Today I made... Churros Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting and Salted Dulce De Leche Sauce

That was a mouthful! Technically I didn't make them today (look at that, starting a blog and already rife with filthy lies!). Saturday was my husbands first company potluck event since he started his new job. It was a chance for everyone to get together, enjoy the amazing Arizona weather and for the wives to get to know each other. They had decided early on a Mexican theme, lots of yummy Carne Asada and salsa, rice, beans burritos, queso dip and lots more. As I am a fully fledged Occa, I had no idea how to make any specialty Mexican dishes, so I went to my fall back plan for everything... DESSERT!

I honestly do not know how I became such a "Little Betty Crocker" as most people refer to me. I am not a sweet tooth AT ALL. It started out at a young age I guess when my Ma used to get me to make my famous sponge cakes, I never remember eating them all I can recall is baking them. Clearly. I didn't have one of those CPS blacklisted mothers. I was responsible for adding ingredients, she would actually bake it. I always had such a sense of pride knowing that people loved my baking, I never really felt that way about cooking everyday meals.

I really didn't know what to make, a cupcake is a cupcake, the end. I needed something that was going to be enjoyed by all and still keep with the Mexican theme. A friend of mine was chatting with me and linked me to a great site which had a Cinco De Mayo themed Mexican Churro cupcake. I was sold!

I begun this process on Friday morning as making the Dulce De Leche takes about 3 hours!
No... don't run away yet. It is surprisingly easy, you just have to be prepared to devote a little time to ensure the sauce doesn't boil too hard or burn. The recipe I followed said it would take between 2-2.5 hours but mine took about 3 hours and wasn't as dark and thick as her pictures depicted but the end result was magical regardless. I am working with a new stove, so it is going to take me a while to get temps right etc.

Once the sauce was safe to be left alone for a while, I started on my Churros. I LOVE Churros, they are the right mixture of crunch, sweet and soft gooey middle. Much to my amazement they are really easy to make. If you attempt to make your own from the link below, I recommend you get your oil temp right, too cold and they will suck up a lot of nasty oil, too hot and you will have oil splatters and burnt churros for days!

Saturday came making the simple vanilla cinnamon cupcake and cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I note here that you really need to watch what you're doing when placing these babies in the oven. Once again I sustained a non life threatening hand injury whilst getting 24 cupcakes into the oven. I'm now sporting a trendy cats eye style burn on my right hand. Maybe that's why my mother then used to let me use the oven... hmmmmm.

What can I say, they were a huge success and I actually ate 2 (and a whole lot of left over frosting).
If you want to give this a go, don't be discouraged by the long list of ingredients and processes, they are all really easy and she has laid everything out do be as user friendly as possible.

Thank you Bakingdom

*Sorry for poor quality photos, making 3 hours sauces and taking cute photos simultaneously are not for forte. Hey, I said I was a baker not a baking photographer.