Dulce De Leche & Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

So I'll start off by saying that the middle picture is just vanilla sugar, in case anyone was wondering. You can make it by taking empty vanilla beans and putting it in a container with plain sugar and let it for a a few hours, or days. The longer you let it set, the stronger it will be. Anyway, I made vanilla bean and dulce de leche cupcakes. They both came out great, but friends said that the dulce de leche cupcakes win. Here are the recipes!:

Dulce De Leche Cupcake:

Note: To make these you have to make the caramel sauce.

1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup caramel sauce
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes, take out and set to cool


Caramel Sauce:

note: I got this recipe from the back of my confectioners sugar bag

3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
dash of salt
1-1/2 cups powdered Sugar ( don't add the powdered sugar until after you add the sauce to your cupcake batter!)

Directions:

In a small heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter, milk and salt. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved.
Increase heat to medium and boil sauce for 3-6 minutes.
Set aside to cool.


Dulce De Leche Frosting:

Once you add the sauce to your cupcakes, mix the confectioners sugar in with the caramel sauce and whip together with an electric mixer until it's smooth.

Vanilla Bean Cupcake:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the vanilla bean, cut one bean in half, scrape one half and put it into the mix. Then you can put the empty bean in the sugar afterwards. Save the other half for your frosting. I scraped the bean and let the extracts sit in the milk overnight in the fridge.

So bake the cupcakes at 350 for 18-20 minutes, take out and set to cool.

Vanilla Bean Butter Cream Frosting:

1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup shortening
3 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
extract from 1/2 of a vanilla bean pod


I just decorated the tops of the vanilla bean cupcakes with the vanilla sugar!
Happy Baking!