Chocolate cupcake with dulce le leche frosting

 

Saturdays are experiment days.

Since the dulce le leche I  last  made has no life except being used as a 'kaya substitute' for my breakfast toast, it is now the candidate of my experiment. An  elevated condensed milk  as such needs to be in the limelight and what better way  to show off than being on display atop  a cupcake.

This time round, I worked the flavor and color of my end product around the dulce le leche, hoping that hopefully its light brown frosting will would accentuate the tan of a chocolate cupcake. To avoid stealing the dulce's limelight, I did not stuff any form of filling into the cupcake. Yet, the cupcake did not linger on boredom because of the moderately spaced chocolate chips.

It turns out to be a good combination and should I do it again, I will add perhaps a little embellishment in the form of salted peanut brittle to elevate it to noveau cuisine status.

Makes 10 medium cupcakes

Cupcake base :

225 g plain flour

5 teaspoon baking powder

4 tablespoon cocoa powder

225 g unsalted butter, room temperature

170g castor sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

60g chocolate chips

Dulce le Leche :

134 g unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup dulce le leche

Pinch of salt

Method to make the cupcake :

Sift flours, cocoa powder at least 3 times. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, break up butter with an electric whisk. Add castor sugar and whisk until white and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.

At this point, preheat oven to 180 C.

Over 3 batches, whisk in sifted flour mixture until homogeneous. Finally stir in chocolate chips with a spatula.

Spoon batter into 10 medium cupcake holders, filling only half full.

Bake for 20 minutes. Cake is done when a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool thoroughly before frosting. If they are meant to be served later, do not frost until ready to serve.

Dulce le Leche frosting :

Whisk all the dulce le leche ingredients in this order, separating each addition by about 30 sec to a minute in between additions : butter - powder sugar - salt - dulce le leche

To frost, transfer the frosting into a piping bag or  chiller bag inserted with frosting tip. Frost on completely cooled cupcake and serve immediately.