Pumpkin Dulce De Leche Cupcakes

These cupcakes turned out fabulous! Thanks to http://www.cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/ and http://www.thesweetestkitchen.com/ I found this recipe for halloween this year. I was unable to frost the spider web on my cakes, but the dulce inside made up for it! They were sooooo delicious! This recipe definitely goes on my top favs!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Adapted from Martha StewartMakes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

7.5 ounces pureed pumpkin

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
Once cooled, using the cone method, fill each cupcake with a dollop of dulce de leche and frost with dulce de leche buttercream. If desired, decorate cupcake with spiderweb design using 3 tablespoons chocolate chips melted together with 1/4 teaspoon shortening.

Dulce De Leche

Adapted from Recipe GirlMakes just enough to fill cupcakes and use in frosting

Ingredients

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

boiling water

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Open up the can and pour the sweetened-condensed milk into a pie pan. Cover tightly with foil. Place into a larger pan and pour boiling water in larger pan & around pie plate (level of water should be about halfway up the pie plate). Don’t let any water seep up and into the pie plate.
Place in oven and bake for 1 hour. At the one hour point, peel off foil and check for progress. If the mixture has thickened and turned a caramelly color, it’s done. If it doesn’t quite look thick enough or dark enough, cover it up and bake it a little longer (mine took 75 minutes).
When the mixture appears to have turned into a nice, thick caramel, remove from the oven. Let sit for a few minutes, and then beat with an electric mixer until smooth.

Dulce De Leche Buttercream

Adapted from Joy The Baker

Makes enough to generously frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons prepared dulce de leche

Method

Cream together softened butter and powdered sugar on low using an electric mixer. Add cream and vanilla and beat on medium speed until smooth and no lumps appear. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the prepared dulce de leche and beat to incorporate.

MILK

A truely indulgent place to go!! I L-O-V-E MILK!! The food is tasty and comforting and the desserts are amazing! It's a small shop that sits in front of Beverly Blvd right down the street from the infamous New Beverly Cinema (where I get my dose of exploitation movie education every now and again...thanks to my hubby!). They feature a daily menu aside from the regulars of sandwiches, soups, salads and pastas which is always a crowd pleaser. I suggest the crispy half chicken with a basil risotto cake, oven dried tomatoes, olives, roasted fennel and citrus sauce! YUM! But who am I kidding.....I come for the DESSERT!! I like to sit right in front next to the display case full of cupcakes, blue velvet cakes, cookies, macaroons, muffins, scones, blondies, moon pies...just to name a few.It's deadly! While I wait for my lunch to be prepared I can already fantasize about which desserts I have to have and which ones I want to try. In the end I can't resist the ice cream. This isn't just any old ice cream. MILK makes their ice cream in house and always surprises me with seasonal flavors, such as blood orange sorbet, pumpkin choc. chip, thai tea and banana dulce de leche!

No matter how much I love the desserts here, the food is still on my top list! The hot pressed sandwiches never disapoint! Check these out!!



Prosciutto & Provolone-with arugula, slivered potatoes, pickled onions and cabbage and black pepper cream (all sammies only 9$) The potatoes in the sandwhich defintely bring out the flavors. I had it once before without the potatoes and the mixture of the prosciutto and provolone was just too salty.


Media Noche-roasted pulled pork and ham with manchego cheese, pickles, and roasted garlic mayo. Always a crowd pleaser in my book! I loved the pulled pork and the pickles are the best!




Turkey BLTC-turkey breast, crispy bacon, lettuce, tomato, aged cheddar cheese and lemon mayo. It's a good sandwich, but I felt it was lacking a bit of bacon. But the lemon mayo was the highlight!

DESSERTS!!
I think one of the reasons why I always get the ice cream is because there are so many variations of recipes for the ice cream. You can: Make an ice cream sandwhich (choose any ice cream you like and any 2 homemade cookies), Shakes, Malts or Floats (either choose one of the concoctions created by MILK or create your own), Make an ice cream sundae (choose one from MILK or your own; comes with your choice of topping, sauce and with vanilla, chocolate, cookies n' cream or starwberry ice cream), or a Dipping Station (choose either of the 4 ice creams with choice of it dipped in Chocolate,Chocolate Mint Crunch or Butterscotch)...it just goes on and on!!! They call it the Ice Cream Bar! It's fabulous!!


Pumpkin chocolate chip and coconut ice cream


Pumpkin chocolate chip and banana dulce de leche ice cream sundae with chocolate sauce and nuts

If you've got a sweet tooth like me, then definitely hit up this LA favorite!