Tres Leches Cake

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // March 4, 2015 // 53 Comments

A light and fluffy Mexican cake soaked in three different types of milk, making it incredibly moist and delicious. Piled high with whipped cream and infused with cinnamon. Quite possibly the best cake I’ve ever eaten!

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I’m a big fan of Mexican food, despite my mouth being a giant wimp! I don’t think I’ve tried a mexican dish I haven’t loved, and if my liver would allow it I would drink margaritas all day every day! We don’t get much Mexican food in the UK, at least not good Mexican food. I eat a fair bit of it when I’m in Atlanta since there’s a lot of good Mexican food there, but I’d still never tried Tres Leches Cake until I took matters into my own hands and made it for myself.

Tres Leches Cake always intrigued me, it looked yummy but I didn’t think it could be as good as everyone seemed to say it was, but boy was I wrong! Now this is the first time I’ve ever eaten Tres Leches Cake so I can’t vouch for it’s authenticity, but I can vouch for it’s downright deliciousness. I honestly could not get enough of this cake and I’m pretty sure I put on at least 5lb from how much of it I ate.

You know that episode of Friends where Chandler and Rachel keep stealing that cheesecake and Chandler says “I’m full but if I stop eating this cheesecake I know I’ll regret it”, well that was how I felt about this cake. I was so full up on cake but I knew I needed more, to stop eating it would have been the biggest mistake – it’s just too good! The other problem was normally I eat a little of my creations and then send them off to work with my mum, but since she was in hospital for over a week the cake stayed in my fridge with only me to eat it! (On a related note, my mum is now home from hospital and doing well, thank you for all your well wishes!)

This is a very egg and milk rich cake. There’s 5 eggs in it and, well, tres leches literally means “three milks”, once it’s baked the whole thing is soaked in a mixture of three different types of milk – double (heavy) cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk. I steeped my cream with cinnamon before adding it to the mix to give a subtle hint of cinnamon throughout the cake, and I think that is really what tips this cake over from regular delicious to never-stop-eating-it delicious. A lot of liquid goes into this cake, you might think it’s too much and the cake will come out soggy but I really do urge to use up all the milk mixture because there’s not one single thing I’d change about this cake – it’s not soggy at all, just ridiculously moist and to die for! To enjoy this cake at its best, you really will want to leave it in the fridge overnight after soaking before topping and serving so plan accordingly, the waiting is torture but it really is worth it!

One tip I will give you is, if like me, you do not have a lipped serving platter keep the cake in the baking tin. I made the mistake of removing the cake from the tin and transferring it to a lipped baking sheet to soak it, then I had to transfer it to the board I was serving it on. And that is not an easy thing to do in a cake that’s been soaked in 750ml of milk! Soak it in the dish you baked it in and you’ll have none of those problems and you’ll probably have a much easier time of soaking the cake through! Even if you have a lipped serving plate I would recommend soaking and serving it from the baking dish anyway, unless the presentation is super important for what you’re baking for.

Traditionally, tres leches cake is usually topped with fresh fruit and I had planned to top mine with strawberries – but considering it’s winter here the berries have been a bit hit or miss so I decided to just go with a dusting of cinnamon. I love how it looks with just the cinnamon, but I imagine it would be even tastier with some fresh strawberries if you can get your hands on some good ones – or mango I think would be really yummy, particularly with the cinnamon.

I really do urge you to give this cake a go, it’s honestly one of the best cakes I’ve had the pleasure of baking or eating. I adapted it from a recipe by Ree Drummond and, of course, put my own cinnamon obsessed spin on it! Do let me know what you think of it if you give it a go. What’s the best cake you’ve ever eaten? If your answer isn’t tres leches cake your answer might just change if you try this one!

Do come hang out with me on social media, I’d love to see you guys around there! You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.

