'Dulce de Leche' Cupcakes

Baking cupcakes is one of my favorite ways to de-stress.  It's a great way for me to take my mind off of certain things and channel my energy somewhere else.  When I was doing my undergrad in Louisiana, I used to bake all the time because I had teammates and roommates that would eat all of the cupcakes for me.  It is a little bit more difficult for me to bake now since I live alone and cannot eat an entire tray myself.  In either case, I still do it from time to time when I really need some kind of release.

These are my second favorite kind of cupcake to bake from scratch (the first being White Chocolate).  They're 'Dulce de Leche', which is basically a caramel made from sweetened condensed milk, and they are so delicious.  I generally use a recipe from Joy the Baker that can be found here.  It isn't too complicated and doesn't require a whole lot of expertise, although it can be a little bit time consuming.

 (I always tend to add a little more vanilla than is required to all my baking)

This batch turned out great and I was particularly satisfied.  Although I ended up only eating a couple before giving the rest of them away to students at the law school.  I'm really going to have to start planning ahead and finding someone with a sweet tooth to indulge before I bake from now on.  Maybe I should just call in all of my Louisiana friends and teammates :)