Tres Leches Coconut Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Buttercream Frosting

I lived in El Paso, Texas almost two years before moving here to Germany. It was there that I fell in love with tres leches cake, or three milk cake.  The cake is Latin American in origin and is so aptly named because it is a spongy cake that is soaked in three different types of milk.  Traditional recipes call for evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream.  And the cake has enough of each three milk so as to not be soggy.  It is delicious.

Our house in El Paso was literally two minutes away from a Mexican grocery store that sold these cakes in bulk.  Whenever I had a party to go to, I'd always get this cake.  I miss it!  So, in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, I decided to make tres leches cake for a potluck at work.  Instead of making a big cake, I decided to make cupcakes and I found this fabulous recipe online via Google.  Turns out, it's a recipe off of the Food Network.  Folks, I have never tasted a more delicious cupcake in my life.  Ever.  Not only was the cake good, but the frosting.  Oh, the frosting.  It is out of this world.

There are slight modifications to this recipe.  Instead of using heavy cream, the cake recipe calls for coconut milk and I was instantly sold on this because I love anything with coconut in it.  And the frosting requires you to make dulce de leche (which is like caramel), which I'd never done until last night.

I'll be honest...this was time-consuming and took a lot of work for cupcakes, but it was worth it.  Next time, I think I'm just going to make this into one big cake.  

I received tons of accolades for these and thank goodness I allowed myself to try one, otherwise, I never would have known just how good they were.  I injected enough of the three milks to ensure that they were soaked, yet not soggy.  And I piled on the frosting, as you can see.  Forgive me for my lack of frosting-piping skills.  It was my first time doing it!  Guys, you have to make this.  You just have to.  You will not be sorry! 

 

Tres Leches Coconut Cupcakes

with

Dulce de Leche Buttercream

{from FoodNetwork.com}

For Cake:

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs, separated

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 cup lightly toasted flaked coconut (Mounds or Angel Flake brand)

For Dulce de Leche Buttercream:

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (Eagle brand)

2 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

14 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening, butter, and sugar until light and fluffy on medium speed; add egg yolks 1 at a time, beating until all the yellow disappears. Add the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add alternately with the buttermilk to the creamed mixture beginning and ending with the flour.

In a small bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold into cake batter.

Fill standard paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to wire rack that has been placed over a baking sheet to cool.

While cupcakes are still warm, stir together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and the coconut milk. Using a meat injector needle, inject each cupcake in several different spots with about 1/2 to 3/4-ounce of the mixture. Or, poke several holes in the top of each of the cupcakes with a 1/4-inch wooden skewer. Pour the milk mixture over each cupcake while they are still warm, filling each hole. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight before icing.

For the Buttercream:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. To make the dulce de leche, pour the sweetened condensed milk into a glass pie plate and cover with foil. Place in a larger roasting pan where pie plate can sit flat. Pour hot water into the roasting pan to a depth of about halfway up the pie plate. Place in oven and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Stir until smooth.

Place egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl. Stir the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a small, heavy saucepan. Whisk in the water first, then the dulce de leche and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Remove from heat. Gradually whisk the dulce de leche mixture into the 2 egg yolks. Stir in the vanilla. Strain through a wire mesh strainer into a small bowl and set aside to cool completely.

Beat the butter on high speed in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the cooled dulce de leche mixture. Beat in the 1 cup powdered sugar until smooth and spreadable.

Frost each cupcake with a generous amount of dulce de leche buttercream. Refrigerate any remaining buttercream for another use. Sprinkle each cupcake with toasted coconut

Enjoy!

And boy am I going to make more of these soon!

Bowties with Ham & Sweet Potato Spice Cookies

My friend, Laura, had her baby shower yesterday afternoon.  She hits her 36th week today and is having her second little boy!

The baby shower was a potluck, so I decided to bring both a main dish and a dessert.

Pasta casseroles are one of my favorite things to whip up for parties.  One, I'm a huge pasta fan.  You can't go wrong with it.  Just about everyone eats it!  This particular dish was so simple to throw together.  The asparagus gives it a delicious crunch, the sundried tomatoes kinda give it a nice hint of sweetness and the melted havarti cheese just really brings it all together very nicely.  It's simply called Bow-Ties with Ham, and I got both the recipe and this picture (below) from Pillsbury.

Bow-Ties with Ham

by Pillsbury

3 cups uncooked bow-tie (farfalle) pasta

1 jar (16 oz) Alfredo pasta sauce

10 medium asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup sundried tomatoes in oil and herbs (drained and chopped)

1 cup diced cooked ham

1 cup shredded Havarti cheese (4 oz)

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 2-quart casserole with cooking spray.  Cook and drain pasta as directed on package.

2.  Meanwhile, in 3-quart saucepan, heat Alfredo sauce over medium heat, stirring frequently, until hot.  Gently stir in cooked pasta, asparagus, tomatoes and ham.  Stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese.  Pour into casserole.

