Tuesday, May 12, 2009

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Tres Leches Cake

My apologies this week to TWD and Babette of Babette's Feast. I really wanted to make the Tartest Lemon Tart but it wasn't in the cards for me. I just couldn't find the time to make this. As a result, you are not getting a post about a tart today. Instead you are getting a post about a cake. Not just any cake either, a Tres Leches cake. Tres Leche is a basic vanilla cake soaked in three milks and topped with a sweet whipped cream. The cake was another baking request. I made this cake last year and it came out awesome. I don't know what I did this year, but it came out differently. I think I might have used a different recipe this time. It was still good but the cake was too dense; it didn't soak up as much of the liquid as it should have. You could tell it was a Tres Leches cake because the taste was there, but the texture wasn't right. It wasn't like what I made last year or what I've had before in Miami. I asked Alex to describe what the soaking level of the cake should be and he said, "The cake should be moist, but wet enough that it's saturated, but not so wet that it's soupy." The cake should dissolve in your mouth and it should taste light despite all the liquid. Hopefully I'll get it right next time and there will be a next time because Alex loves this dessert.
Tres Leches
Source: Allrecipes.com (here)

Cake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
5 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Milk mixture
2 cups whole milk
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour one 9x13 inch baking pan.

Sift flour and baking powder together and set aside.

Cream butter or margarine and the sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs and the 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; beat well.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture 2 tablespoons at a time; mix until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and pierce cake several times with a fork. Cool the cake to room temperature.

Combine the whole milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk together. Pour over the top of the cooled cake.

Whipped topping

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whip whipping cream, the sugar, and the vanilla together until thick. Spread over the top of cake. Be sure and keep cake refrigerated.

Enjoy!

pretty.

5 comments:

Eliana said...

I am on the prowl for a good tres leches cake recipe. Although the taste of the custard is important that actual cake needs to be right right consistency. If it's too light it turns into cake soup. If it's too dense, it doesn't absorb enough of the custard. When I find it I will let you know. In the meantime, if you are every in NYC, Ideya in Soho makes mmy favorite version of fabulous cake.

Jean said...

I am going to have to make this it looks gorgeous.

pinkstripes said...

I love tres leches. Your's looks wonderful.

Mermaid Sews said...

I think this one is out of the cards for me - or I could try soy milk, almond milk and rice milk! LOL, your photos are great, sure looks yummy.

Bungalow Barbara said...

I've always wanted to make a Tres Leches cake! Nick Malgieri has a recipe on his Web site that sounds good. It uses a chiffon cake, which should be nice and light. I suspect you want a sponge-cake type recipe rather than the butter-cake recipe you used this time...

Here's the link:
http://www.nickmalgieri.com/recipes/6-cakes/pastel_tres_leches.html