After years of making chocolate peanut butter cup cakes and cupcakes, I honestly didn’t think this kind of dessert could get any better. Then along came peanut butter dulce de leche.

I’ve got Peabody to thank for this new obsession but I wish I could say that I came up with the idea on my own because it really is a brilliant one.  Dulce de leche + peanut butter + heavy cream. That’s it. Three ingredients make up one of the most extraordinary fillings you could ever imagine.  We all know how dreamy dulce de leche is on it’s own but adding peanut butter? Oh mylanta!

So I’ve use this filling twice already and get the same knee-wobbling reaction from everyone who’s tried it.  It’s that good.  This time around, I filled my favorite chocolate cupcakes with it (using the cone method to cut out the cake), topped them with the best peanut butter frosting ever and then of course, threw a few obligatory bits of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup on top.  These cupcakes had people coming back to my cupcakes at Cupcake Camp New Haven two and three times.  When you’re faced with a room of 2000 cupcakes and you have repeat visitors, you know they’re that good.

I’m going to end this delicious post with a reminder about FoodBuzz’s Project Food Blog.  In case you missed my earlier posts this week, I’ve made it to the 2nd Challenge (The Classics – a foreign dish outside my comfort zone) and I recreated a dish without using a recipe called Irish Beer-Braised Bangers and Colcannon with Brown Sugar Gravy. Voting ends tonight at 9pm ET so please make sure you get your vote in if you think I should move forward to Challenge 3, Luxury Dinner Party, which I’ll be hosting this weekend regardless of the voting outcome. You’ve got to be signed up for FoodBuzz but if you’re not, it only takes a few seconds to do so.  Here’s what you do:

1. Click on the link in paragraph above    2. If you’d like to vote for my entry, click on the gray heart under the Buick LaCrosse symbol (be sure to read the entry post too!)    3. sign-up if you haven’t already.  You won’t need to sign up again for voting in subsequent challenges.

Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche Cupcakes
sources:
Devil’s Food Chocolate Cupcakes: Martha Stewart (yields 24-27 cupcakes)
Peanut Butter Frosting: Ina Garten (a double recipe will yield enough for 2 dozen cupcakes)
Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche: adapted from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, recipe follows

For the Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche:
(enough to fill at least 2 dozen standard cupcakes)

  • 1 cup Dulce de Leche (I bought mine, you can make yours)
  • 2/3 cup peanut butter
  • ¼ -1/3 cup heavy cream (depending on how thick you want your sauce/filling)

In a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, heat together peanut butter, Dulce de Leche, and ¼ cup heavy cream, whisking the whole time until all the ingredients are fully combined and sauce is smooth. If sauce is too thick, add more cream. You want to make sure you can pipe it into the cupcakes, so add the extra cream in small amounts until you reach the right thickness. Keep in mind that the sauce will thicken as it cools. Heat until warm.