3.  Cover; bake 35 to 45 minutes or until bubbly.  Top with remaining cheese.

I just love the fall.  I do a lot more baking at this time of the year because of the holidays and I love the aroma of vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin spice to completely saturate the house.  I found this recipe for Sweet Potato Spice Cookies in a Taste of Home Cookies & Bars book that I bought years ago.  Oh my goodness, the flavors in this cookie just meld so well together.  You've got sweet potatoes, cinnamon, nutmeg...and butterscotch chips, coconut and pecans to give it a nice crunch.  They were wonderful!  The kids especially loved them.  Even my husband gave it a rave review!  I am definitely going to make these again.

Sweet Potato Spice Cookies

Yield: 7 Dozen

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup finely shredded uncooked sweet potato

3 Tbsp orange juice concentrate

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1-1/4 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

1.  In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg, sweet potato, and orange juice concentrate.  Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well.  Stir in the remaining ingredients.

2.  Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto greased baking sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes or until firm.  Remove to wire racks to cool.

Enjoy!

~Pina Colada Freeze~

Nothing says summer to me like a pina colada--or anything with coconut and pineapple in it, for that matter!  On the 4th of July, my friend Maddie hosted a get-together at her house and she loves the combination of coconut and pineapple as much as my hubby and I do.  So....to help curb the El Paso heat and satisfy our palates, as well as finding something easy to whip up...I made a Pina Colada Freeze!

Literally, with three easy steps and just a few ingredients, you've got a nice, easy and tasty dessert that your friends will ooh and ahh over. 

Oh yeah...the dessert is supposed to be served frozen, but I found that it was just as wonderful--with a cheesecake-like consistency--as it sat out on Maddie's dinner table for a while.

Pina Colada Freeze
from Kraft Foods Food & Family (Summer 2010), kraftfoods.com

1 cup finely crushed pretzels
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter (melted)
1 pkg. (8 oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened)
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping (divided)
1 can (8 oz) Dole Crushed Pineapple in juice
1/4 cup toasted Baker's Angel Flake Coconut

1.  Mix pretzel crumbs and butter.  Press onto bottom of plastic wrap-lined 9-inch round pan.  Freeze until ready to use. I think next time around, I'll be using a springform pan just to make it easier.  Getting the plastic wrap off was a pain.

2.  Beat cream cheese, sugar, pineapple and toasted coconut until well blended.  Whisk in 1 1/2 cups Cool Whip; spoon over crust.

3.  Freeze 4 hours.  Use plastic wrap to remove dessert from pan.  Top with remaining cool whip.

Enjoy!!!

Shrimp Wonton Cups & Coconut Pineapple Bars

Wow! This is my first cooking/baking post in, like, over a year. I can't believe it. It's just that I've been so busy since I moved to El Paso a year ago, that I kinda just stopped cooking/baking. This weekend, I was invited to a friend's house for dinner and I decided to get off my butt and make something. And I thought that I'd start of nice and simple just to ease back into everything. And I hope it doesn't stop here. With the baby coming in two months, I'll have to start cooking more!

First off, I wanted to make an appetizer. So I made these Shrimp Wonton Cups. They're so easy to make and delicious. Now, I'd rather deep fry wontons any day, but I suppose baking it, like this recipe calls for, makes it just tad bit healthier. Only, I found that the shells soften up a little to quickly for my taste. And, these cups taste best when served immediately out of the oven. By the time I got to my friend's house on the other side of town, not only had the wonton cups softened, but the cheese was no longer hot and stringy. Apparently, no one else noticed. They were practically all gone. I'd consider this a hit!

Shrimp Wonton Cups
(taken from the Pampered Chef Celebrate! Cookbook)


24 square wonton wrappers
1 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
10 oz. shelled, deveined, cooked, medium shrimp, chopped
2 green onions with tops, finely chopped
1/3 cup grated carrot
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 Tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded mozarella


1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray a mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Using a pastry brush, brush one side of each wonton square with melted butter. Press each wonton, butter side up into muffin cup. Bake 8 minutes or until edges turn golden brown. Remove pan from oven to cooling rack.

2. Finely chop green onions and grate the carrots. Combine cream cheese, pressed garlic, and worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Blend well. Stir in chopped shrimp, green onions, carrots and mozarella cheese.

3. Using a small scoop, fill each wonton with a rounded scoop of the cream cheese mixture. Bake 5 minutes or until wontons are golden brown and filling in bubbly around the edges.

Enjoy! See how easy that was? Now for dessert...you guys know that being from the islands and all, I love anything with pineapple and/or coconut. So I made these yummy Coconut-Pineapple Bars that were to die for! Now the bars have a cake-like consistency. I think I'm going to have to come up with a good frosting for this. Anyone have ideas?

Coconut-Pineapple Bars
(from Simply Better, Easy Potlucks, May 2006)

1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 20-oz. can drained crushed pineapple
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 c chopped nuts toasted (if desired)
1/2 c shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 325. Grease 3-quart rectangular, baking dish. Set aside

2. In large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and baking soda. Add eggs, pineapple, and butter. Stir until combined. Fold in nuts and coconut. Spread mixture in prepared baking dish.

