Chocolate Caramel filled Cupcakes have chocolate cream cheese frosting, caramel drizzle, and are filled with luscious dulce de leche. Gourmet style!
These are chocolate cupcakes from cake mix with different ingredients, making them a fairly easy bakery style cupcake. These have chocolate pudding mix in them, just like my Chocolate Pudding Mix Cookies and it makes them EXTRA soft!
You really can't go wrong with chocolate cupcakes filled with caramel. Chocolate and caramel are positively dreamy together in other desserts too, like in German Chocolate Cookies. These are award-winning chocolate cupcakes! They have graced the table of many a bake sale and are beloved by many.
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⭐️ Why These Chocolate Cupcakes are THE BEST
- Pudding mix is added to level up this amazing recipe.
- There's caramel AKA Dulce de Leche suffed inside the cupcakes, then drizzled on top so we can live our extra life to the fullest.
- The homemade cream cheese chocolate buttercream frosting is to die for.
- Milk is used instead of water in the cupcakes and it makes them extra soft!
🧁 Key Ingredients
- Devil's Food Chocolate Cake Mix - I prefer Betty Crocker or Pillsbury Brand. You could also use a Triple Fudge chocolate cake mix.
- Chocolate Pudding Mix - Instant, NOT cook and serve. Store brand or generic will work.
- Milk - whole milk or 2% milk works best.
- Sour Cream - helps the cupcakes to hold moisture for longer.
- Oil - neutral flavored oil like vegetable, canola, or olive oil works best.
- Dulce de Leche - homemade dulce de leche or storebought in a can.
- Cream Cheese - full fat or ⅓ fat work best for this recipe.
- Butter - salted is best, it tastes amazing in the chocolate frosting!
✏️ Substitutions
- Oil can be substituted with unsalted melted butter.
- Sour Cream can be switched out with plain yogurt or plain greek yogurt.
- The milk can be switched for almond milk or oat milk, but may change the flavor of the cupcake.
🆒 Variations
- Add crushed toffee or Heath Bar on top of the cupcakes for added crunch and texture.
- Add chopped nuts to the top of the cupcakes or inside for a delicious twist.
- Sprinkle some sea salt or crystal salt on top for a salted caramel version! YUM.
🧑🍳 Instructions
Step 1: In a mixing bowl, combine the chocolate cake mix, (instant) chocolate pudding mix, eggs, milk, vanilla, oil, and sour cream.
Step 2: Mix all ingredients for chocolate cupcakes together in medium sized mixing bowl on medium speed for 1 minute.
Step 3: Line 2 muffin tins with 24 cupcake liners. Scoop batter into liners, filling them about ⅔ rds full.
Step 4: Bake for 16-18 minutes, until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let Cool completely.
Step 5: Fill chocolate cupcakes with 2 teaspoons dulce de leche caramel using a cupcake filling tip (Wilton 230 frosting tip).
Step 6: For the frosting, cream together cream cheese and butter together until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder and mix well on low speed. Pipe onto cupcakes using a star tip (Wilton 2D closed star tip).
Step 7: You could stop here and enjoy your cupcakes. Or....
Step 8: Live your best extra life and make them gourmet style! Drizzle these cupcakes with dulce de leche. Optionally, top with chocolate sprinkles or crushed up Heath candy bar.
📌 Top Tips
- Use a cookie scoop for scooping the cupcake batter into the liners! It makes it so much easer to make evenly sized cupcakes, and is less messy than spooning the batter.
- Make sure to cool the cupcakes to room temperature before filling and frosting. Otherwise the caramel and frosting could melt!
- The best way to fill a cupcake is to fill a piping bag with dulce de leche and use a filling tip poked into the top of each cupcake.
- If you do not have a piping bag, a sturdy zip close bag with a hole cut into it will work to pipe the caramel into the cupcakes. That requires pressing holes into the cupcakes first.
- Add a sprinkle of sea salt on top for a delicious salted caramel chocolate combo.
Yes! Baked in a 24 cupcake tin, they would need to bake at 350 F for 16-18 minutes.
Yes! Make the cupcakes and frosting as directed, cool, and fill with dulce de leche. Do NOT frost them.
Freeze the cupcakes and frosting separately in airtight freezer safe containers. Thaw overnight and then frost before serving for the best results.
• Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix - always makes cake more moist and flavorful!
• Milk - adds richness and flavor that water just does not have.
• Sour Cream - adds a little bit of acidity to the batter that adds lift to the bake.
Not these! If the filling is too liquidy or the cupcakes are too warm when filled they sometimes do, but as long as the cupcakes are properly cooled and the filling is not too liquid they should be fine.
Any filled cupcake, especially with a buttercream frosting should be refrigerated and can be stored for 3-5 days in an airtight container.
Chocolate dulce de leche cupcakes are a show stopping dessert, it is much beloved and enjoyed.
🍫 More Unique Chocolate Dessert Recipes
📝 Printable Recipe
Chocolate Caramel filled Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
- 1 box Devils Food chocolate cake mix 15.25 oz
- 1 box chocolate pudding mix 3.9 oz
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
- ½ cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Frosting:
- 6 oz cream cheese cold
- 1 ½ cups butter 3 cubes, room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 4 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup cocoa powder
Filling:
- 20 oz Dulce de Leche or thick caramel. I make two 14 oz cans worth and use one for filling.
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 muffin tins for 24 cupcakes.
- Mix all ingredients for cake together for 1 minute on medium speed using electric mixer. Don’t over mix, it can result in lumpy cupcakes.
- Fill cupcake liners ⅔ full and bake for 16-18 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.
For Frosting:
- Cream together cream cheese and butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add vanilla, powdered sugar, and cocoa and beat well.
Assemble:
- Fill cupcakes with about 2 teaspoons of Dulce de Leche or thick caramel. I used a Wilton 230 frosting tip and piping bag to do this.
- Frost cupcakes generously with chocolate frosting. I usually use a Wilton 1M or 2D closed star frosting tip for these.
- Drizzle additional Dulce de Leche on the tops of the cupcakes and sprinkle toffee bits for extra crunch.
Kyson says
I’ve had these twice and they are amazing. Very rich and very good chocolate cupcakes.