Tres Leches Cake

2015-03-03 14:48:53

A light and fluffy Mexican cake soaked in three different types of milk, making it incredibly moist and delicious. Piled high with whipped cream and infused with cinnamon

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For the cake

140g plain flour (all purpose)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs, separated
210g caster sugar (super fine granulated sugar), divided into 160g + 50g
90ml whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the three milks mixture

100ml double cream (heavy cream)
397g can of sweetened condensed milk
340ml evaporated milk
1 cinnamon stick

For the whipped cream topping

600ml double cream (heavy)
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease a 9" x 13" baking dish.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside.
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks with 160g of the sugar on a high speed until pale in colour. Stir milk and vanilla into egg yolks to combine.
Pour the egg mixture into the flour mix and stir gently until just combined.
Whisk the egg whites on a high speed until soft peaks form
Add the remaining 50g sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks are just formed (see notes for more info on peaks)
Very gently fold half of the the egg whites into the batter until combined. Then gently fold in the remaining half until all combined.
Spoon the batter into the prepared dish and spread evenly. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown and skewer comes out clean.
While the cake is baking, pour the double cream for the milk mixture into a small saucepan and add the cinnamon stick. Heat on medium until it's just about to boil and remove from heat. Put lid on pan and steep for at least 30 minutes.
Place dish on a wire rack and cool cake in pan for 10 minutes.
Pour the steeped cinnamon cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk into a jug and stir to combine.
Keeping the cake in the pan, poke holes all over the top of the cake with skewer or fork.
Pour 1/4 of the milk mixture all over the cake while it's still warm and leave to soak in. Repeat with the remaining milk (doing 1/4 at a time) until all has been soaked in, making sure you get the sides of the cake too.
Once completely cooled, cover cake and place in fridge overnight.
To make the topping, whisk together the cream and sugar until you have soft peaks, spread evenly over the cake and sprinkle with ground cinnamon (using a sieve works well for even sprinkling).
Serve

Notes

Soft peaks look like - when you remove the whisk from the mixture, peaks should be just starting to form and will melt back into the mixture within a few seconds
Stiff peaks look like - When you remove the whisk from the mixture, peaks should be standing up straight with only the very tips folding over.
Cake is best the day after baking/soaking
Store covered in fridge for 3 days.

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

Adapted from Ree Drummond

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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King Cake Crepes

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // February 15, 2015 // 33 Comments

Crepes with a cinnamon filling, drizzled with cream cheese sauce and lots of sprinkles. Perfect for breakfast or dessert

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This Tuesday, February 17th, is what we in the UK call Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday – it’s the day before lent and pancakes are eaten to use up all the rich foods in the house ready for fasting. In other parts of the world it’s called Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday and is marked with parades and celebrations – the same principle applies, it’s about a last hurrah before the lenten season. I knew I wanted to make something to celebrate the day and decided on crepes, a very thin French pancake. When I was deciding to what to put in the crepes I was thinking about Mardi Gras and a big tradition in New Orleans on Mardi Gras is to eat something called King Cake – which is kind of like one big, round cinnamon bun with yellow, green and purple sprinkles. And so these King Cake Crepes were born! King Cake Crepes – try saying that three times fast!

In the UK we traditionally will make pancakes that are similar to crepes, but a bit thicker and with less rich ingredients, then we serve them with lemon juice and caster sugar – it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s honestly so good! I shared British pancakes on the blog last year actually. Crepes are a little trickier to make since they’re so thin, it took me a few goes to get the hang of frying them but once you get into the swing of things it becomes pretty easy – if it’s your first time making crepes, just be prepared for a few practice pancakes first! A good non stick frying pan is key here, because you really don’t want to use a lot of butter when greasing. Since crepes are so thin, you don’t actually need to fry them both sides so if you’re worried about flipping you can skip that – I like to cook them through on one side and then flip and fry the other side for 15 or so seconds to get a bit of colour on both sides.

How fun are these crepes though? I always love taking a type of food and recreating it with something completely different, it’s a lot of fun and you get all the yummy flavours of the food you love, but with different textures and ways of eating it. Now I have never actually eaten a King Cake before, but I’ve eaten more than my fair share of cinnamon buns over the years and I can tell you that these crepes really do do the flavours justice. The sweet cinnamon filling rolled up in the thin pancakes and smothered in sweet, tangy cream cheese sauce is so good, and the soft crepes, thick filling, creamy sauce make for amazing textures, particularly when you add in the crunch of the sprinkles! You’ve probably noticed I’ve used pink sprinkles here, I didn’t have any purple!