3. Bake about 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in dish on wire rack. Cut into bars.

And there you have it! Again, I'm going to try to post more recipes here in the future. Hope you guys stop by again!

Panipopo--A Tribute to My Hubby (Revised)

My husband, Malu, is from American Samoa, an unincorporated U.S. territory and a cluster of islands located in the South Pacific Ocean just southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa), where my father is from (so I guess this is a tribute to my daddy too). The picture of Malu (above) was taken during my first visit to American Samoa over two years ago. Anyway, all of us have wonderful memories eating panipopo--both Malu and my dad eating it while they grew up on the islands and me getting a taste of it while moving from Army post to post where we were part of numerous Samoan communities. Panipopo (I've also seen it spelled pagipopo) translates into coconut buns. They are hot, steamy buns baked in a pool of sweet coconut cream sauce and they are delicious beyond words.

I had honestly been craving this recipe, since it has literally been years since I had it--more like over a decade. I thought I would find a recipe and master it so I can make it more regularly when Malu returns. He's deployed right now and when he called, I explained to him that I was going to learn how to make it with a recipe I found online. He said that if I was able to make it, then I'd finally be the perfect wife. He's crazy-funny like that.



So I made the buns and they came out great. I personally like to drown the buns in the coconut cream sauce so that they are sticky and somewhat soggy. Apparently, my dad likes them that way too because this pan you see above had less coconut cream than another batch I made and he rated them 4 out of 10. The other batch (shown below) received raved reviews from him and my cousins at the party I took them to. I tried to find the recipe that I used and for whatever reason, can't find it. So I am posting another recipe that I found that should turn out the same wonderful coconut buns that I made. So here's to you honey....your own pan of panipopo will be waiting for you when you return!




Panipopo
(Samoan Coconut Buns)


5 3/4 to 6 1/4 cups All-Purpose flour
1 Package Yeast
2 1/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon shortening, margarine, or butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 cans coconut milk (can be found in the international section of the grocery store, typically near Thai food ingredients)
1 cup sugar

1. Mix 2 1/2 cups of flour and yeast. In a saucepan heat and stir milk; sugar; shortening, margarine, or butter; and salt till warm and shortening almost melts. Add to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Using a spoon, stir in as much remaining flour as you can to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and easy to pull - 6-8 minutes.


2. Put some Crisco shortening on your hands. This will add moisture to your rolls and make it easier to handle. Shape in a ball and put in a greased bowl. Turn it on both sides to grease the whole ball of dough. Cover and let rise in the oven on the top rack and below it in a pan put some hot water. (The steam from the hot water will help it to rise) about 45 minutes. Punch dough down. Roll 18 balls and cover for 10 minutes while you make the following milk mixture.


3. Mix 2 cans of coconut milk with 1 cup of sugar. (Add more sugar if you like it sweeter.) In 2 13x9x2 pans, pour in half of the milk mixture in each pan, put in 9 bread rolls on top (or you can make the rolls smaller to make more rolls). Bake at 375 degrees in the oven for 20 minutes or until bread tests done.

OR

You can do this the easy way (which Malu clued me into) and buy a package of the premade dinner rolls from the freezer section of your local grocery store. Let them rise from 3-5 hours. Pour a little over half of the coconut milk mixture over the rolls and bake until golden brown. Baste with remaining coconut milk at least two times during baking. Top with as much sauce as you desire, wait about five minutes and eat warm. Yummy!

Strawberry-Filled Coconut Cake

I got this recipe from the December 2008 issue of Family Circle. I saw the cake on the cover of the magazine while grocery shopping and decided it would be perfect for one of our family Christmas parties, looking just like Santa dropped some snow on a perfectly frosted cake! This was actually the first two-layer cake I've ever made and it came out beautifully and tasted wonderful too. Between the two-layers is some strawberry preserves and is very pretty when sliced and served, not to mention the coconut milk mixed into the batter gave the finished cake a moistness (is that a word?) that your guests will truly enjoy. If you're a sucker for berries and coconut, as I am, you'll love this cake. You can find the recipe at the Family Circle website by clicking here or just scroll down below. Enjoy!

Strawberry-Filled Coconut Cake
(from the December 2008 issue of Family Circle Magazine)

Cake:
3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk
1 cup sweetened flake coconut, finely chopped

Frosting and Filling:
1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 box (16 ounces) confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup strawberry preserves
1-1/2 cups sweetened flake coconut

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Coat two 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line bottoms of pans with waxed paper, and spray paper.

2. Cake: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and coconut extracts; beat until combined.

4. On low speed, beat in flour mixture in three additions, alternating with coconut milk. Beat well after each addition. Fold in chopped coconut. Divide batter equally between prepared pans.

5. Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove cake layers from pans and cool completely.

6. Frosting: In large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. On low speed, beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

7. Trim cake layers level if crowned. Place one cake layer on a plate. Spread top with preserves. Add remaining cake layer. Spread top and sides of cake with frosting. Remove skewers. Gently press shredded coconut onto sides of cake. Refrigerate 1 hour before slicing.