Tres Leches Cake

This cake is best baked the night before, then frosted and topped with strawberries right before serving.

Also... this is a huge cake that is quite rich, so could easily serve 10 or 15 (depending on their appetite for cake and tolerance for sweet richness). I always make too much cake every year. Next year, I think I'll try halving the recipe and making it in a 9x9 pan. Additionally, the original recipe calls for 3 tbsp of sugar for the icing, but I'd recommend 1 or even none--the cake is sweet enough as it is, and unsweetened whipped cream might help balance it a bit.

Something I want to try next time too is making this in a muffin tin--I think these would make fantastic little mini cakes!

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 eggs, whites and yolks separated
1 cup sugar, divided (3/4 and 1/4)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk

Tres Leches mixture
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

Icing
1 pint (16 oz/2 cups) heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoons sugar
1 lb of strawberries

Instructions
* Separate your eggs first, so your whites will be closer to room temperature before you start whipping them. Add a pinch of cream or tartar and/or salt to keep them from collapsing. If you don't have a hand mixer, a hand blender or regular blender will help turn the egg whites from translucent to opaque. But after that, use a hand whisk to take over. If you try using something with blades after you've gotten almost to the soft peak stage, the blades will collapse the whites.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Beat/mix egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Add milk and vanilla, stir.

Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.

Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.

Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into the middle of the prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, put back in the original pan, then pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all of the tres leches mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can.

Allow the cake to absorb the tres leches mixture overnight.

An hour or so before serving: wash, pat dry, then cut the strawberries into fourths. Whip the 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable. Spread over the surface of the cake. Top with the cut strawberries.

Original tres leches cake recipe from The Food Network

Mini Lemon Poppy Scones

In my desperation to find something, anything, to bring to the food swap on Saturday, I googled "what to bring to a food swap." It yielded some interesting results; not all practical or very good either. However, I did discover this recipe for lemon poppy scones, which reminded me of a small bag of poppy seeds that I have had for probably over a year (and which made the move with me when I moved out of my old apartment). I also love the combination of lemon and poppy seeds. I did end up bringing these to the food swap, and they were a relative hit--at least I didn't have to resort to giving them away at the end, like I did with my plain buttered popcorn.

I keep on trying to reassure myself about the popcorn failure. James doesn't think it was a failure; he said people liked it (which was true, to some extent, I suppose, as people did put their names down for it). But it was fairly clear that it wasn't terribly popular. But failures are there to teach you a lesson, right? One, popcorn is not a popular food swap item. Two, popcorn must be crunchy for it to be good. I knew this already, but I have no idea why the popcorn turned out not very crunchy. Three, lemon poppy scones are a better item to bring to a food swap than popcorn. Four, cinnamon and sugar are more popular than plain buttered popcorn. Five, lemon poppy scones are still more popular than cinnamon-sugar popcorn, even if you call it "churro popcorn." Six, people are food swaps are very generous, nice people and will trade you for your food even if it is subpar and worth much less than what they are giving you. Seven, better items to bring to a food swap are items that you consume in small quantities (like vinegar?), so that you can make smaller quantities and give away smaller quantities, while still maintaining a certain perception of value. Eight, baked goods, though common, are still popular. Nine, food swaps are a great way to build up a collection of canning jars. I could probably think of a tenth thing, but I'll be rebellious and stop at nine.

Mini Lemon Poppy Scones
Yield: Makes 8

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour
4 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter
*2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 organic lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon poppy seeds, divided
*4 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar


Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until blended. Cut butter into small sections. Add to dry mix. Knead until pea-sized pieces form, about 2 minutes.

In separate bowl, combine buttermilk with egg and stir, about 1 minute. Pour onto dry ingredients. Fold with fork until dough forms, about 2 minutes.

Add poppy seeds, lemon zest and juice. Stir until blended, about 1 minute.

Drop heaping spoonfuls of batter onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. For mini scones, you should have about 12. For regular scones, you should have about 8. Bake on center rack of oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Meanwhile, combine juice from 1/2 lemon and caster sugar in small bowl. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove scones from oven. Brush glaze over scones and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

Notes

* Buttermilk substitute: 2/3 cup milk (at least 2% or whole, not skim) and scant 1 tbsp lemon juice/white vinegar (typical ratio is 1 cup milk to 1 tbsp acid). Mix and let stand for at least 10 minutes or until you see small curds forming.

* Caster sugar substitute: Briefly grind regular white sugar in a coffee/spice grinder. You can grind more than you need and put any extra straight back into the regular sugar.

* For a cinnamon-roll-type glaze/icing, start with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, and add freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1/2 tsp at a time, mixing well with a fork each time, until icing reaches desired consistency. Mix in 1 tsp lemon zest (if you have it).You really need a scant amount of liquid to make this into an icing, so don't add too much at the beginning, like I did, otherwise you'll have to add more sugar and end up with way more icing than you need.

Original mini lemon poppy scone recipe from mnn.com