Tres Leches Cupcakes

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It's March and Easter is only a couple weeks away. Easter or las Pascuas (like we call it in Spanish) is one of my favorite holidays to get together with family and friends. To us, it's a laid back afternoon, where everyone brings a dish or dessert, and we just sit back and chat while the kids play. This year, I am bringing a typical Hispanic dessert with a twist: Tres Leches Cupcakes!

Holidays are the perfect time to mix the old with the new. I got the idea for Tres Leches (three milks) cupcakes while I was shopping for Easter-themed goodies at Walmart. I love M&M's® and jellybeans and knew I wanted to use them on a dessert. I love to keep a theme so I picked up a bag of M&M's® in Easter colors and 2 bags of Starburst® Jellybeans, of course Easter-themed as well!

For Easter lunch, I usually make a flan and a tres leches cake. This year, it will be an entree (probably arroz con pollo!) and tres leches cupcakes. Making tres leches cake or cupcakes is not difficult but it does take time. Hint: I do use a short cut for the cake batter! Also, there are many varieties of tres leches, this is the Cuban way, it includes a little rum and a meringue topping!!!

Tres Leches Cupcakes

Makes 12

Total Time: 2 hours, including a 1 hour rest time

Ingredients:

Cupcake batter:

1 box of yellow cake mix

3 large eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

Milk Mix:

7 oz evaporated milk

6 oz condensed milk

1/4 cup whole milk or coconut milk

2 tbsp light rum

Meringue:

3 egg whites

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar or lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with a double layer of baking cups.

Prepare cake mix according to package instructions.

Fill each baking cup about 2/3 full of cake batter and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove cupcakes from oven and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the milk mix. In a medium sized bowl, add evaporated milk, condensed milk, whole milk or coconut milk and rum. Whisk together.

After cupcakes have cooled about 15-20 minutes, pinch each cupcake a few times with a fork.

Place cupcakes in a plastic container. Now, with a spoon pour a spoonful of milk mixture over each cupcake. The cupcakes will soak up the milk pretty quickly. Repeat two more times. Tres leches cupcakes are very moist cupcakes. Once you have repeated this two times, cover the cupcakes and place in refrigerator for at least one hour.

Now it's time to prepare the meringue topping. This is my favorite part!!! Place 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a heavy saucepan with 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook over high heat for 2 minutes. Uncover pan and cook the sugar to the soft ball stage, 239oF on a candy thermometer, 6 to 8 minutes. Meanwhile beat the egg whites to soft peaks with the cream of tartar. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of the sugar and continue beating to stiff peaks.

Pour the boiling sugar syrup in a thin stream into the stiff egg whites and continue beating until the mixture is cool to the touch. The hot syrup "cooks" the egg whites.

Pipe the topping onto the cupcakes. I just use a plastic resealable bag, add the meringue topping and cut off a corner tip. Meringue is light and fluffy and so delicious! You will end up with pretty cupcakes like this! But, we aren't done yet!!

We need to make them fit our Easter theme. Time to use our candy! Usually, tres leches cake is topped with maraschino cherries but since we having these at Easter, it's only appropriate to top the cupcakes with a jellybean! P.S. I also used a kitchen torch to burn the meringue a little. You don't have to do this but I love the taste!

It's not Easter without chocolate so I added some of my favorite, M&M's®, all around the cupcake. Now my tres leches cupcakes look like adorable Easter cupcakes!

I mean, does it get any prettier than this?

Like I mentioned before, I purchased all my ingredients for this delicious cupcakes at Walmart. All the Easter goodies are right in the front at my local Walmart. Oh and you know I love to save my pennies and who doesn't? Click HERE for $1.00 off any two (2) M&M's® bags, DOVE® eggs (8oz or larger), SNICKERS® or TWIX® Easter minis (11oz or larger) and click HERE to save $1.00 on any two (2) Starburst Jellybeans (13oz or larger).