There's a pie in my cupcake!

Happy April! I'm a little belated with posting this, given that it's no longer April 1st, but they're fun for a party, and if decorated, I'm sure they'd actually be pretty. My butter just wasn't being nice, and neither was the microwave, so I opted out of frosting these cupcakes.

Over the summer, my friend texted me a picture of a chocolate cupcake with white frosting on top and a mini cherry pie in the middle that he saw online. I was intrigued, and told him I was tempted to try to make them. His birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and since it was midterms week, I decided to try to cut down on the weight of my groceries and the amount of time I'd spend on it, even if that meant sacrificing quality, so he could have a cupcake with a tiny pie in the center.

They're pretty simple to make, though because of the two steps, a bit more time consuming that just making plain chocolate cupcakes from a box, but only by about 20 minutes or so.


Surprise Cupcakes
makes 12 surprise cupcakes, but can easily be stretched to make more

1 box chocolate cake mix (and the oil, eggs, and water the recipe calls for)
1 package refrigerated pie dough for a double crust pie
a can of cherry pie filling (you'll need about 2/3 cup or so of filling, maybe less)
frosting of choice, optional

Preheat oven to 450ºF. Cut pie dough into 12 2" circles, and press into a mini muffin pan. Fill each with a spoonful of cherry pie dough. Cut out 12 1" circles from remaining pie dough, and top each pie with the dough, pressing edges together. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until edges are golden. Remove from oven and let cool until you can remove them from the pan, about 5 minutes. Decrease oven temperature to 350F.

Meanwhile, prepare chocolate cake mix as directed.* Line a muffin pan with 12 liners, and scoop a heaping tablespoon of batter into each one. Place a mini pie in each muffin cop, and top with another heaping tablespoon of batter so that they are completely covered. Bake in 350ºF oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until tops are dry and spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from oven. Cool slightly in pan, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Ice or enjoy as is!

• Since it should make enough for 24 cupcakes, you'll have extra batter. Alternately, you can buy/make more pie dough, or make more mini pies, and make that number of the cupcakes as described enough (my guess is around 30 total) or just make extra plain cupcakes with the remaining batter. A package of pie dough should have enough crust for about 14-16 mini pies. My guess is that a small can of cherry pie filling will probably make about 20 or so pies.

Another Cake With Alcohol

I'm not an alcoholic, I promise. I don't even drink the stuff, and not just because I'm underage. I like water. And tea. And that's about it. But when I saw this recipe in the very first issue of Vegetarian Times that I ever bought, back in March of 2006, I decided I wanted to try it. I searched through the house, and couldn't find any Guinness, and there was no way I could make a "Guinness Cake" with the random bottles of beer I found in the fridge. So I put it in the back of my mind to try sometime, at a later date. And now, almost exactly five years later, I pulled out the magazine and gave the Guinness Cake a try. And I have a pretty good reason.

When I'm at home, I have dinner with my great-aunt and uncle on Friday nights. My great-aunt is Irish. She likes beer (thought not Guinness). And yesterday was her birthday. The first detail was irrelevant, but the last two reminded me of this cake, and provided me with the excuse I've needed to try it out. I sent a frazzled mother to the grocery store before breakfast (which, here, starts selling alcohol at 8 AM, meaning she had to wait a while) for beer, gathered up the rest of the ingredients, and whipped up this fairly simple cake. I couldn't get my cocoa/beer/butter mixture to be nicely mixed and smooth, but that didn't seem to ruin the final product. Not even my aunt's dislike of Guinness kept her from liking it, because the cake does not taste like Guinness. The beer instead seems to add some moisture and depth to the flavor of this nice and simple chocolate cake.



Also, like usual, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. We usually have yogurt in the house, so it didn't make sense to go out and buy sour cream unnecessarily. The recipe below reflects the changes. And, for some reason, the recipe on the VT site has a different name than the printed one, and mentions Guinness nowhere. Instead it suggests Darcy's Dublin Stout or Samuel Smith Imperial Stout as examples of black stouts to bake the cake with.


