Mango Tres Leches Cupcakes - Maybe

Several years ago I came across Michael Chiarello's recipe for Mango Dos Leches.  I had printed it off thinking I would try it, stuck it in a folder and promptly forgot about it.  When the 2011 Ice Cream Cupcake Contest was announced, I started thinking about it again, determined that eventually I would try this recipe.  Today is eventually.  And of course, I made modifications to the recipe.  Right now, I'm not sure how that's going to work out for me. 

The cake is a typical genoise of which, in and of itself, I'm not particularly fond.  To make half of the original recipe, I started with 3 room temperature eggs, 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt (I didn't reduce the salt).  This gets whisked at high speed until tripled in volume.

1 minutes

I started on low speed and worked my way up to high just so I wouldn't sling egg and sugar all over the walls.  (I need to invest in a pour/splatter shield for the 4 quart mixer.)  Once at high speed, I whisked for 3 minutes although I don't think it would hurt if you went a bit longer.  Some of it will depend on your mixer and ambient temperature.

2 minutes

3 minutes

Three minutes seemed to do the trick.  I really thought it was going to take longer, but I think I was recalling the days of making genoise in the 20 quart mixers at school.  Big difference!

At this point it's time for my least favorite part:  folding in the flour.  I sifted in 1 cup of flour plus 1/32 teaspoon of cayenne pepper in three additions, folding gently after each.  The folding is my least favorite part because I'm always concerned about not getting all of the flour mixed in without deflating the eggs. 

As you can see, I found streaks.  This was actually part of a huge pocket of flour that was trying to hide from me.  I think I eventually got it all, but I won't place any bets on that. 

I scooped the batter in the foil lined cupcake pans and baked at 350F for 14 minutes.  Originally, I set the timer for 18 minutes, but I could smell the cupcakes at 12 so I started checking them after that.  Again, baking time will depend on individual ovens.

It's kind of hard to tell from the photo, but all of the cupcakes sank when they came out of the oven.  I didn't mind so much since it would help keep the milk mixture from pouring down the sides. 

While I let these cool for a bit, I heated 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup coconut milk in the microwave in two 1 minute intervals.  To that I added 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I omitted the almond extract from the original recipe.)  When the milks were well combined, I added 2/3 cup of mango puree and mixed well.

Using my basic math skills, I figured I had about 2 cups (16 fl ounces) of milk/mango mixture and 16 cupcakes so each cupcake should get 1 ounce (2 tablespoons). 

After poking holes in the cupcakes with a bamboo skewer, I began spooning the milk/mango mixture over the top.  Here's where the problem began.  It appears as though the acid in the mango is sufficient to curdle the milk, making the mixture extremely thick.  The cupcakes are not absorbing it.  So far I have one tablespoon of the milk/mango mixture that's been sitting on the cupcakes for about an hour now.  It's not looking promising.  There may need to be a Plan B involved.