Recipes: Mexican Vanilla Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Frosting

I was in Mexico last month and purchased some wonderful Mexican Vanilla while I was there. It smells so lovely and decadent that I have been just waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. This weekend my mother in law asked me to make cupcakes for my father in law's 60th birthday party. While I was trying to decide on a flavor of cupcakes to make, I thought, I have to use that Mexican Vanilla! So Mexican vanilla cupcakes with dulce de leche frosting were born.

The cupcakes were the same recipe as my Very Vanilla cupcakes with a heaping extra helping of mexican vanilla extract and no vanilla beans. The frosting recipe was inspired by a wonderful salted caramel frosting I first saw on cupcake bakeshop. I made her recipe for chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel frosting last year to rave reviews! In this case, I used the same basic recipe, substituting dulce de leche for the salted caramel. I did use about twice as much dulce de leche as is recommended and the flavor came through really nicely.

I baked the cupcakes in beautiful brown paper pannetone molds I found at Sur La Table. To use these molds, I simply arranged them on a baking sheet and filled 2/3 with batter using an icecream scoop. I kept the temperature and baking time the same. They came out perfectly and I think the pannetone papers made for an elegant presentation.