Guinness Cake
adapted from Vegetarian Times, March 2006
makes a 9" round cake, serves 8 or so

2/3 cup stout, room temperature (I don't know how to measure beer. It was too frothy at the top, so I ended up using 2/3 cup+ with the froth since I did a bad job pouring)
10 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2/3 cup strained yogurt or sour cream
powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter a 9" round pan and line with buttered parchment or dusk with cocoa powder.

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring stout and butter to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa until smooth. Cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

Beat egg, egg yolk, and yogurt with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth and blended. Add beer-chocolate mixture and beat to combine.

Beat in flour mixture for 15-30 seconds on lowest speed. Fold batter using rubber spatula until completely combined. Don't fold too much. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake about 45-50 minutes, or until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool about 10 minutes on rack. If cake needs loosening from sides of pan, run a small knife around edges. Turn out cake onto rack (if using parchment, peel off) and let cool completely. Sift powdered sugar over top of cake just before serving.

The Gluten-Free Layer Cake

Last semester while talking to one of my roommates, it was discovered that she likes peach schnapps. She really likes peach schnapps, and, it's not something that makes her sick. Well, in moderation. I'm sure if she got a little too excited and drank a bit too much, she wouldn't feel so great. But since schnapps happen to be gluten free, she can imbibe in the candy-sweet alcohol as long as nobody's carding her.

It's not a secret that I don't shy away from baking, cooking, or lowering freezing points with alcohol, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I decided to challenge myself to make a gluten-free cake incorporating the sickeningly sweet smelling schnapps.

Unfortunately, she never did get to try the cake that was originally imagined for her birthday, but all the gluten-tolerant tasters thought it was quite tasty. One even remarked, "Is this really gluten-free? It's really good." And, unless my checking all the labels failed me, it really is!

Making this cake was not without some slight hitches, mostly because of my lack of sleep and attention. I took all the ingredients out to bake the cake layers at 7pm last Friday night, after sleeping a mere 2 and a half hours in the previous 36. I failed to notice that I was looking at a recipe that made 80 mini cupcakes. A 6" cake does not require 4 pounds of batter, which I think is what I ended up with. I started divying up the batter by weight, hoping to make equal layers, and when the first one came out of the oven, I realized if I used more than just that for the cake, I'd end up with a leaning tower. I baked off a dozen cupcakes and a slightly smaller cake layer that I ended up omitting from the cake, deciding to go with a slightly shorter cake (If you follow the recipe below, yours may end up a bit taller than pictures from this recipe, but no worries! There's just enough frosting to take care of that!) Plus, it never hurts to have an extra 12 ounces of cake lying around. With the addition of some whipped cream and frozen fruit, it can be turned into a tasty (but extremely unphotogenic) mango trifle later in the week!


Peach Schnapps Layer Cake That Just So Happens To Be Gluten-Free
makes 1 6" 3 layer cake

For cake layers:
1 cups (200 g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups gluten-free rice flour all-purpose mix (I used 200 grams of Gluten Free Pantry All Purpose Flour)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup milk
*add a teaspoon of vanilla extract, especially if you want to skip out on the schnapps

2/3 cup peach preserves

For peach schnapps syrup:
1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons peach schnapps

For peachy buttercream:
1 cup/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
pinch salt
1/4 cup peach preserves


To prepare cake layers:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 6" round cake pan (mine's 3" deep).

Beat sugar and eggs in large bowl of electric mixer at medium speed for one minute. Add flour, salt, baking powder, xanthan gum, oil, milk, and vanilla and beat at medium speed for about a minute, or until batter is smooth.

Scoop batter in prepared cake pan. Place pan in center of oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched or a toothpick in the center comes out with only a crumb or two. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for a few minutes, remove from pan and cool completely.

To prepare sugar syrup:
Heat water and sugar in a small saucepan, stirring, until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Stir in schnapps.

