Saturday, May 23, 2009

wet dog cupcakes with pineapple sherbet


Having failed to enter it last year, I was determined to make ice cream cupcakes for this year's Ice cream cupcake round up hosted by Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious. A friend had me over for Mexican food night, so I thought I'd make Mexican themed ice cream cupcakes. I went with Cupcake Project's recipe for Tres Leches cupcakes. Tres Leches means 3 milks, the milks being coconut, evaporated and sweetened condensed.

For the ice cream part, I went with pineapple sherbet. Yeah, the very stuff floating in baby shower punches everywhere. And for an additional touch of deliciousness I made some dulce de leche! This was my first time ever making it, though I've wanted to try it for years. I was scared because, you see, you simmer the whole can in water for 3-4 hours, and there are lots of stories out there about exploding cans of hot caramel. No explosions this time, thankfully. I made sure the can was fully covered with water the whole time. It turned out awesome! Thick, sweet, creamy. Unfortunately the can was still molten lava hot when I needed to take the photos, so the caramel topping you see is a melted caramel I dug out of my purse.

So I made my cupcakes, packed everything up and headed over to Mexican night. When it was time for dessert, I dished out the cupcakes, sherbet and dulce de leche for everybody. They got the deconstructed version. We all sat down to dig in, and my friend, who has no pets, said "why does it all of the sudden smell like dog in here?" Ummmm.... turns out it was the tres leche cupcakes. Somehow the combo of the 3 milks had resulted in a slight wet dog smell. Yup. I had made and served wet dog cupcakes. They did not taste like wet dog (not that I have tasted wet dog, but I imagine wet dog does not taste sweet and milky and coconutty).

Overall, the pairing was a success, the sweet fruity sherbet with the milky cupcakes and the creamy caramel.

It's a shame they had to smell like wet dog.

7 comments:

wholesale sweets said...

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Stef said...

Got to love honest friends. I don't recall the tres leche cupcakes smelling like wet dog. when I made them. hmmm. Sounds like a great combo of flavors with the pineapple and dulce de leche. Glad you entered this year! I just have to ask why you didn't bring me one? :)

beach houses said...

i love the name.. "wet dog cupcakes" very unique..

Sara said...

Heehee, these look great despite the smell! I LOVE pineapple sherbet but I haven't had any in forever--I definitely need to change that. ;)

Carrie said...

I LOVE that your cupcakes have a story behind them! the fact that you called them wet dog is all the better!!

I think they look great... maybe I'll try them during allergy season when everyone's noses are stuffed up! nice job!

Unknown said...

these look great! so funny about the wet dog, so I love the name! sound fantastic despite the smell!

bethany@scoopalicious

Amanda said...

I was wondering why these cupcakes got the "wet dog" designation. Now I know. :)