Today I have a recipe for a very different kind of dessert than most that I have shared before!
I had never even had a Tres Leches Cake until someone brought one to work for a birthday from an incredible bakery in Chicago (I’ll try to find out the name….) and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It is so different from any other kind of cake I have had before but at the same time it is simple and delicious. The base is a light and airy sponge cake and then you pour three milks (evaporated milk, sweetened condensed, and heavy cream) over the top and let it all soak in. What’s not to like about sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream soaking in layers or heavenly sponge cake!?
I used Pioneer Woman’s recipe and did two round cakes to layer instead of one large sheet cake, but the sheet cake is probably easier for pouring the three milks mixture! This cake passed my “crack-worthy” test because Kip and I ate about 1/3 of it and then I had to immediately pack it up for him to take to work the next morning so that we didn’t polish the whole thing off ourselves. That is always the sign of a successful recipe to me!
- 1 cup All-purpose Flour
- 1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 5 whole Eggs
- 1 cup Sugar, Divided
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- ⅓ cup Milk
- 1 can Evaporated Milk
- 1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
- ¼ cup Heavy Cream
- _____
- FOR THE ICING:
- 1 pint Heavy Cream, For Whipping
- 3 Tablespoons Sugar
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs.
- Beat egg yolks with ¾ cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.
- Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining ¼ cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.
- Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.
- Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.
- Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can. (note: Recipe makes much more milk mixture than needed!)
- Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. To ice the cake, whip 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable.
- Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve.
I hope you all love this cake just as much as we did!
Yes!! I actually have made pioneer woman’s tres leche cake and it’s amazing!! But if I’m at a restaurant and the have Quattro leche (tres leche with Carmel on top) watch out!!!