To prepare frosting:
Place butter in a medium bowl and beat until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and salt and beat until smooth. Beat in peach jam. (If planning on piping frosting, you may want to set aside some frosting before adding jam to prevent getting clumps stuck in your bag.)


To assemble cake:
Level the top of the cake. Slice cake into three layers. Place the base of the cake on a cake plate or large plate, sliced side up. Brush with syrup. Spread 1/3 cup peach preserves over cake layer, and top with another layer of cake. Brush with syrup and spread remaining 1/3 cup preach preserves over the layer. Top with the remaining layer of cake and brush entire cake with remaining syrup.

Scoop about 1 cup of frosting on the top of the cake and spread over the top and sides of cake, adding more frosting as necessary. Smooth sides and top, and, if desired, pipe designs with remaining buttercream.

Store in refrigerator for up to 2 or 3 days. Take out about 20 minutes before eating or it'll be too cold and not taste as awesome.

Truffles for Your Valentine

It was approaching seven at night, and upon receiving a text from my friend about receiving a box of chocolates, I realized that it was Valentine's Day. And with Valentine's Day comes an excuse to eat chocolate whether you're single or otherwise preoccupied.

The dessert cases here at school had heart and red-themed treats within them, but if I was going to enjoy something chocolate or red, it was going to be on my own terms, and while celebrating the nice break from schoolwork. I was going to make truffles a week or so ago and bought the ingredients, and decided, what's a better thing to treat myself to on Valentine's Day?



I decided to add a festive twist, and with that, I cranked up the Taylor Swift, whipped out the cream cheese, chocolate, and raspberry preserves, and while covering the table and microwave in chocolate, made these yummy little morsels. I wiped the chocolate off my face, and then proceeded to wander around and share them with a grin upon my face.



Raspberry Chocolate Cream Cheese Truffles
makes about 36

1 8 oz. package cream cheese or neufchatel, softened
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted
1/3 cup raspberry preserves
10-12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (melted but later on)
decorations (i.e. sprinkles, chopped nuts, etc), optional

Beat the cream cheese until fluffy and beat in the chocolate and raspberry preserves. Chill until firm enough to handle and then scoop and shape teaspoonfulls into balls.

Chill for half an hour or so, and then dip into melted chocolate and place on a sheet of wax paper or silicone mat (and top with sprinkles or something if desired).

Refrigerate for a few hours until chocolate is set.

Enjoy!

An Alternate Stir Fry

Being at school, it's rare that I make my own dinner, unless you count the chips and leftover bean dip from the super bowl that I called "dinner" Monday night. Or there was that time I had brownies for dinner last semester...

Neither of those really qualify as dinner. However, repurposing leftovers to make something similar, but different, counts. And that's exactly what I'd been planning to do as soon as I realized that there was no way I would finish my original stir fry from dining services here.

The leftover stir fry (brown rice with some assorted veggies, tofu (that I'd eaten all of), and a sesame ginger sauce) served as my base. It was kind of old, so I made sure to heat it really well, meaning I brought it practically to a boil, which was probably terrible for the integrity of the vegetables, but I really don't want to die.

I added some torn up spinach (leftover from a tuna fish sandwich I made a week or two ago. I really need to work on using things quicker) and a bit of chili garlic sauce. I made a well in the center of the pan, added a bit of sesame oil, and cracked two eggs into the well, breaking up the yolks with my spatula. I let them cook a bit and then stirred everything together and left it in the pan as I washed some dishes, broke it all up so it wouldn't be a gigantic egg and rice patty, washed out the pan, and then came back up to my room to enjoy it as I did some reading for my environmental psychology class.

For the effort, I'd say it was quick, easy, tasty, and affordable. Unlike the cake I plan on attempting this weekend. Let's just say I should have a peachy time.

Pumpkin Pancakes!