Since I was only making these for me, the recipe only makes about 8 crepes (depending on how big you make them), but it’s easily doubled if you have more people to serve. Or halved if you don’t want 8 – although if it’s your first time making crepes I would keep the quantities the same because you’ll probably lose your first few while you get the hang of it!

As I said before, Pancake Day and Mardi Gras are celebrated the day before lenten season starts – traditionally Christians would fast during Lent but these days most people give up a bad habit or certain foods. I don’t tend to observe lent, although some years I do like to use the time to take up something new, kind of like a new years resolution I guess, something to improve my life or mind. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to pick something up this year. What about you? Are you giving up anything for Lent? Or are you planning on taking up a new hobby or practice?

These crepes are going to be super yummy no matter what time of year you make them – take off the sprinkles and you have cinnamon roll crepes, amazing! Whenever you decide you want crepes, you definitely need to try these ones, they’re so good! You need them in your life, trust me!

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Red Velvet Pancakes

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // February 13, 2015 // 63 Comments

Happy Galentine’s Day! No, that isn’t a typo! Those of you who are fan’s of the awesome show, Parks & Recreation, know what I’m talking about. Galentine’s Day is celebrated on February 13th and is a day for women to leave significant others behind and hang out with their lady friends and have breakfast (if your S/O is also a lady, you can bring her along too) – ladies celebrating ladies! That’s my kind of holiday – breakfast foods and supportive female friendships! And is there anything more wonderful than female friendships? Or just women supporting other women? Us ladies have got to look out for each other, particularly when a lot of the world is constantly trying to tear us down by telling us we’re too fat or too thin, we wear too much make up or not enough, be attractive but don’t have any self confidence lest you be vain, don’t be a prude but don’t be too sexual either… the list goes on! It can be hard being woman sometimes, so today is about celebrating the unequivocal love and support that empowered women give other women – from genuine compliments given without strings attached, to unwavering emotional support, to dedicated commitment to friendship, and everything in between. Uteruses before duderuses!

“We need to remember what’s important in life: friends, pancakes, work. Or pancakes, friends, work. Doesn’t matter, but work is third.” – Leslie Knope (kind of)

I thought about baking something for Valentine’s Day but I don’t really care for the holiday, but Galentine’s Day I am all over! And what better way to celebrate than with red velvet pancakes? They’re full of love and yummy goodness! I wanted to cut them into heart shapes but my heart cutter seems to have gone walkabouts, so questionable rounds it is! And you can’t have red velvet without cream cheese, so it has a sweet cream cheese topping to really push it over the tasty top.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that doesn’t stop being true on special holidays, these red velvet pancakes will definitely be a winner for your loved one(s) whichever of the two loved filled holidays you’re celebrating – or both! I do encourage you to try celebrating Galentine’s Day though, it doesn’t have to be on February 13th – just any morning you and your lady friends can get together and enjoy breakfast foods and good company – and you’ll totally impress them with these yummy pancakes! I won’t be offended if you choose to make these for Valentine’s Day breakfast though, your S/O will be a very lucky person! Valentine’s Day also happens to be my cat’s birthday, which is it’s own reason to celebrate

And hey, if you’re single this Valentine’s Day and not too happy about it, these bright and delicious pancakes will be sure to cheer up your morning and make the day ahead a lot easier! Although I do feel obliged to tell you that you are awesome and you don’t need another person to validate how awesome you are, so treat yourself this weekend and celebrate you, you deserve it! P.S. It’s totally okay to want somebody to share life with you in a romantic way though, just know you’re wonderful by yourself too!

Now, let’s talk about these pancakes – they’re soooo good. They’re moist and fluffy with a wonderful vanilla flavour and that subtle hint of chocolate – it really is like eating red velvet cake for breakfast, but in a less frowned upon form than a big slice of cake (I fully support cake for breakfast though). And the sweet and tangy cream cheese topping drizzled all over compliments the buttery sweet pancakes perfectly, this really is a mouth watering breakfast or brunch. And the colour is just so fun and festive, they’re sure to make you and your loved ones smile – what a fun, special breakfast for the kids too!

