tres leches

This cupcake was a lot of fun to make. It's not a traditional tres leches, because all the milk would be too sloppy for a cupcake. Rather, this is my cupcake-take on the flavors of a tres leches cake - a basic, white cupcake, with a blob of dulce de leche (or caramel) in the middle, frosted with whipped cream and topped with toasted coconuts. I have to give props to the Cupcake Bakeshop blog for the basic cupcake recipe and for the explanation of how to make dulce de leche. And I have to give props to my husband for suggesting that I toast the coconut.

This cupcake also marks my first paid cupcake gig. Thanks to Lisa at YCC for giving me and my pans a chance! And thanks to the folks at New Explorers High School for being such a wonderful test audience.

Cupcakes
22-24 regular cupcakes / 375-350 degree oven

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat butter on high until soft.
Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
Add to mixer bowl. Add the milk and vanilla. Mix to combine.
Scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full.
Bake for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Dulce de Leche
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

Immerse closed can on its side in a pot of boiling water.
Leave on a simmer or light boil for 2 hours topping off with water as needed. Be careful not to let the water dry out.
Remove from heat and let cool thoroughly (do not open the can while it's still hot) before opening.
Condensed milk should be thick and a nice caramel color.

Whipped Cream Frosting
In a mixing bowl, add 1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 2 Tablespoon sugar. Beat until peaks form.

Toasted Coconut
Place shredded coconut on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven. Stir often, until the coconut is dry and mostly toasted light brown with some white shreds, about 2 to 4 minutes.

How to get the caramel blob into the middle of your cupcakes:

Use a small paring knife to cut a cone out of the top of the cupcake. Flip the top over and cut off the bottom of the cone.
Fill the cavity with a teaspoon of dulce de leche.
3. Replace the top of the cone.
4. Frost, then sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Here's something interesting that I learned on Wikipedia about the process by which the sweetened condensed milk becomes dulce de leche:
The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring the addition of heat. Like caramelization, it is a form of non-enzymatic browning. The reactive carbonyl group of the sugar interacts with the nucleophilic amino group of the amino acid, and interesting but poorly characterized odor and flavor molecules result. This process accelerates in an alkaline environment because the amino groups do not neutralize. This reaction is the basis of the flavoring industry, since the type of amino acid determines the resulting flavor.
In the process, hundreds of different flavor compounds are created. These compounds in turn break down to form yet more new flavor compounds, and so on. Each type of food has a very distinctive set of flavor compounds that are formed during the Maillard reaction. It is these same compounds that flavor scientists have used over the years to create artificial flavors.
Although used since ancient times, the reaction is named after the chemist Louis-Camille Maillard who investigated it in the 1910s.