Tres leches is everything I’ve ever wanted in a cake: not chocolate. (As an aside: I love chocolate bars and “real” chocolate, but really don’t care for chocolate “flavored” stuff, like cakes or ice cream.) The three types of milk that make up tres leches are condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream. I made my own homemade condensed milk with Swerve powdered sugar substitute, but cheated with canned evaporated milk. This recipe is mostly adapted from our boi Joshua Weissman (who is a king), but I decided to experiment with a cupcake version. Which made it infinitely harder, lol. Each cupcake had to be poked and soaked overnight with the tres leches mixture.
Trust me, it’s worth it. Like, this cake is the epitome of *moist*.
Ingredients
For the sugar-free condensed milk
3 tbsp butter
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup Swerve powdered sugar
For the sponge cake base
6 egg yolks + 6 egg whites
1 and 1/2 cup AP flour
1 cup Monkfruit sugar substitute, divided = 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup
1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
For the tres leches mixture
Most of the homemade condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)
1/2 cup heavy cream
For the strawberry whipped cream topping
2 cups heavy cream
2 and 1/2 tbsp Swerve powdered sugar
6 to 7 crushed strawberries, or just eyeballit
Instructions
- Melt 3 tbsp of butter on a medium to large-ish sauce pan to start making the sugar-free condensed milk. Add the heavy cream and Swerve powdered sugar. Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 45 minutes or until thickened.
- Place your bowl of egg whites in the freezer for the time it takes you to complete step #4.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Start making the sponge cake base. Mix 6 eggs yolks, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, vanilla extract, baking powder, and flour until well combined with a hand-mixer. Set aside.
- Take egg whites out of the freezer and mix the eggs at high speed. Slowly incorporate 1/4 cup of sugar until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the egg yoke mixture until well incorporated.
- Pour the cake into muffin tins lined with aluminum cupcake cups (recipe should yield about 21-22 medium cupcakes). Eyeballit, and don’t overfill it.
- Bake in the oven for about 21 minutes.
- Let cupcakes cool on baking racks and finish off the condensed milk. Let that cool for a bit, then combine most of the condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a container with a good spout.
- Release pent up frustration from being quarantined by poking aggressive holes into each of the cupcakes. I used the pointy end of a chopstick to inflict mass damage to these cupcakes.
- Carefully pour a liberal amount of the tres leches mixture into each of the cupcakes, until each cupcake is visibly soaked or until the mixture is all gone. This step takes FOREVERRRR, but be patient. I may/may not have placed an Amazon order for a cupcake injector cuz of this step.
- If you want, plug up each cupcake with some of the condensed milk on top. Cover the cupcakes with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight.
- Next morning, crush strawberries with a mortar and pestle. Mix heavy cream and Swerve powdered sugar in a bowl until visibly thicc. Fold in strawberries into whipped cream.
- Add a generous helping of the strawberry whipped cream on top of each tres leches cupcake.
- Enjoy– you deserve it!
Y’all, low key… quarantine was starting to grind on me. But this Sunday, Sam and I attended online worship together for the first time in a long time and that was the mental reset we both needed. Everything changes… when You walk into the room. Trust in Him. We will get through this, if we set our minds on things above, and not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2).
Until the next post, stay safe and continue to be prayerful.
-Mimi 🙂
