Tres Leches Cupcakes!

Ok I know I haven't posted in FOREVER!!! But I finally moved to Dallas! I'm all moved in and loving Dallas, living close to Cameron, and my roommates!

For a going away treat I made Tres Leches Cupcakes. They are really easy to make and delicious.

I have discovered my new favorite recipe website. Yes, I know I frequently change, but this one will be in my top three for a very long time. It's tastykitchen.com, I'm sure I will be entertained by this site for longer than is normal. (Deboard always makes fun of me for my obsession with recipes.)

The website was created by Ree Drummond, aka the Pioneer Woman. I'm slowly starting to come back to cooking unhealthy food, and this website might be my breaking point back into lots of sugar, salt, frying, carbs, and calories. I'll attempt to change the recipes to be healthier... because my lack of exercise sure isn't helping me get into shape!

TRES LECHES CUPCAKES

Ingredients:
CUPCAKES:

• 1 cup Flour
• 1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 5 whole Eggs (separated)
• 1 cup Sugar, Divided
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• ⅓ cups Milk

 TRES LECHES MIXTURE:

• 14-½ ounces, fluid Evaporated Milk (1 Can)
• 15 ounces, fluid Sweetened Condensed Milk (1 Can)
• ¼ cups Heavy Cream

WHIPPED CREAM ICING:

• 1 pint Heavy Cream
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 dash Vanilla
• 4 Tablespoons Liquid From Maraschino Cherries
• 30 whole Maraschino Cherries

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

Beat egg yolks and ¾ cup sugar until the mixture turns light yellow. Add milk and vanilla.

Combine egg yolk mixture with dry flour mixture, stirring gently just until combined.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, then add final ¼ cup of sugar and continue beating until egg whites are stiff (I did this all by hand, but I would recommend using an electric mixer).

Fold beaten egg whites gently into the batter mixture just until combined.

Thoroughly spray cupcake pans (or they will stick like crazy and leave a mess for you to clean up!). Fill each cup about half way with batter.

Bake 8-10 minutes.
Let them sit for 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool them completely.

Then combine evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and ¼ cup heavy cream in a bowl. Whisk to combine thoroughly.

Cut waxed paper or parchment paper into squares. Put the cupcakes back into the muffin pan upside down on top of the squares. This really does work better than muffin cups, and it looks better too.

Poke each cupcake with a fork 2 or 3 times.

Pour milk mixture over the upside down cupcakes, about 1 teaspoon at a time. Go through the whole batch and then start again, repeat several times. The milk will sit on top of the cupcakes at first, and then soak in. Repeat this until the cupcakes stop absorbing the liquid.

Let the cupcakes sit about 30 minutes and start making the icing. You can store this for later use if you have a lot left over.

Start whipping the heavy cream. When soft peaks form, add a splash of vanilla and the juice from maraschino cherries. Taste the whipping cream and add more vanilla or cherry juice to your liking.

Top each cupcake with whipped cream and a cherry. Store in the fridge. ENJOY!

Sweet Cupid Cupcakes & Uganda Pizza

Another Wonderful Wednesday! Tedi came over tonight and shared a couple of her recipes! It's freezing and windy outside, so a perfect time to cook! We made pizza for dinner and since it's so close to Valentine's Day, we made very festive cupcakes decorated like cupid!

Last summer, Tedi and Blair went to Africa and ate Uganda pizza, and so this is where she got this pizza recipe. Since I didn't have a lot of time tonight, because of Pi Phi Misses and Sing, we store bought some parts of this meal. But you can always make it from scratch!

 Uganda Pizza

This pizza was incredible delicious and so simple. It's a twist on the Hawaiian Pizza. My brother LOVES Hawaiian Pizza, but I think this is even better. And on the theme of Valentine's Day... We made a heart shaped pizza!

 Ingredients:

• 2 Bananas
• 1 Pineapple, cored and chopped
• Canadian Bacon
• Ragu Traditional Pasta Sauce
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Oregano
• Garlic Salt
• Premade Pizza Dough (like I said, we didn't have enough time to make it from scratch) 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees (or to the suggested temperature of the pizza dough).

Core and dice the pineapple. First, cut off the top of the pineapple and use a corer to take out the core of the pineapple, then take the core and dice the remaining pineapple... And if you're like Tedi... You can drink the juice left over in the pineapple.

Next, cut the bananas and Canadian bacon into small pieces. Spread the dough into the pan, since ours was heart shaped, it took a little more effort to fit the pizza to the pan. We used a cup as a rolling pin to help evenly spread the dough.

After you smooth out the dough, cover the dough with a layer of the Ragu sauce. Next, put a think layer of mozzarella cheese and then begin to layer the toppings. Tedi and stuffed as many toppings as we could on the pizza. The more the tastier! After you've fit as many toppings on the pizza as you can, add another heavier layer of cheese on top.

To finish it off, sprinkle both the oregano and garlic salt on top of the entire pizza and stick it into the oven for 12 minutes, or however long the dough package indicates.

Tedi and Blair went to Uganda for a mission trip last summer, and during one of the days in one of the towns they came across this pizza, and I'm so glad Tedi shared it with me, because it's a great memory for her, and a delicious and affordable meal for me!

Sweet Cupid Cupcakes

Usually I put recipes on here for the taste, but this time I'm putting the recipe on here for the look.

These are Sweet Cupid Cupcakes, and even though you can make the cupcakes from scratch, we made these chocolate cupcakes from the box (again, lack of time). But we did use milk instead of water, probably not as healthy, but definitely more moist!

If you look through Tedi's pictures on fb you know she likes to decorate cupcakes. I told her she should open a cupcake shop named "Tedi Bear Cupcakes." I think it would be a big hit, especially in Bear Country Waco! But for now, I guess she'll just be a cool accountant that makes festively decorated cupcakes! It was so much fun decorating all of these with her. Annie and Ryan even took a break from studying and came downstairs to decorate a few!

 Ingredients:

• 24 cupcakes (any flavor of your choice, baked from your favorite recipe), we make chocolate cupcakes from the box to save time... And so we could focus on decorating our Cupid's!
• 1 bag of heart shaped candies, one for each cupcake (ex: Dove, Crunch, etc)
• Toothpicks (hold together wings)
• Marshmallows (wings)
• Rice Crispies Cereal (hair)
• Red, Blue, and White gel icing (lips, eyes, and hands)

Cream Cheese Icing:

• 1 pound cream cheese, softened
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Icing: In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

Frost the cupcakes with a butter knife or pipe it on with a big star tip. 

Decorating: After icing the cupcakes, for wings, use kitchen knife to cut two slits into the marshmallow for a feathery look, then insert a toothpick and stick the toothpicks into the cupcake.

Press a handful of crisped rice cereal along the top of the cupcake for Cupid's curly locks, then add a decorators' gel mouth and eyes. Finally, set a candy heart in place and pipe on frosting fingers.