Halloween Surprise Cupcakes (with easy Dulce de Leche recipe)

This crazy cupcake actually started with an ad from Walmart. The ad popped up online and it showed chocolate cupcakes with orange and green "slime" oozing out of the middle. The slime was simply made of dyed vanilla pudding and it looked so cute and Halloween-y I couldn't resist. Since Hispanic heritage month just ended and Dia de los Muertos is coming up in a couple weeks, I thought a Mexican chocolate cupcake would be good to use. So then I started searching for Mexican chocolate cupcake recipes and came across this: Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese frosting. I honestly don't even know how I found it. It wasn't one of the results in my original search. It somehow just popped up while I was reading through other recipes but as soon as my brain read "dulce de leche cream cheese frosting" my stomach went "yes, please!!" But I still wanted the surprise "slime" element so I rummaged in the pantry and found a box of pistachio pudding mix, which, being green, I thought would be perfect. And that's how we ended up with this weird not really Halloween-y at all on the outside cupcake with bright green pudding on the inside. It's like the Frankenstein's monster of cupcakes, a random mish mash of ideas and flavors! 

Anyway, here's the process:

Step 1: Make dulce de leche the day before you want to make cupcakes. It's actually SUPER easy to make at home. Just take a can of sweetened condensed milk, put it in a slow cooker, and cover with water - make sure it's completely submerged (you don't have to remove the label, but I chose to so I wouldn't end up with soggy label bits in the slow cooker later). Put the lid on the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 8 hours. Once the time is up, carefully remove it from the hot water using tongs and place it in a bowl of cold water for about 10 minutes. Once the can is cool enough to handle, open it, transfer the deliciousness to a jar, and put it in the fridge until you're ready to use it. Oh, and make sure you taste a little - I mean, quality control, right? 

Step 2: Bake the cupcakes according the recipe. Here is it again: Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese frosting

Step 3: While the cupcakes cool, make the pudding according to package directions.

Step 4: While the cupcakes cool and the pudding chills, make the Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese frosting.

Step 5: Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, cut out the middle of each cupcake using a sharp pointed knife. 

Step 6: Spoon chilled pudding into the middle of each cupcake while the kids watch and argue over which has the most pudding because maybe that one just looks like it has more because the hole is smaller...

Step 7: Pipe frosting over the top of the cupcakes and add sprinkles or decorations if desired. (Yes, my frosting is droopy. I didn't have heavy cream and decided to experiment and see if half and half would work ok since it's half cream...fyi, half and half only half works, I think I should've seen that coming...but the frosting is still DELICIOUS!)

If you like the concept don't want to mix bold flavors, stick with vanilla pudding and color it green or orange. At the very least, you must try the Mexican chocolate cupcakes with dulce de leche cream cheese frosting. I'm pretty sure it is now my favorite frosting and I will find other flavor cakes to make it with. Oooh, maybe an apple spice cupcake? I have apples and half a batch of dulce de leche left...stay tuned...