Last week was a breakfast week. Thursday morning was an attempt to satisfy my curiosity of what would happen if I stuffed eggs into wonton wrappers, and Friday was less "adventurous." That is unless you consider pumpkin pancakes chock-full of dark chocolate and toasty pecans adventurous.

Coming home from the Art Institute on Thursday night, still too full from a delicious late lunch of jibaritos to even think of dinner, I turned our thoughts to breakfast instead, asking my friend what he wanted to for breakfast. As soon as he started to open his mouth, I was quick to add "that isn't waffles." Well, that was solved quickly: pancakes. With chocolate chips. I added that I thought I had a can of pumpkin puree at home, and if that was the case, would pumpkin pancakes be alright with him. He wholeheartedly approved the motion. So the next morning, as I waited for him to wake up and greet the day (and help me with breakfast, but sometimes I get a little impatient), I puttered around the kitchen, looked up some recipes, and threw these together.

He approved. My mom approved of them cold out of a bag in the fridge the next day. And my Dad ate the few that remained this morning, and he thought they were tasty as well.

Pumpkin Pancakes
adapted from Sweet Potato - Pecan Pancakes
Serves 4 (maybe)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon*
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg*
1/8 teaspoon ginger*
1/8 teaspoon allspice*
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped pecans, toasted
1/4 cup (1.5 ounces/45 grams) chopped dark chocolate
1 cup milk
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
190 grams (about 3/4 cup) pumpkin puree

Heat a large nonstick pan or griddle over medium heat (the way I learned to gauge the temperature was by flicking a drop of water, if the water rolls and then sizzles, it's the correct temperature.)

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and salt. Stir in pecans and chocolate.

In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, brown sugar, oil, vanilla, eggs, and pumpkin puree.

Make a well in the middle of the flour, and pour in the liquid mixture. Stir until no dry clumps remain.

Ladle 1/4 cup circles of batter onto the pan as fit. Cook until sides look cooked and there are bubbles all over. Flip over and cook until pressing down lightly on the center of the pumpkin leaves no indentations.

Serve with butter and maple syrup, or bourbon pecan sauce.

*Instead of the spices, you can substitute 1 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice.)

Breakfast Pot Stickers

I like breakfast. It's probably one of my favorite meals of the day. I love eggs, homemade muffins, and other tasty, breakfasty sweets. But mostly, I like eggs. With vegetables. Actually, I'll eat that for any meal, but it seems most acceptable at breakfast time.

Since I bought wonton wrappers to make short rib ravioli for breakfast Monday night, I figured I'd try to use the wonton wrappers for something other than what I usually use them for: Pea Salad Cups

I haven't been home much lately for meals other than breakfast, so I figured, since breakfast burritos are so tasty, why not use a similar idea, but make potstickers instead of burritos. I scrambled some eggs with peppers, filled some wonton wrappers with the eggs, and pan fried them.


And it was tasty. All that was missing was a tasty spicy salsa to dip the potstickers in. Next time.


Breakfast Dumplings
serves 2-3, depending on appetites

20 wonton wrappers
3 tablespoons minced onion
1/2 bell pepper, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded if less spice desired, finely chopped
1/2 serrano pepper, seeded if less spice desired, finely chopped
handful of cilantro, chopped
3 eggs
3 Tablespoons milk
salt
oil

Heat a bit of oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Saute onion in pan for about a minute, or until fragrant. Sprinkle with a bit of salt Add peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Lower heat and add eggs to pan. Let cook about 30 seconds, and then, using a spatula, scrape the eggs, stirring occasionally, until cooked but not dry.

Remove eggs from pan and transfer to a small bowl. Spoon a rounded teaspoon of egg into a wonton wrapper. Wet edges of wonton wrapper with water and press together to seal. Repeat with remaining eggs.

Heat about 1/4 inch of oil over medium-high heat in a large pan until shimmering. Add pot stickers to pan and cook a minute or two, or until golden, and flip over and repeat with remaining side. Be careful not to get sprayed with hot oil.

Remove from oil and place on a paper-tower to drain. Serve, and enjoy with salsa if desired.

