It’s been awhile since we had some crazy cupcakes from a box, but I had to share these amazing little gems I whipped up for my husband’s office lunch this past week. I think we all know I could figure out a way to put dulce de leche in anything, so it’s no surprise it’s in these cupcakes – Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Stuffed Cupcakes. Yep, dulce de leche cheesecake was stuffed in these cupcakes! The mixture of the tangy cream cheese and that dulce flavor is just too irresistible.
I had to make these at 3 o’clock in the morning. I had fallen asleep with my preschooler,and then I suddenly woke up and remembered I had promised cupcakes to Nate. I lovingly dragged myself out of bed and made them. I’ll admit that for the first few minutes it was not fun, and then I started to wake up and the creative juices were flowing.
I was staring at a box of devil’s food cake and a can of dulce de leche and thought that sounded like a pretty good combination. But, I did not want to spend time making frosting and putting it on the cupcakes. At this point, I was wishing I had just promised muffins, but I came up with a plan. I had a can of cream cheese frosting in the pantry and half the can of dulce de leche. I decided it was time to experiment and hope for the best.
I’d recently seen an interesting blog post about using store bought frosting, heating it up, and pouring it over cake to make it look smooth and fondant like. I wondered if I could do the same thing with cupcakes and just dipping them, and I wondered if mixing in the dulce de leche would totally screw this idea up. I decided to go for it! I put the entire can of the cream cheese frosting and the last 1/2 of the dulce de leche can together, beat them together, then heated them up to try it.
It worked! I attempted to make an Instagram video with my dipping technique, but my iPhone is hating me lately. Â I need more memory! Â One thing I did figure out was to let it sit for 20 minutes before dipping. I started out waiting just 10 minutes after heating, to let it thicken up a little, but I found 15-20 minutes was better for the thickened consistency to look lovely on the cupcakes.
Now, about these cupcakes. My husband loves my cheesecake stuffed cupcakes. His absolute favorite, hands down, are these Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes. These are made from scratch, but if you’re lazy I do have a version made from a box, which you can find HERE. Nate says the box version is “acceptable” but nothing like the made-from-scratch version.
With that in mind, I decided to try making another cheesecake stuffed cupcake, and that is how Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Stuffed Cupcakes came about. Â He texted me after lunch and said everyone loved them and raved about how great they were, so I think these are a winner!
I’m not a big fan of devil’s food cake. I think it’s rather dry, so to improve the mix, I added a regular box of chocolate pudding to moisten it up a bit. Then, in order to get the batter stiff enough to hold the cheesecake in the middle of the cupcakes, I decided to add greek yogurt to the mix. Instead of the 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup oil that was called for on the box, I substituted 1 cup of greek yogurt (and you could substitute sour cream in a pinch as well).
The batter was definitely stiff, in fact, a little too stiff, so I added 2/3 cup of water and it came out the perfect consistency. I suspect if you use regular yogurt and not greek, the consistency would be close to what I had with the added water. But, I have not checked this officially.
So here’s how to put the cupcakes together once you’ve whipped up the two batters.
Print
Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Stuffed Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 38 minutes
- Yield: 24 1x
Description
A delicious chocolate cupcake stuffed with dulce de leche cheesecake and then topped with Dulce De Leche Cream Cheese frosting and grated chocolate.
Ingredients
- Chocolate cake
- 1 box Devil’s food cake
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup plain greek yogurt
- 1 box of chocolate pudding
- 2/3 cup water
- Dulce de Leche Cheesecake
- 1/2 can of Nestle Le Lechera Dulce de Leche
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 egg white
- Frosting
- 1 can of cream cheese frosting
- 1/2 can of Nestle Le Lechera Dulce de Leche
- Topping
- Grated Semi Sweet Baker’s Chocolate
Instructions
- [u]Cake Batter[/u]
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Combine cake mix, eggs, yogurt, pudding, and water. Beat on medium low until combined. Then, beat for 1 minute on medium.
- Set aside.
- [u]Dulce de Leche Cheesecake[/u]
- Combine cream cheese and dulce de leche in a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 30 seconds.
- Add the egg white and beat until smooth.
- Set aside.
