Sunday baking: Spice cupcakes with Dulce de Leche

Someone on the forum I frequent mentioned dulce de leche this weekend and it got me interested. I am a sucker for caramel and when I found this recipe I had to try it, though I did adapt it slightly. It turned out beautifully and was very low maintenance: not very much stirring at all, although I should have beaten it at the end because the texture looks a bit grainy. Doesn't taste grainy though, thankfully.

This sweet confection called for a cupcake with bite, not too sweet, and I was inspired by an amazing smoothie I had at this cafe while I was in Perth last week (I am plucking up the courage to email them and ask for the recipe...) which was full of cardamom, cinnamon and vanilla. So I adapted what has become my cupcake recipe of the moment.

Dulce de leche:
750ml gold top milk
375g caster sugar
Pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down until it's at a bare simmer. Stir every 5-10 minutes to keep it from sticking...
...I should maybe say here that we have an awesome set of saucepans which conduct heat extremely well, which probably helped with the not-catching part of making this, so you might want to take care, depending on your pans...
Keep at a bare simmer for 45 mins-1 hour. The mixture will thicken and turn pale brown. Don't worry about it looking too liquid because it will set firmer when it cools. Pour into jars and refrigerate when cooled.

Cupcakes:
3 cups self-raising flour
2 cups caster sugar
8oz butter
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups milk
Nutmeg
6 cardamom pods

Start by infusing the milk. Bash the cardamom pods until they break open and then tip the pods and seeds into the milk in a saucepan. Heat until boiling. Boil for 5 minutes or so and then turn off the heat and leave to cool.

Combine the flour and sugar in a bowl with a good grating of nutmeg (I used maybe a third of a nutmeg, maybe a bit less) and then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Beat the eggs and vanilla with 1 cup of the infused milk in a separate bowl, then beat into the flour mixture in three batches, taking care not to overmix. Scoop into cases and bake at 180 degrees C for 20ish minutes.

Fill the cupcakes with the dulce de leche using the cone method. Dust with icing sugar.

I really liked these, although the cardamom flavour was quite strong and I'd probably only infuse the milk with 4 pods next time. I think the spice balances out the sweetness of the dulce de leche really nicely. I may repeat these for a weekend away in Cornwall next week, with a frosting. I just can't decide what sort of frosting would be suitable.