"Why aren't there walnuts in these brownies?"

Because they have oats, Granma.



Right before heading home for Thanksgiving Break, I realized I had half a dozen eggs in my fridge that were going to go bad. I could do the easy thing: borrow a skillet and make scrambled eggs for me and a couple other people for dinner. Or I could bake 6 eggs worth of things. There was like a pound of butter in the fridge, so it wasn't like I had to go to the store or anything like that.

I wanted to try something new, and since I have a giant container of oats (and by giant, I mean a measly 2lb container) I decided to try out Bruce Weinsten's Oat Brownies from The Ultimate Brownie Book. I didn't vary much up, and I think next time, I might add some cinnamon to these, though maybe that's just because I really like cinnamon. And because I'm running out of vanilla extract.

They were fudgy, chewy, and crispy, all at the same time, thanks to the oats. He calls for toasted oats, but I find that when fighting over a kitchen with a bunch of other people, that's not really possible. When I finally did get control over the oven, it wasn't all easy sailing, but that may have made them tastier. The fact that the oven kept getting opened and closed (someone needed to make toast while I was using the oven), and all the rapping caused the brownies to collapse into a wonderful chewy goodness. (If you haven't noticed, I'm a fan of chewy brownies over cake-like ones.)

Granma's the only person who seemed disappointed by these brownies, but I think that's because she was expecting these brownies. Maybe one day I'll post the 9x9 version of that recipe... Winter break?



Oat Brownies
from Bruce Weinstein's The Ultimate Brownie Book
makes a 9-inch square pan of brownies (which is sixteen to the average person)

1/2 cup (63 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter
2 ounces (66g) semisweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips in a pinch)
2 ounces (66g) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup (218 g) packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (120 g) rolled oats (he recommends toasting them for 5-7 minutes, I omitted this step)

Position oven rack in lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour/line with greased foil/whatever your preferred method of "preparing" a 9 in. square pan; set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Place butter and both kinds of chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between, until the chocolate is melted and stir until smooth and all evenly melted. Set aside to cool. (Or do this over a double boiler, removing from heat as soon as chocolate is melted. Butter will finish melting as you stir.)

In a large bowl, beat the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and eggs with an electric mixer (or, if you're working on your arms, with a whisk for about 6 minutes) until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and creamy. Beat in vanilla and cooled chocolate mixture. Beat until smooth and uniform, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

With a spatula or wooden spoon, stir in the oats. Then fold in the four mixture until just incorporated. Don't beat up your brownie batter. Pour the batter into prepared pan and gently spread to corners.

Bake for 20 minutes or until top is dry and a toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

Set aside to cool on a wire rack for a while. Cut into desires number of pieces and enjoy!

A Friendly Hello

I'm back at school now, as anticipated in my previous post. I have my own room, with paper thin walls, a new set of metro shelving around my desk displaying my bowls and pans to tempt me from my studies (and because I have trouble reaching the shelf in my closet), and three very sweet suitemates, one of whom has a whole host of food sensitivities.

But I'm not one to purposely exclude people, especially not in the first few days back, so I offered to look up some recipes and make some gluten-free cupcakes that we could deliver to our fellow residents of the building, and that she could enjoy.

So together (though it was mostly her, I just did the grocery shopping and provided the materials and recipe printout) we made vanilla cupcakes, and then, along with our other two suite mates, wandered the halls of our residence hall, meeting new people. Except I don't really remember anyone I met yesterday, which isn't a good thing... But hopefully people remember my suite mate's name, because she's running for res college president. So shh... it's too soon to campaign yet.


Gluten-free Vanilla Cupcakes
adapted from Cupcakes Take The Cake
makes around 80 mini cupcakes

2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 1/2 cups gluten-free rice flour all-purpose mix (I used 400 grams of Gluten Free Pantry All Purpose Flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 cup canola oil
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups of favorite frosting (if not homemade, make sure it's gluten free)
Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Place cupcake liners in mini-muffin pans. You probably don't own enough pans, so you'll probably need to bake the muffins in batches.

