de Leche Filling and Salted Chocolate Buttercream
Ingredients
- Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1½ cups of hot water
- 2½ cups of flour
- 1¼ cup of sugar
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 eggs room temperature
- ¾ cups of vegetable oil
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Filling:
- About 3/4 of 13.4 oz can of dulce de leche
- About 2 Tbsp coarse salt for filling and frosting
- Chocolate Buttercream:
- 16 oz butter room temperature
- 2-3 cups of powder sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 5 oz dark semi-sweet chocolate melted and cooled a little
Instructions
- Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly spray cupcake pan with cooking spray and line it with cupcake liners.
- In a small sauce pot, mix water with unsweetened cocoa powder. Bring to a low boil. Cook for about a minute and set aside to cool.
- In a bowl of an electric mixer, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until combined.
- Separately, whisk together vegetable oil, vanilla extract, eggs and sour cream.
- On low speed, slowly pour in the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Once it's combined, bring the speed up to medium and beat for about two minutes.
- Lower speed to low again and slowly pour in cocoa mixture. Mix until just combined. Turn off mixer.
- Using a spatula, scrape sides and bottom of the bowl, continue mixing with a spatula until batter is smooth.
- Pour batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about ¾ of the way, and bake for 18-20 minutes. Do a toothpick test at 18 minutes to check for doneness.
- Cool to room temperature before filling and frosting.
- Filling:
- Using a small cookie dough scoop (number 50), scoop out some of the cupcake on top and then, using the same size scoop, fill each cupcake hole with dulce de leche.
- Sprinkle a little bit of coarse salt over each cupcake.
- (You can make cake pops or cake truffles with the scooped out chocolate cake.)
- Frosting:
- Warm the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave until melted and allow to cool slightly.
- Beat butter until it is fluffy (about 3-5 minutes) on high speed. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl. On low speed add powder sugar and egg yolk alternately, beating after each addition.
- The mixture should be very fluffy.
- With the mixer on medium low, gradually drizzle in melted chocolate.
- Transfer the frosting to the pastry bag and frost the cooled, filled cupcakes.
- Sprinkle some coarse salt on top of frosting too.
Notes
Check out these great recipes from other bloggers:
Banana Pudding Cupcakes from Spicy Southern Kitchen
French Silk Cupcakes from Crazy For Crust
Apple Pie Cupcakes from Cook Crave Inspire
Watermelon Cupcakes from The First Year
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Some More Cupcake Recipes:
Karen O says
These look delicious. Can using raw egg in the frosting be a problem?
lyuba says
Honestly, I haven’t had a problem with it but I know that some people may be turned off by it. In this case, you can bring egg yolks to a safe room temperature in a double boiler. I actually have a process for it here: https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2015/02/the-best-classic-tiramisu.html
I hope you will enjoy the recipe!!
lyuba says
“Safe temperature” not safe room temperature 🙂
connie says
Did not use the “safe temperature” method, next time I will. Do the cupcakes now have to be refrigerated because of raw yolks? Just loved the cupcakes!
lyuba says
Yes, I always recommend refrigerating cupcakes when buttercream, cream cheese, or any other dairy containing ingredients are used in the frosting.
I’m SO happy to hear that!
lyuba says
Oh, and you can always pull the cupcakes an hour before serving to get them to soften a bit.
2pots2cook says
Oh dear ! Will smile for a cupcake 🙂 Have a pleasant day !
Lyuba says
Thank you, 2pots2cook, you too! 🙂
Maria says
are the 350 in C° or K°?
lyuba says
HI Maria!
It is definitely in Fahrenheit 🙂 (It would be quite hot in Celsius)
I hope you like them!
Allyson says
I followed all directions and it made a lot more than 20 cupcakes. Almost 12 more, did I do something wrong?
lyuba says
Hi Allyson!
Wow, that is definitely a lot more cupcakes! You used a standard side muffin/cupcake pan? No a mini, right? Also, you filled each cup about 3/4 of the way full? If so, I’m not sure why you had so many 🙂
Allyson says
Thank you for replying. Yes, standard muffin tin filled 3/4 if not a lot more. They came out delicious and were a huge hit. Plus we had extra to enjoy. Great recipe and will definitely be making again. Thank you!!
lyuba says
I’m so glad that you liked it!! I’m a little surprised that you go so many but I guess it’s a good surprise 😀
Carol Jackson says
I’ve never heard of dulce de leche. Where do I find it?
lyuba says
Hi Carol!
Dulce de leche is basically cooked sweetened condensed milk. It normally will take a couple of hours but it’s easily available if many grocery stores. I normally find it in one of the two sections, either the baking isle or the ethnic isle. As an employee where they have their sweetened condensed milk and you should be able to find dulce de leche right around there as well.
I hope you will find it because it’s divine!