Tres Leches Cupcakes

To Nancy and Jenny for their friendship, new and old. How it has blessed me.

Tres Leches Cupcakes
recipes

• Tres Leches Cupcakes
  
• Dulce de Leche Bars
  
• Tostadas Compuestas
  
• Breakfast Burritos
  
• Caro’s Cinco de Mayo Chicken Salad
  
• Crock-Pot Posole
  
• Mexican Hot Chocolate
  
• Dulce de Leche Frosting
  
• Green Chile Stew
  
• Sopapillas
  
• Biscochitos
  
• Meringue Frosting for Tres Leches Cupcakes
  

Download a free PDF of all the recipes in this book at josiskilpack.com or shadowmountain.com

Also by Josi Kilpack:

Lemon Tart

English Trifle

Devil’s Food Cake

Key Lime Pie

Blackberry Crumble

Pumpkin Roll

Banana Split

Baked Alaska
(coming Spring 2013)

Her Good Name

Sheep’s Clothing

Unsung Lullaby

Daisy

Prologue

It was the cold that woke her.

Sadie reached out to pull the plush, soft-as-kitten’s-fur blanket to her chin and settle back in for a couple more hours of sleep; the fire she lit in the evenings always burned out in the early-morning hours, inviting the autumn chill back in. But instead of finding the comforting softness she expected, her hand brushed across rough stone and rubbed gritty sand beneath her fingers. A breeze passed over her, rippling the silky fabric of her blouse that afforded no protection from the cold night air.

She wasn’t in her apartment. Why not?

Then she began to remember.

Her body tensed as equal amounts of confusion and memory swirled together, like two children trying to talk over each other as they both explained their version of events. From the bits and pieces of her recollections, she knew she was in the New Mexican desert. She’d been at the Balloon Fiesta, the annual hot air balloon festival in Albuquerque. She had been selling cupcakes there—Lois’s tres leches cupcakes to be exact—but then . . . then something had happened. Someone had brought her here, far away from the tourists and balloonists and anyone else whom she could call to for help.

The Cowboy.

But he’d been sent by someone else. Langley? Standage? She wasn’t sure. But she knew the Cowboy had brought her here to kill her. He said she’d crossed a line.

What line?

Why couldn’t she remember?

She must have made a run for it. How had she gotten away? They’d come after her—the Cowboy and the man she didn’t know. And then . . . then . . .

What had happened then?

Sadie attempted to sit up, but her head spun, convincing her to lie still again and catch her breath. Then she rolled to her side and used a large rock, gray against the blackness behind it, to pull herself up, though her joints and muscles screamed in protest. As her eyes traveled up the side of the hill above her, she could make out the scraggly silhouette of brush against washed-out desert dirt. Had she fallen? She looked toward the bottom and saw that the hill she was on continued for several more yards, ending in an arroyo. She’d come to a stop at a ledge of sorts near the middle of the incline. Perhaps the rock she’d used to help her sit up had stopped her descent. None too gently, it seemed.

Once sitting, she put a hand to her throbbing forehead and gasped in pain at her own touch. She pulled her hand back. Even in the minimal light of the crescent moon, she could see the contrast between her pale skin and the dark stain on her fingers. Knowing the stain was blood made Sadie’s throat tighten and her hand shake from something other than the cold.

Where was she? What would happen next?

Fear began to take over. It was hard to breathe, and her body seemed to curl in upon itself involuntarily though her back and hip protested. Everything hurt.
What had happened?
How long had she been here?

“She went this way,” a voice said from somewhere above her, the words carrying on the wind. Another voice answered the first, but Sadie couldn’t make out what was said. She didn’t need to. What she needed to do was hide. Quick. Though she couldn’t remember everything, she knew that if they found her—whoever
they
were—she’d never make it back to Santa Fe.

Sadie knew firsthand how well the desert could hide a body.

Tres Leches Cupcakes

Cupcakes

11/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

5 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside. In a separate bowl, beat butter for 1 minute until very smooth. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs one at a time, beating until yellow and frothy. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches and beat an additional minute. Fill cupcake liners halfway. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tops are lightly browned and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake. Cool completely.

Makes approximately 24 cupcakes.

Glaze

1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk (or half of a 12-ounce can)

1 (11-ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk

1 cup cream, coconut milk, half and half, OR whole milk

Mix milks together. When cupcakes are cool, carefully slice off the top crust to expose the sponge cake. Drizzle the milk mixture one spoonful at a time over the cupcakes, allowing the cake to soak up the milk in between additions. (Cupcakes typically hold between 1 and 2 tablespoons of glaze.) Once milk seems to be pooling at the top of the sponge cake, cover the cupcakes and refrigerate for at least six hours.

Note: An easy way to add glaze is to use a medicinal syringe. (You can find them in the pharmacy section of your local grocery store.) Instead of slicing off the tops of the cupcakes, simply inject the milk one syringeful at a time.

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter, softened

3½ cups powdered sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla

1 to 1½ teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

Dash of salt

Milk, as needed

In a mixing bowl, whip butter until smooth. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add vanilla and mix well. Add remaining powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix; add milk as needed to create a smooth, but thick frosting. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes using a 1A tip, or spread frosting over cupcakes with a butterknife or spatula.

Chapter 1

Ten Days Earlier

I’ve got a visual through the sliding glass door of the apartment,” said Caro’s voice through the static of the walkie-talkie. “Copy, Churrochomper?”

“Copy, Dunebuster,” Sadie said while depressing the button on her hand unit. “Can you identify the occupants?”

“Hold on.” Caro was an exercise buff, an excellent cook, the wife of an engineer, and trying to adjust to her empty-nest lifestyle. She was also a cousin to Pete Cunningham, Sadie’s boyfriend. Sadie had known all those things about Caro when she moved into Caro’s mother-in-law apartment in Santa Fe six weeks ago. Sadie had also expected she and Caro would get along well. She
hadn’t
expected Caro would also be a wannabe CIA operative. But if Sadie had learned anything over the last couple of years, it was that circumstances brought out parts of people’s personalities even they didn’t know existed.