teen cakes

 Tres Leche Cupcakes

                                            Ingredients

• 5 eggs, separated

• 1 cup sugar

• 1cup flour

• 1/2 cup butter, melted

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/4 tsp salt

• milk mixture:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream/1/2 cup milk

• 2/3 cup evaporated milk

• 2/3 cup condensed milk

• whipped topping:
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• confectioner's sugar (add to taste)

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F
2. Make sure you separate your eggs. Beat the egg whites, baking soda, and salt in a bowl with an electric mixer. Beat until soft peaks form (the tips curl down).
3. Once you've beaten the egg whites, add the egg yolks and sugar. Continue beating for about 30 seconds.
4. Next, fold in your melted butter with a spatula until all the butter has been incorporated well.
5. Add in your cup of flour little by little and start mixing it by hand (that is without a mixer, not with your bare hands).
6. After all your flour is mixed in, scrape the sides and fill your cupcake tins or paper cups about halfway (they'll rise).
7. Bake for 25 minutes.
8. While the cupcakes are baking, start stirring together the leche part of the tres leche in a bowl (the heavy cream, evaporated, and condensed milks).
9. Take the cupcakes out when they're ready (when the toothpick comes out clean) and poke holes in each cupcake using a toothpick. There should be at least 20 holes in the cupcake.
10. Using a plain old table spoon, pour about 6 spoonfuls of the milk mixture over each cupcake. Let it sit for a while
11. While you're cupcakes are soaking up the milk, start beating the whipped cream (click here for whipped cream recipe)
12. After the cupcakes have soaked up the milk mixture (they should look somewhat shiny and sticky), stuff the whipped cream into a pastry bag, or  the corner of a normal plastic bag (ziplock), cut the part of the corner that's filled with air, and pipe it onto the cakes however you'd like.
13. Refridgerate your tres leche cupcakes and serve!

Comments & Tips 

    I was a little confused and intimidated when I first saw this recipe. First of all, there's no vanilla or milk in the recipe. One might say, right off the bat, that must be a flavorless, discusting cake. However, I quickly realized that there was a lack of milk because there would already be a ton of milk added into the cakes after they baked. The vanilla just wasn't nessecary.

    Another thing was the butter. In the recipe I originally read, it said to have the butter softened and fold it into the batter. It didn't seem like that big of a deal as I was reading it, but it was one of those things that was easier said than done. If you try the fold in butter that is only softened, it will be very hard to mix and your batter will come out with chunks of butter all throughout it and you'll have to hope and pray that your butter will melt in the oven so that your cupcakes will come out right and that you won't be surprised with a bite of salty butter when you try eating it! Sorry, I'm rambling. If you didn't already tell, this was one of the major challenges I faced with this cupcake. Luckily, the butter did melt and the cupcakes turned out delicious (noo butter chunks). Anywho, next time I'll make sure the butter is melted properly. I even tweaked the recipe for that reason.

     Speaking of ingredients, I kind of contradicted myself with the addition of heavy cream in the milk mixture. If you read my comments in the tres leche cake recipe, you'll see that I condemn the use of heavy cream in the milk mixture. However, I offer you the choice of heavy cream or normal milk in this recipe. The reason is plain simple: I just wanted to try something new. I admit, I shouldn't have been so quick to judge heavy cream's participation in a tres leches milk mixture. I apologize. Both ways are equally satisfying. It's just my mom always made it with normal milk because thats what we had around. You, the reader, can make you're choice. Use what you've got and don't stress about it.

     This was my first time icing something with a piping bag (I actually used extra large, heavy duty ziplock bags). It was fun to see how it works! What you do is you put your icing into the bag and stuff it down to a corner. There's gonna be a pocket of air between your icing and the tip of the bag. With a pair of scissors, cut off that space (or a little bit less than that if you want to write something with it or do details). Twist the empty end of the bag up until your icing. Now it's ready to be squeezed out with a steady hand however you'd like. To make something like the picture above, start piping from the middle, slowly swirl outwards, and swirl back in and lift to form a point. I also did a dallop of whipped cream for others (just pipe a big dot in the middle). If you have icing tips (I do, but I've never really used them) you can use those too. Good Luck! Bon Appetit!