Recipe for Dulce de Leche Cake

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A simple and gooey single layer brown sugar cake soaked with dulce de leche syrup and topped with a creamy dulce de leche frosting.

This easy recipe for Dulce de Leche Cake is a dream!

Do you dream of cake? No? Just me? Come onnn, I know that you have to have some dreams about fluffy, sweet layers of goodness? Yes? Ok, that’s just what I thought!

Well this easy dulce de leche cake is the stuff dreams are made of. Decadent, caramel-y, sweet, and surprisingly easy to make. It’s a flavorful and rich cake that doesn’t require stacking of multiple layers or complicated fillings.

This single layer cake recipe is perfect for enjoying with your favorite hot beverage, and can be served year round. It’s simple to make, infused with dulce de leche flavor, and definitely a new favorite around here!

Can’t get enough of this caramelized sweetened milk? Well then you have to try a few of my favorite dulce de leche desserts: homemade dulce de leche (talk about next level!), dulce de leche cupcakes, or this luscious banoffee pie.

What is Dulce de Leche Cake?

This cake is a single-layer brown sugar-based cake that is soaked in flavorful dulce de leche syrup.

What is the flavor of dulce de leche?

Dulce de leche tastes similar to caramel, but it has a much more milky flavor. It is reminiscent of butterscotch and toffee, without being as sweet as those flavors.

Using a good quality dulce de leche and following the instructions carefully (ahem, room temperature ingredients, please!) will give you delicious results every single time.

Also, please don’t skimp on the full fat dairy. This adds much-needed moisture to the cake and is absolutely essential.

You’ll need basic cake ingredients like all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, unsalted butter, egg, milk, and vanilla. You’ll also need some light brown sugar and some full fat yogurt (or sour cream).

The most important thing to remember is to use full fat milk (or cream) and yogurt (or sour cream). The melted state of the butter results in less overall moisture in the cake, so using those full fat ingredients will add the perfect amount of moisture back in.

It’s also super important to use room temperature ingredients. This will give you the smoothest batter, and therefore the best textured cake with the perfect crumb!

So make sure to allow your melted butter to cool to room temperature, and take your egg, milk, and yogurt out about an hour beforehand to warm up a bit.

Some brands of dulce de leche have a thick viscosity, making for a firmer syrup and buttercream. Other brands are thinner, and will give you a messier result, which can definitely be a good thing if you like that ooey gooey goodness!

Whichever you choose (homemade, store bought, runny, or thick), just keep your preferences in mind when selecting the dulce de leche you want to use to make this recipe.

As a side note, if your dulce de leche is super thick you can easily thin it out to the texture you like with just a little milk or cream.

I’m ALL about that buttercream (ahem, I did write an entire book on the subject), and adding dulce de leche into the mix is just a whole new level!

For this recipe, I use vegetable shortening that has been softened to room temperature. This is because the dulce de leche thins out the buttercream quite a bit, and vegetable shortening holds its shape and thickness just a bit better than butter.

If your dulce de leche is super thick, you can use room temperature unsalted butter in place of the shortening.

In addition to the shortening, you’ll need some powdered sugar, dulce de leche (of course!), vanilla, milk (or cream), and just a pinch of salt.

If your dulce de leche is really firm, you may not need the milk or cream to thin the buttercream. So leave that out just until the end, and add a few drops at a time until you get the consistency you like.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a large bowl and give everything a good whisk. Set aside.

Then add the melted butter, brown sugar, egg, milk (or cream), yogurt (or sour cream), and vanilla extract to the bowl of a stand mixer, OR a large bowl with a handheld mixer. Beat everything together on medium-high speed until completely smooth and free from lumps.

Reduce the mixer speed to low, and slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients just until combined.

Once most of the flour has been absorbed, stop the mixer and fold the batter gently by hand with a large spatula, pressing any larger crumbs of flour against the side of the bowl to break them up. A few smaller lumps are totally fine, so no worries if you can’t get it 100% smooth.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan and place in the oven. Bake for 26-28 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Once the cake is baked through, remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan before decorating.

To make the buttercream add the room temperature shortening (or unsalted butter) to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment OR a large bowl with a handheld mixer. Beat the shortening on medium speed until fluffy and creamy, which works out to about 2 minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add in the powdered sugar, ⅓ cup dulce de leche, and vanilla extract. Once the ingredients start coming together, increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until completely smooth, which should take about 3 minutes.

If your frosting is really thick, you can add a few drops of milk or cream at a time, then mix, until you reach the consistency you prefer.

All sweet foods need a touch of saltiness to balance the flavor (same goes for sweet people!), so add salt to taste. I find that a simple pinch of salt does the trick.

This is going to infuse the cake with dulce de leche flavor, resulting in the most amazing and gooey cake you’ll ever have the pleasure of trying. It reminds me of a caramel-y, extra delicious tres leche cake.

To prepare the syrup, simply add ⅓ cup of dulce de leche to a small bowl or a glass measuring cup with a spout.

Add ½ of a Tablespoon of cream or milk to the bowl and whisk to combine. Continue until it reaches a consistency that is thick, yet pourable.

Stop adding cream once the mixture resembles the same texture of molasses or caramel.

Remove the cake from the cake pan by running a knife around the edge of the cake pan, inverting it, and patting the bottom gently to remove the cake.

Place the cake on a plate or serving platter that is at least 1″ wider than the cake, but a bit wider is better since you’ll have some gooey goodness running down the sides of the cake and collecting at the bottom.

If your cake isn’t mostly flat, give it a trim with a serrated knife so that it is level on top.

Use a skewer to poke holes evenly throughout the cake, going all the way through to the bottom. Try to poke as many holes as you can without totally destroying the crumb!

Slowly pour your prepared dulce de leche syrup all over the surface of the cake, letting it seep into the holes. You may not use all of the syrup, so just let your heart guide you.

Gently spread the syrup on the sides of the cake, allowing some to drip off the edges, but aiming to have most of it stay on the top of the cake. Set the cake aside and let it soak for about 5 minutes or so.

Once the syrup has had the chance to soak in, add the dulce de leche frosting to the top of the cake, spreading it super gently, aiming not to disturb the syrup layer underneath.

Spread the frosting all over the top of the cake using an offset spatula. Don’t worry about spreading it onto the sides of the cake, but if you want to, go for it! Once the frosting is in place, you’re ready to serve, store, or save for later.

If you want to freeze this cake, you can also do that!

Cake freezes really well, but you’ll have to leave off the dulce de leche syrup and buttercream until you’ve thawed the cake and are ready to serve.

Just thaw the cake at room temperature, prepare the frosting and syrup, and assemble once the cake has reached room temperature.

Dulce De Leche Cake Recipe FAQ

We served this cake at Easter and it was enjoyed by folks of all ages. There were a lot of “oooohs” and “ahhhhs” and asking for the recipe on the spot. And my dad, who is a dunk-the-slice-of-cake-into-coffee kind of guy, didn’t even need a fork for his.

That’s how you know its for sure a good one!