The Next Cupcake Hero

Yep, I think I'm the next cupcake hero! This month's challenge by Quirky Cupcake was to make a cupcake with cranberries in it somewhere. In the cake, the icing or the filling.
So I went browsing for cupcake recipes and came across this one that uses one of my new favourite things, dulce de leche, in the icing, so I just had to make them! They do have cranberries in the cake and I had to garnish not only with toasted pecans but more dried cranberries, so yummy!



Here's the recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup dried cranberries (3 oz), finely chopped
5 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup dulce de leche
1/2 cup pecans (2 oz), finely chopped, toasted, and cooled
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put liners in muffin cups(I didn't use liners).

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing just until incorporated. Fold in cranberries.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until pale golden and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Turn cupcakes out onto a rack and cool 15 minutes. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese in a bowl with cleaned beaters until smooth, then add dulce de leche and a pinch of salt and beat until combined well. Stir in half of pecans.

Spread frosting generously on cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with remaining pecans (and dried cranberries if desired).

Makes 1 dozen