La Cocina de Leslie: Tres Leches Cake

How embarrassing! I thought I published this post on Friday.

It's time for another installment of The Cake Slice Baker's! I know it has been a while since I've participated and all because of my computer problems. (Still waiting on the computer tech!)

This month's cake is one of my favorites...Tres Leches (Three Milks). I loved it!

The actual cake was a little denser than I prefer for a Tres Leches cake, but it was delicious and held together very nicely after the addition of the three milks.

After tasting this cake, Hubby declared that it was the best Tres Leches cake he has ever tasted. And Hubby isn't a big fan of Tres Leches. The kiddies loved it too. My daughter Ashley liked it so much that she wants me to make it again for her birthday next month!

Be sure to check out the rest of The Cake Slice Baker's to see how they liked this cake!

Johnny C's Tres Leches Cake
(from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott)

Ingredients:
Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk

Three-Milk Sauce

1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk (I used the whole can!)
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
1 tablespoon grated lime zest

Garnish

Sweetened whipped cream
Fresh Fruit

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13-inch pan. In a medium bowl, combine the flour and baking powder and stir with a fork to mix well.

In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar; beat with a mixer at high speed to mix well.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well each time and stopping to scrape down the bowl occasionally, until the batter is light, fluffy and smooth.

Add one-third of the flour mixture. Then half of the milk. Beating at low speed each time, just until the flour or milk disappears into the batter.

Add another third of the flour, the remaining milk and the remaining flour in the same way.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350 F for 35 to 40 minutes, until the cake is golden brown, springs back when touched lightly in the center and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the lime zest over the cake. Punch holes with a toothpick in the top of the cake about 1 inch apart.

While the cake is cooling, make the sauce by combining the milk, sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk in a medium saucepan. Heat gently over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture forms a smooth, steaming hot sauce. DO NOT LET IT COME TO A BOIL!

Slowly pour the warm milk sauce over the warm cake in stages, stopping to let the cake absorb some of the sauce before adding more.

Let stand for 1 hour. Cover and refrigerate, allowing the cake to come to room temperature before serving. Cut into square and serve right from the pan. Garnish with sweetened whipped cream and fresh fruit, if you like.

Enjoy!!!

Printable Version

22 August 2010

Tres Leches Cake...Très Magnifique!

Milk, it does a body good. And it makes for an even better cake!

The Tres Leches cake is a very popular dessert in Mexico. It is a yellow cake soaked in a mixture of three milks. (Don't worry, it's all from a cow!) Now, I've had my share of Tres Leches cakes. Some good, some not so good, a couple were just inedible and few have been extraordinary.

The three milk mixture is easy. Almost every recipe is the same. All you need is evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and either heavy cream or regular milk. Depends on the cook's taste. I prefer my third milk to be half-and-half. (For those of you in Mexico, use a can of Media Crema.)

What makes or breaks a Tres Leches cake is the actual cake. You don't want it to be too sweet because the three milks mixture is sweet enough. Nor do you want the cake to be too heavy, because the three milks mixture won't make it's way through the entire cake.

I've tasted a few Tres Leches cakes that were made with pancake flour. Not bad, but the saltiness of the pancake flour overpowers the sweet creaminess of the milk mixture. The best Tres Leches cake I ever tasted was the one made by a lady at our church for my very first Baby Shower. Mmmm! It was the perfect balance. The cake was tasty with a good texture that didn't get lost in all that milk. I later asked that lady for her recipe and she gladly told me her little secret...Yellow Cake Mix, from a box!

While I lived in the States, I made my Tres Leches cake using Yellow Cake Mix. The result was always the same, delicioso! But that all changed when I moved to Mexico. There were no boxes of yellow cake mix! Now what was I supposed to do? Well, I tried all kinds of recipes. I bought a Mexican cookbook that had every Mexican dessert known to man, but the cake was just plain nasty! I tried a few recipes that called for pancake flour. Pretty good, but not the taste that I was looking for. Finally, I played around with the recipes and came up with one that works well for me. But if you want to use the box mix, go right ahead!

One question remains; to fill or not to fill? I like Tres Leches cakes so much, that it really doesn't matter if it is filled or not. The 2 layer cakes are usually filled with strawberry jam or canned peach slices, which is all very good, but be sure that you bathe the bottom layer with half of the milk mixture, add the filling, then top with the other cake layer. Bathe the top layer with the milk mixture after you've put it in place! This recipe makes one 8 or 9 inch layer cake or one 10 inch one layer cake.

Pastel de Tres Leches

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400º F. Grease bottom of 10-inch round cake pan and line with waxed paper or parchment paper. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with the milk, beating well after each addition. Continue beating one minute. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan to heatproof plate. Poke holes all over cake with a toothpick or wooden skewer. Gradually ladle some of the Three Milks Mixture over cake. Wait a few minutes until cake has had a chance to absorb the milk. (Do NOT pour all of the Three Milks Mixture over cake at once!) Repeat process until all of the Three Milks Mixture has been absorbed. Refrigerate atleast 3 hours or overnight.