Easter Sweets

As I said before, Easter to be is equivalent with chocolate and candy. So it was only fitting that this year my Easter contributions would revolve around something sweet. I found the most adorable recipe for Easter Egg nests and brought them in to work. I was quite popular. I also made enough for Jon to bring some in for his coworkers too. Which in turn, made him quite popular.
And now for the fun part - since its always fun to hear disaster stories. SIL's birthday was Easter Sunday. Now I admit, in the past I've been very bad. I actually didn't know when SIL's birthday was until I asked this past January. We've never celebrated it, we've never even sent a card. I hold myself to blame, since Jon's family is not very "other" oriented and birthdays typically suck with them anyway. Well I wanted to make up for past behavior and ensure that SIL had a nice birthday since she had to share it with the resurrection of Christ (what a thunder stealer). So I decided to make a cake. Jon and I had watched a Good Eats episode not too long ago centered around milk. Alton Brown had made a tres leches cake that looked amazing and thought that would be perfect. I was making the cake Thursday to be eaten Sunday and what cake retains moisture better than one that has milk and cream dumped over it to soak?

Alton made his cake in a sheet pan, but I thought I'd be fancy and use my springform pan. That was the beginning of the end my friends.

Once again, I would like to remind you that this cake had to travel.....on a plane....and in a car... Now the beauty of the tres leches cake is that you pour the three milks over the cooked cake after poking holes in it, so the cake sits and soaks up the sweetness and the moistness. This is especially true in a sheet pan, where the cake is sitting in the milks.

However, when you make the cake in a round pan, the milks leak out of the cake. Yup. They leak EVERYWHERE. They leak right out the edges of the cake carrier. And since its not just regular old milk, its VERY sticky. And it stains. By the time we arrived at our destination, I was covered in thick, sticky, residue from not one, but three forms of milk.

I was very concerned that by the time we cut into it, every last ounce of moisture would have flowed out of the cake, but luckily, it was still ridiculously moist when we cut into it. And SIL declared it the best cake she'd ever have and begged for the recipe (although I fear the moment she sees "Separate the yolks from the white" it will be all over.). So in the end, it was worth it. But would I ever do it again? No way.

Tres Leches Cake

6 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup AP flour
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp confectioner's sugar

1) Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour sheet pan (only because I want you to learn from my mistakes). In medium bowl beat egg whites with half the sugar until stiff peaks form.
2) In a large bowl, beat together remaining sugar and egg yolks until thick and pale yellow in color.
3) Alternately fold egg whites and flour into egg yolks. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cake sit in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.
4) In medium bowl, combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, 1 cup heavy cream and 1 tsp vanilla. Poke holes in top of cake with wooden skewer. Pour milk mixture over top of cake. Let sit for 30 minutes for cake to absorb the milk. Cool completely before frosting.
5) In medium bowl, beat together remaining heavy cream, 1/2 tsp vanilla confectioner's sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread over top of cake. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Serves 12.
Each serving has:

Calories		308.3
Total Fat		19.6 g
Cholesterol		169.5 mg
Sodium		79.4 mg
Potassium		165.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate		26.3 g
Protein		7.1 g