Everybody has heard of molten chocolate cake, so we thought we’d try to create a caramel version, with a toffee-ish tender cake encasing a runny dulce de leche center. Well, folks, it worked.
Ingredients
Makes 4
Filling
¼
1
Cakes and Assembly
⅔
1
¼
6
⅓
¼
2
½
Special Equipment
Preparation
Filling
Step 1
Stir dulce de leche and butter in a small bowl until well combined. Dollop in 4 equal-size blobs on a metal baking dish or baking sheet. Freeze at least 30 minutes or up to overnight until very firm (the sugar will keep it from freezing completely solid).
Cakes and Assembly
Step 2
Preheat oven to 350°. Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl; set aside.
Step 3
Coat ramekins with butter in a thin, even layer, then coat with sugar, knocking out any excess.
Step 4
Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed (use the paddle attachment if you’re using a stand mixer), beat ⅓ cup sugar and 6 Tbsp. butter in a medium bowl until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add dulce de leche and continue to beat until incorporated, about 1 minute. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined, followed by vanilla. Beat mixture on medium-high speed 1 minute (it might look slightly grainy and separated, and that’s okay!). Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in reserved dry ingredients until smooth.
Step 5
Divide batter among prepared ramekins. Make a small divot with a spoon in the top of each mound of batter. Place frozen filling onto divots, but do not press down into batter; you want the filling cradled by the batter but still on the surface, as it will sink to the center during baking. Place ramekins on a small rimmed baking sheet. Bake cakes until tops are browned, firm to the touch (be careful when checking as the filling may ooze out and it is very hot), and a tester inserted into the cakes, avoiding the liquid centers, comes out clean, 23–25 minutes.
Step 6
Invert cakes onto plates to serve. (If you invert the first cake and see slightly underdone batter—it will be tan against the filling’s dark brown color—keep remaining cakes in ramekins a couple minutes longer before unmolding. You can still eat the underdone one!)
Leave a Review
Reviews (28)
Back to TopThis came out incredible! Absolutely picture perfect. I was prepping some other things for dinner and popped the ramekins with batter in the fridge (while dulce was still in freezer) while I finished dinner. This did firm up the batter a bit but seemed to work out in my favor? I pulled them out once oven was preheated, made a tiny divot like the recipe says, plopped the dulce in it, and just added 5 mins to baking time to account for the chilled batter. These were divine and beyond impressive! The center was PERFECT, I felt like star baker.
kmarxmarx
chicago, il
2/15/2023
Many readers made their own caramel. It’s easy to do and delicious. I wish you’d “.perfect” this recipe using homemade caramel.
Vera
Boston
2/12/2022
I won't rate this recipe because I may have messed up. I didn't have too much trouble with the dulce de leche sinking (although I used both homemade (pressure cooker condensed milk dulce de leche) and store-bought, and I think the store-bought melted better). However, my cake came out heavy, gluggy, no air in them, and thick. I definitely tried to get air into the cakes when I made them, so it could be that I over-beat the batter or that I made a triple batch of these for a party. Because the texture was so undesirable for me, I didn't like the cakes at all, but clearly others didn't have this problem.
Elena
Brisbane, Australia
6/28/2021
Made this 3 times. The cake ALWAYS sticks to the ramekins no matter how much butter is used.
Anonymous
Toronto Canada
3/16/2021
This recipe is amazing, my absolute go-to-recipe. I added just a bit ground ginger, cinnamon and cardsmom at it made the cakes even more spectacular
Malika
Oslo, Norway
12/31/2020
I made this and it was delicious! Nothing needed to be changed or adjusted!
Anonymous
Georgia
8/12/2020
Absolutely delicious! The cake itself was incredible, so moist, so fluffy, and with that subtle caramel taste that sets it apart from any other cake I've eaten. The dulce de Leche just took it to the next level! It did sink to the bottom, which probably could have been prevented by using a high quality dulce de Leche. Unfortunately my grocery store did not have any so I made my own from sweetened condensed milk which was so tasty.
JennaPowers
Chicago, IL
5/20/2020
Delicious, will make again! Unfortunately the caramel filling also didn't sink through the cake, and therefore pooled at the bottom - as suggested maybe it needed more freezing, or perhaps a very thin layer of cake batter to cover it? But otherwise very tasty.
Anonymous
Australia
4/12/2020
Really like the flavor of these but the caramel did pool at the bottom of the ramekins for me. Maybe more batter in each ramekin and freezing the caramel for even longer would've helped?
Sangvi98
Atlanta, GA
3/15/2020
w o w, wow, Wow, WOw, WOW. This was amazing! I "borrowed" my friend's kitchen aid and the batter took 10 minutes to make. Me n da bois do recommend freezing the dulce de leche a little longer but apart from that, this was one of the best recipe's I've tried out so far. YUM!
Melissa Tran
Singapore
3/4/2020
OMG! This recipe was AMAZING! I made it as a treat for girls night and it went down a storm! I didn't have any store-bought dulce de leche so I made home made caramel and I loved it! Would recommend for anyone!!! Once again YUM YUM YUM!
Jessica_Bee
Vietnam
3/4/2020
I didn’t have the right ramekins so I did a successful conversion: Double the recipe and it will bake up nicely in a 9” round cake pan. I heated the ingredients for the filling w a splash of cream, salt, and some ground ginger/cinnamon/cardamom and served it as a warm spiced salted caramel sauce and a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. I also used salted butter for the cake and it came out aggressively salty, but in a pleasant way. I’d probably dial that back to 50/50 in the future.
Anonymous
SF, CA
1/13/2020
The dulce de leche filling sunk to the bottom of the ramekins and pooled on the bottoms of the cakes and ramekins. The cake itself is delicious, and the filling is, too, but I feel it would've been much better if the filling had been in the center. I may have under-filled my ramekins and not gotten enough batter, but I will definitely be trying it again, as they are still delicious. Good job Chris!
Anonymous
Louisville, KY
8/3/2019
Yum, yum, yum, YUM, YUM!! so decadent and delicious!
Anonymous
Lincoln,Nebrasky
7/15/2019
my first recipe with Bon Appétit and a definite success. Accidentally replaced regular with lightly salted butter and it was fine.
Chicago, IL, USA
5/28/2019