To make these amazing pancakes buttermilk is an absolute must, there’s no way around it I’m afraid – but worry not, it’s easy to make your own, just add 1 tbsp of lemon juice or white vinegar to each 500ml of milk, whisk and let stand for 5-10 minutes, then you’re good to go! The acidity combined with the bicarb/baking soda is what makes these pancakes so fluffy, and it also gives you that unique red velvet taste! These pancakes have red food dye in them to make them a fabulous bright red, but the first hint of redness comes from the acidity of the vinegar reacting with the cocoa powder – you can make red velvet without need for dye at all (it just won’t be very bright!).

I only wish my photos did these pancakes justice, my photography skills were lacking more than usual when trying to take these I don’t know what it was! I bought a tripod and a wire shutter release for my camera and this was my first time using them, I think I just need to get the hang of them a little better maybe. I also need a better staging area, but that’s always been true! I’ll get there eventually, I’m sure. In the mean time, you’ll just have to make these pancakes yourself so you can fully appreciate them in all their glory – see what I did there?!

I’m going to bring these delicious pancakes along to Fiesta Friday today to celebrate Galentine’s Day with all those wonderful people (if you’re not a lady, you can have some of these pancakes as a Valentine’s treat instead!) So happy Galentine’s Day y’all and happy Valentine’s Day for tomorrow. An extra special Galentine’s greeting to our wonderful host Angie and co-hosts this week – Suzanne and Sue 😀

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Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese Topping

2015-02-11 23:06:47

Yields 12

Delicious moist and fluffy red velvet pancakes with a sweet and tangy cream cheese topping

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For the pancakes

250g plain flour (all purpose)
40g cocoa powder, sifted
70g caster sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
280ml buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar
100 unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled (plus extra for greasing griddle)
Red food colouring, approx 1tsp gel

For cream cheese topping

100g cream cheese
100g icing sugar (powdered/confectioners)
1 tbsp milk

Instructions

Put the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and salt on a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and vinegar. Add butter (it can be warm, but not hot) and whisk again to combine.
Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk to combine well. Add the food colouring, how much you add depends on what type you use and how bright you want it, add a little at a time until you get your desired colour. The colour of the pancakes will turn out pretty much the same colour as the batter, so it's a good indicator.
Heat griddle/pan on a medium heat/flame and grease with a little butter. Pour batter on griddle, use about 1/4 cup batter per pancake, and cook for about 1 and a half minutes, when the edges are bubbly and starting to look dull, flip and cook for another 1 and a half minutes.
Keep pancakes in warm oven while cooking rest.
To make the topping, put all ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour generously over stack and serve

Notes

Pancakes will keep well wrapped in the freezer for up to 2 months

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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German Cinnamon Stars (with a Georgia Twist)

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 24, 2014 // 24 Comments

German Cinnamon Stars are a classic German Christmas cookie, these delicious meringue cookies have been given a Georgia twist and are made with toasted pecans! Chewy, delicious and totally festive!

Merry Christmas Everybody!! It’s finally almost here, Santa is coming tonight yay! I’m bringing you a gift myself today and it’s Day 10 of my Countdown to Christmas recipes, in the lead up to Christmas I have been posting a festive recipe every day – Day 1 was Spiced Caramel, Day 2 was a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, Day 3 was Peppermint Puppy Chow, Day 4 was Mince Pies, Day 5 was Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake, Day 6 was Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies, Day 7 was Spiced Chocolate Orange Puppy Chow, Day 8 was a Spiked Black Forest Milkshake and Day 9 was Christmas Spiced Pudding Cookies. My final festive recipe of the year are these ridiculously delicious German Cinnamon Stars.

The yummy little cookies are traditionally made with almond flour and I first heard about them from Ginger and Ginger and Bread and I pretty much fell in love with them, I knew I had to make them soon. I made mine with pecans instead of almonds though because man, I just love pecans and I couldn’t pass up that opportunity! Plus, I’m spending the holidays in Georgia so it only makes sense to use pecans, right?! I swear I don’t purposefully just stomp all over baking traditions, I just can’t help but put my own stamp on them! I will make them with almond flour one day though, because these are too yummy not to make again and again, all year round!

