Dulce de Leche Frosting
Amanda Shulman
Photo by James Ransom
- Serves
- frosting for 12 cupcakes
This is the frosting I use for my dulce de leche filled cupcakes. It gets piped on in a thick, gorgeous swirl and then gets help from a dulce drizzle and a sprinkle of fleur de sel, for that salted caramel combo that can't be beat.
Ingredients
Homemade Dulce de Leche
- 14 ounce sweetened condensed milk (1 can)
Dulce de Leche Frosting
- 8 tablespoon softened butter
- 1/2 cup cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 2 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoon cooled dulce de leche
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This frosting is super easy to pull together and the tartness of the cream cheese cuts the sweetness perfectly. At only 3 tablespoons of dulce de leche, I don't find that a deep caramel flavor shines through, but the flavor is there, and you can up it to taste. Because you end up with a lot of dulce de leche left over after baking it in the oven, I used the leftovers to fill chocolate cupcakes and top with this icing. Delicious. I can see it pairing really well with a carrot cake.
Directions
Homemade Dulce de Leche
- Step 1
Turn the oven to 450 degrees F. Open the condensed milk and pour it into a pie or cake pan. Cover this tightly with tin foil. Set this pan in a water bath (a larger pan filled with warm water) so the water comes about halfway up the pie pan’s edge. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, until golden brown. Stir once removed from the oven and then cool until room temperature. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.
Dulce de Leche Frosting
- Step 1
In a bowl fitted with an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter. Then add the vanilla and heavy cream. Gradually add in the powdered sugar and dulce de leche and beat on high for about 5 minutes, until light and extremely fluffy. Adjust texture adding more powdered sugar to thicken, and more heavy cream to thin out.