Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Grease 4 6-inch round cake pans, or 2 8-inch round pans. Line with parchment paper. Or butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt together. Set aside.

Cream butter and oil together in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 1 minute.

Add sugar. Cream for another 2 minutes.

Add eggs one at a time, waiting for one egg to be incorporated before adding the next one.

Add vanilla extract.

Pour half of the milk in. Mix until combined.

Add half of the flour mixture in the bowl. Stir until combined.

Add the rest of the milk in.

Finally, add the other half of the flour mixture.

Stir just until combined. You don’t want to over mix cake batter, because that might make your cake dry and tough, since the more you mix, the batter starts to develop gluten.

Divide cake batter between the two cake pans.

Bake in pre-heated oven for about 15-20 minutes, rotating in between.

Cakes are ready when they are golden on the outside and cooked on the inside. Insert a toothpick in the cake and if it comes out clean, that means the cake is baked. Or gently touch the top of the cake, if it springs right back, it means the cake is ready.

Remove from the oven. Let cakes cool down for 10 minutes, remove them from the pans. Let them cool down completely before frosting.

You can use pre-made dulce de leche, or make it at home. To make dulce de leche at home, you take many different approaches. Check the post above to read 3 different approaches on how to make dulce de leche from a can of condensed milk.

My favorite way to make dulce de leche starts with an unopened can of condensed milk. Place sealed can in a pressure cooker with enough water to cover it plus at least 2 inches.

Then, bring the water to a boil and cook under pressure for 30 minutes.

Let pressure release naturally and let can and water cool down all the way before removing and opening the can. You can cook 2 cans at the same time.

When you open the can, it will be a thick darkened caramel inside.

Place contents in a container and put it in the fridge until cold and firm.

Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.

Cream at medium-high speed for 2 minutes.

Add dulce de leche. Cream for another 30 seconds, scrape the bowl to incorporate.

With the mixer off, add sifted powdered sugar.

Mix on low until combined.

Raise speed to medium-high and cream for another minute.

Add vanilla and mix.

If frosting seems too runny, add a bit more powdered sugar, or make sure your kitchen isn’t too hot, because it could just be that the butter and cream cheese are too soft. If that’s the case, pop the bowl of frosting in the fridge for 5 minutes, remove and whip again.

If the frosting seems too stiff, add 1 teaspoon of milk at a time until you achieve the desired consistency.

Place one layer of cake on a cake plate.

Pipe a ring of frosting around the edges of the cake.

Spread about 1/3 cup of dulce de Leche in the middle of the cake (depends on what size cake you’ve baked. I like a very thick layer, and I used about 1/3 cup on my 6 inch cake)

Top with another cake.

Pipe a ring of frosting around the edges of the cake, fill it with dulce de leche. Keep doing this until you reach the last cake layer.

Frost with the Dulce de Leche cream cheese frosting.

Cake will store nicely in the fridge for up to 4 days.