Beat sugar and eggs in large bowl of electric mixer at medium speed for one minute. Add flour, salt, baking powder, xanthan gum, oil, milk, and vanilla and beat at medium speed for about a minute, or until batter is smooth.

Scoop batter in prepared baking pan. Place pans in center of oven (or in top and bottom thirds and rotate halfway through baking(, and bake for about 15 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for a few minutes, remove from pan and cool completely before icing with frosting of your choice.

Share and enjoy!

Summer's Almost Over Again?

I can't believe how much I've neglected my blog over the summer, but come to think of it, I've also neglected the kitchen. Between being busy surrounded by baked goods all day, not knowing when/who would be around for dinner, and being pretty tired after spending the day in 80º+ weather, I just never really cooked or baked much, all summer.

But that still doesn't excuse this neglect. There were things baked, there were things eaten. There were tasty salads that my dad whipped up from leftovers (can those ever be replicated though?). There was an almond pound cake I decided to bake in my 6" cake pan, with a batter-filled center that fell out-yet I managed to save it and it turned out quite delicious. There was my birthday cake, and adventures in making meringue buttercream that I ended up not using. There was a disgusting looking cake that was tasty to celebrate my friend's Notre Dame acceptance. There was my failure of a cake for my dad, that was eventually turned into a week of trifles. There was lots of smoky grilled salmon, courtesy of my dad.

But that still left me, somehow, with a blog with no posts since the beginning of June. It's the end of August practically, and I'm sitting in the waiting room while my mom's car gets serviced. And soon I'll be back to using a dorm kitchen, carrying my supplies up and down stairs, and making (and keeping) friends through their stomachs.

But I'll stop with my regretful babble. Because I have a recipe for you. It's kind of a tres leches cake, but I doubt it's very authentic, considering it's adapted from an old recipe from Cooking Light.

But it was a hit, despite being cut into 24 fairly small, yet rich, pieces, and served with some blueberries on the side. And the torched meringue top (sure, a broiler would've been easier, but where's the fun in that?) added a nice little twist as well, at least aesthetically, that is.

Tres Leches Cake
serves 12 (unless you make small pieces, in which case, 24 not-very-hungry people)

For the cake:
7 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup all purpose flour

For the milk mixture:
1 cup half-and-half
1 can (12-oz) evaporated milk (fat free or 2% work fine)
1 can (14-oz) sweetened condensed milk (fat free works fine)

For the meringue topping:
3 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour a 9x13 pan. (I'm usually a fan of metal pans, but in this case, a pyrex dish might work better. I transferred mine to one after baking when I realized that it made more sense with the milk mixture.)

Place egg whites and salt in a large mixer bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Place egg yolks and vanilla in a large bowl (most stand mixers won't be able to mix this amount, so whisk by hand or use hand beaters); beat until thick and pale. Fold 1/3 of egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture. Gently fold 1/3 cup of flour into egg mixture. Gently fold in another 1/3 of the egg whites. Fold in remaining 1/3 cup of flour, followed by the rest of the egg whites.

Spoon batter into prepared dish. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

For the milk mixture, combine the half-and-half, condensed milk, and evaporated milk in a 4 cup measuring cup, or bowl. Pierce all over the top of the cake with a fork, and pour the milk mixture slowly and evenly over the cake. It will be soaked, with milk mixture sitting on top a bit. Let it absorb for about 15 minutes or so.

For the meringue topping, beat 3 egg whites with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Combine 1 cup sugar and 1/3 cup of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 238°F. Beating the egg whites at high speed, pour the hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over the egg whites. Stir in the extract. Spread over cake.

Refrigerate cake until ready to serve. Just before serving pop under the broiler for 10-15 seconds (keep an eye on it) or until the top is just lightly browned, or use a small torch and gently torch the top of the cake. (This step isn't necessary, but fun.)