These are kind of like Germany’s answer to France’s macarons (I have no idea which one came first, so maybe it’s the other way around!) – they’re made basically with meringue and almond flour (or pecan flour, in my case), just like a macaron. These go much heavier on the nuts though so they’re much more robust and definitely feel way more German – none of that delicate French nonsense (disclaimer: I love French patisserie, no offense meant haha) just good ol’ fashioned deliciousness in a nice, chewy cookie that could hold it’s own in a fight!

I read quite a few recipes for these in preparation to make them and most of them mentioned they were a pain in the butt to make, so when mine came together really easily I was sure I had messed them up somehow! I guess I was just lucky though because they came out beautifully, I really can’t say enough good things about these cookies – they’re so much flavour and such a gorgeous texture for only a few ingredients, it makes me stop and appreciate the art of baking even more than usual! It’s crazy though isn’t it? How you can put just a few ingredients together in the right way and you come back with something so delicious?

I did have one little problem with these is and that is I rolled a few of them out a little too thin so they over baked a tad, so a couple of them don’t have that gorgeous chewy centre. But it’s okay, I have enough of the thick, chewy ones to go around and keep everybody happy!

I know I said these came together pretty easily for me, but they do take a bit of prep. The night before I toasted the pecans to bring out their wonderful flavour, I like to do mine on the stove top so I can keep a close eye on them. I left them to cool over night and then threw them in a food processor to blitz them into flour, I did it in two batches with a 1/2 cup of icing sugar in each to help stop it clumping together and starting to turn into butter. You can process them as fine as you dare, mine was a little coarse as it started to clump a little but I really liked that texture. Once that’s done you just have to whip up the egg whites, add the sugar and whip until you have a nice stiff and glossy meringue. Then add your nut flour and mix it all up. Once your dough has chilled in the fridge for about an hour, you roll it out and cut out stars. Then top with some meringue and bake! Even after it’s chilled the dough is pretty sticky and can be quite hard to work with, it’s best to roll it out between two sheets of parchment. I didn’t have too much trouble with mine that way. This is not a cheap cookie to make either, I used a 1lb of pecans in one batch and pecans are not cheap (lucky for me, Leah’s mum bought me a 2lb bag from Costco) – you will get about 50 amazing cookies out of it though!

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Christmas Spiced Pudding Cookies

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 23, 2014 // 20 Comments

These Christmas Spiced Pudding Cookies are the perfect treat for the holiday season. Soft, chewy and full of Christmas Spice. This Christmas take on pudding cookies make for a whole lot of yum and festive spirit!

Well hello there!! It’s day 9 of my Countdown to Christmas recipes, we’re almost there!! In the lead up to Christmas, I’ve been posted a festive recipe every day – Day 1 was Spiced Caramel, Day 2 was a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, Day 3 wasPeppermint Puppy Chow, Day 4 was Mince Pies, Day 5 was Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake, Day 6 was Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies, Day 7 was Spiced Chocolate Orange Puppy Chow and Day 8 was a Spiked Black Forest Milkshake. And today I have Christmas Spiced Pudding Cookies for you.

Pudding cookies are my absolute favourite type of cookie, the added instant pudding mix makes them so soft and chewy and delicious, everything I want in a cookie! I hadn’t planned to make these cookies but then I was at the grocery store and came across these pumpkin spice chips and had to buy them! I wasn’t sure what I’d make of them but they were actually really tasty so naturally I put them in some cookies. I used my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe and added the pumpkin spice chips and a little cinnamon to the dough too. I also put some pecans in there to add to the festive taste!

I took the photos for these cookies with my fancy new camera, I’ve not quite got the hang of it yet but I did enjoy taking these photos and I’m mostly happy with how they came out, the scenery definitely helped – I love taking photos out here, it’s so pretty! I definitely need to get myself a little tripod, I do not have a steady enough hand for this camera! I think that’ll be my new year treat to myself next month! Anything else you’d recommend I get to help me out? I currently only have a 18-55mm lens with it, I’ll definitely look into getting a macro lens eventually but I’m going to have to save up for that!

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