Tres Leches

Literally translated, Tres Leches means "three milks," which refers to the three kinds of milk used to soak the cake. I first had a taste of this dessert when hubby brought some home from one of his staff at his old job. Its been a while since I've had it. Recently, hubby had mentioned that someone had brought Tres Leches again for their Thanksgiving luncheon, and I have been craving it ever since. So, guess what....I wanted to try to make it myself. I decided to do a cupcake version so I don't end up losing any of the good cream syrup as you would if you cut into a sheet-type cake. Having the cupcake liners helped keep the syrup in. It also helped that I used a foil liner. The cake is very dense, but it becomes almost like custard when you soak it in the syrup.

1 1/2 cups cake flour

a pinch of salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/3 cup oil

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

5 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

cream syrup (see recipe below)

whipped cream topping (see recipe below)

1) Preheat oven to 325 deg F. Lightly grease foil muffin cups. Set aside.

2) Combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, combine oil, sugar, and vanilla extract. Add eggs to sugar mixture one at a time until well combined. Stir in milk. Gently fold wet mixture into dry mixture, a little at a time.

3) Ladle batter into muffin cups (3/4 full). Bake for 40-45 minutes or until it feels firm and toothpick comes out clean.

4) Cool cake to room temperature. Pierce cake with a fork 20-30 times. Cool in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Cream Syrup

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup condensed milk

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Whisk together the three milks. Slowly pour liquid over cooled cake. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Occasionally spoon more milk, or the milk runoff back onto cake.

Whipped topping

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tbsp. sugar

Beat whipping cream, vanilla extract and sugar on high until peaks form. Spread on top of each cupcake.