Ingredients

The following ingredients have 19 Servings
  • 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)

Instruction

  • 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.