Indulgent chocolatey pumpkin cupcakes topped with an incredibly light whipped cream frosting and homemade dulce de leche made right in the slow cooker!
Do you have a 2013 culinary bucket list? I haven’t actually written one out yet but I have a couple of things that I’m thinking I definitely have to make this year, like yeast breads, cinnamon rolls, dumplings and of course, dulce de leche. But lucky enough, I get to finally cross that off the list.
I’ve been wanting to make dulce de leche for quite some time now but I’ve always been too nervous to boil up a can of condensed milk. But then I found out that you could actually make it in a crockpot so I just had to try it out. It was incredibly simply to make – so simple that all you had to do was put in a can of condensed milk in a crockpot filled up with water and left to “cook” on low for 8 hours. Too easy, right?
It’s actually a bit dangerous to have homemade dulce de leche lingering around in the fridge since I’m putting it on everything but then again, I can always start my diet next week, right?
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup coffee
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the whipped cream frosting
- 2 ¼ cups heavy cream, chilled
- ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
For the dulce de leche
- 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- Place condensed milk into a slow cooker and cover with water. Cover and cook on low heat for 8 hours. Let cool to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, coffee, 1 cup hot water, eggs and vanilla. Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist.
- Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray. Place into oven and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat heavy cream and confectioners’ sugar until soft peaks form, about 3-4 minutes.
- Use a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip to frost the cupcakes, drizzled with dulce de leche.
