Salted Dulce de Leche Cakes

Updated: Mar 15, 2021

Dulce de leche... the caramel king of flavors. These little cakes have all the richness that dulce de leche brings to the party, but carefully offset by the use of salt and a sour cream frosting. If you have never tried dulce de leche in a cake, then prepare to drool.

Dulce de leche was the kind of thing I had sparingly because I've never been such a fan of super sticky sweet desserts. I'm a sucker for a carefully balanced sweet and salty marriage when it comes to desserts, and so my ultimate goal with this cake was to achieve just that.

For this recipe, I do make my dulce de leche from scratch and I encourage you to do the same. It's SO EASY. Just requires a little patience and some monitoring from time to time. Make it the day ahead and stick it in the fridge and you're good to go. Feel free to also add any additional decorations to the top. As you can see, sometimes I leave it plain, and other times I add something crunchy like nuts or honeycomb!

If you think this recipe is a little too tricky for you, then feel free to pop on over to my Rose Water Cake. It's soooooo tasty, but a little different with the use of rose water. It's definitely one of my faves.

Kitchen equipment you will need:

a scale (I have converted the recipe to cups but it will turn out better if you use a scale - you don't need anything fancy though!)
stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or an electric whisk)
spatula
a large pot (for the dulce de leche if you decide to make it from scratch)
wire cooling rack (if you have one)
measuring spoons
a 6 hole mini bundt tin such as this one

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

1 14oz can of Sweetened Condensed Milk (to make the Dulce de Leche from scratch)
2 Large Eggs
25g (2 tbspn) White Granulated Sugar
25g (2 tbspn) Light Brown Sugar
1/2 tspn Vanilla Extract
112g (3/4 cup + 3 tbspn) All Purpose Flour
1 tspn Kosher Salt
1 tspn Baking Powder
100g (1/2 cup + 3 tbspn) Plain Greek Yogurt
3 tbspn Unsalted Butter

For the Sour Cream Icing

200g Confectioners Sugar
4-5 tbspn Sour Cream
1/2 tspn Vanilla Extract

HANDS-ON TIME: 30-45 minutes

BAKING TIME: 25 minutes (baking time may change depending on your tin and oven)

COOLING TIME: 30 minutes (before you ice them)

Method:

1. Make the Dulce de Leche a day in advance or a good 6 hours before you make the cake. Place a can (without opening!) of sweetened condensed milk in a large, deep pot of water. Make sure the level of the water is about 1 - 2 inches over the height of the can. Turn heat to high until the water begins to boil. Once boiling, turn heat to a steady simmer and simmer can for 2 - 3 hours. Make sure you check on it every so often as the water can evaporate and leave you without the 1 - 2 inch water level over the can. You need to make sure that the can never sticks out of the water as it could explode. MESSYYYYYY.

2. Once your dulce de leche is prepared and cooled, preheat your oven to 350F. Make the cake by placing your eggs and sugar into the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk on medium-high speed for 5 minutes until pale and doubled in size.

3. Turn your mixer to low speed and add your dulce de leche a spoonful at a time until fully incorporated. Then add your vanilla and whisk for a further two minutes.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together your flour, salt, and baking powder. Tip into your dulce de leche mixture and combine just enough, but do not overmix.

5. Finally, add your yogurt and your melted butter and whisk until just combined.

6. Take your buttered mini bundt tin and pour the cake mixture until it reaches about 1/2" below the rim of each one. This mixture will yield 6 mini bundts.

7. Bake for 25 minutes in a 350F oven. Cool on a wire rack while you make you icing.

8. In a bowl, whisk together the confectioners sugar and sour cream. Make sure to only add 4 tablespoons first so that you can judge if the icing is at the right consistency. It should be able to fall quickly off the spoon but not be too runny. Pour over the cakes with a spoon or measuring jug and finish off with a sprinkling of salt.

9. DEVOUR!