Instructions

Churro cupcakes:

1. Preheat your oven to 350?F and line a muffin tin with baking cups.
2. Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed. Once the butter is smooth and creamy, turn the mixer to low speed and slowly pour in the sugar. Keep beating the butter-and-sugar mixture until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg yolks one at a time, making sure to mix well (about 20 seconds) after each addition.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
5. In a small bowl, stir the vanilla into the milk.
6. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the butter-and-sugar mixture. You’ll want to start and end with the flour, and mix just until incorporated after each addition.
7. In a medium bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. It’ll be white and foamy. Fold the egg whites into the batter.
8. Fill your lined muffin cups about ¾ full of batter. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a cake tester stuck in the middle comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool completely.

Dulce de leche:

1. Preheat your oven to 425°F.
2. Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a shallow baking dish; a glass or ceramic pie plate works great.
3. Stir in just the tiniest bit of sea salt — a few grains will do it.
4. Place the pie plate in the middle of a larger pan (I used a 12-inch round cake pan; you could also use a roasting pan) and carefully pour in hot water into the larger pan until the water level hits about halfway up the pie plate.
5. Wrap the top of the pie plate with aluminum foil and put it in the oven. Let it bake for 1 to 1¼ hours, checking the water level occasionally (add more water if you need to). When the milk is carmelized, carefully take the pan out of the oven and let cool to room temperature, then whisk until smooth.

Whipped Cream:

1. Pour the cream, sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a standing mixer and whip until stiff peaks form.

Mini Churros:

1. Heat about an inch of oil in a wide, deep pan to 360?F. (If you don’t have a deep-fry thermometer, here are three ways to tell whether the oil is hot enough.)
2. In a medium saucepan, bring water, butter and salt to rolling boil. Reduce the heat to low and add the flour, stirring until the mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
3. Beat the eggs in a small bowl until blended and then pour in the saucepan as you stir.
4. Spoon the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a small star tip and pipe the mini churros right into the oil. Use a butter knife to cut off the squeezed-out dough when it’s about an inch long.
5. Fry the mini churros until they are golden brown. It should take about 2 minutes on each side.
6. Scoop the churros out of the oil with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to absorb any extra oil.
7. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon, then dump onto the churros.

Assembly:

1. Cut a small, cone-shaped hole in the center of each cupcake; this will be a well for the dulce de leche. Fill a pastry bag with dulce de leche and squeeze it into the center of the cupcakes. Wait a few minutes; some of the dulce de leche will soak into the cake. Then go back and squeeze more dulce de leche into the holes. Spread or pipe the whipped cream onto the cupcakes. Sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon-sugar, then drizzle with dulce de leche. Garnish with a couple of mini churros.