- [u]Putting the cupcakes together[/u]
- Place 24 cupcake liners in 24 muffin tins
- Put a medium scoop of chocolate cake batter in each cupcake liner. Smooth out with a spoon if necessary.
- Add small scoop of dulce de leche cheesecake to the center of each.
- Then, finish off with a medium scoop of chocolate cake batter.
- Shake the muffin tins just a little to get the batter to smooth out, if necessary.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until done.
- Allow to cool before frosting.
- [u]Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese Frosting[/u]
- Combine 1 store bought cream cheese frosting can with 1/2 can of dulce de leche.
- Beat until smooth.
- Then, heat for 30 seconds in the microwave and beat again until smooth.
- Allow to sit for 10-20 minutes.
- Now dip each cupcake liberally into the frosting.
- Hold upside down for just a bit to allow excess to drip off.
- Then, set down and allow to dry.
- Grate chocolate over each cupcake.
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
37 comments
YUM YUM, YUMMY YUM ! That’s all I need to say until I make & bake these cupcakes myself. The, on tasting I’d REALLY know this YUMMY flavor. FAB photos. THANKS for sharing, Stephanie. Sarah in Minneapolis
You are definitely dedicated to make these at 3 in the morning! Look delish!
These cupcakes look delicious! I love dulce de leche.
I just commented on your instagram about how amazing these looked.
What an awesome wife you are – waking up at 3am because you promised the husband! That’s awesome, right there. 🙂
Please adopt me, lol. I wish I had your talent to make all these yummy creations. This is one cupcake that I know I will love. It has mostly everything that I like!
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Oh my goodness. They look so good. My hubby would love these.
Omg!!!! These look absolutely DELICIOUS!!!
Yum these look delicious! I would devour these instantly! So good!
Wow, I am seriously impressed by the level of creativity in these cupcakes when you were making them at 3am!
These sound and look delicious! I love your photography too, so appetising!
Oooo – I love cupcakes that have something in the middle. The Dulce de Leche makes this really different.
OH MY goodness the name says it all! These sound and look incredible!
These look absolutely delicious, Stephanie! Thanks for sharing the recipe with us.
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These cupcakes look fabulous. If they taste half as good as they look, I am in!
First of all dulce de leche for kids cupcakes? What a bunch of gourmands – I love that! I have not had dulce de leche mixed with chocolate that sounds like a win-win. My favorite cake or cupcake is devil’s food with cream cheese frosting, I love the idea of adding pudding to the mix to make it moister!
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wow you are amazing and so creative! I’ve got to try your frosting method!
I’m literally drooling all over my computer! YUMMMMMY!!!
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They looks amazing love baking and the kids do as well.
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Oh, man! Delicious!!
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That’s it! I am coming over for some cupcakes and coffee. HAHAAHA
These look so delicious. I want to make them right now so i can taste them. I will be trying this recipe for sure.
These look amazing! I am going to have to try these cupcakes!
I love, love, love cheesecake. These cupcakes sound so yummy!
I am huge fan of chocolate and cheesecake, this sounds like the perfect desert to have!
I am drooling! Dulce De Leche is my favorites! I want one of these now!
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I’m pinning this one for sure. Not only do they look amazing but they just sound amazing. My mouth is watering for sweets at 8 in the morning. Not a good sign 🙂
Those are delicious! Dulce de Leche cupcakes yum!!
Oh, my, those look amazing! I love the tip about using yogurt in the mix.
This looks soo good!
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Oh my goodness, those look heavenly! Of course you can’t go wrong with Dulce de Leche & you definitely can’t go wrong with cheesecake stuffed anything!
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OMG these look sinfully delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe with me..pinning!
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This looks like a delicious food to try to make. My daughters would enjoy it fully. Thanks for sharing, book marking it now!
It is my birthday today and would love to try to make these. They look and sound so good. Thanks for sharing.
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Yum! Can you send some of those my way? =)
Oh my goodness these look insanely good! And I love the print out with the recipe on it – so cool. Thanks for sharing!
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These cupcakes looks amazing. I actually pinned this already for later reference. I think I want to try making it.
These sound so tasty!!!!
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