Three...um........um......yeah I'm going to have Google this. Apparently, three years of high school Spanish have failed me. Thank god Google never does. Leches or leche, pronounced "leh-cheh", means milk. Tres leches cake is a popular Latin American sponge cake that is soaked in a combination of three milks (evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and heavy cream), hence the name- three milks cake.
So even though I have never heard of a tres leches cake before nor do I know anyone who has tasted it, the moment I saw it on Pioneer Woman's page, it called out to me. I think it was the milk. I LOVE milk, like.. cannot get enough of it kind of love. I'm pretty sure I drink at least 3 to 4 glasses of milk a day. It's that serious.
But you know what else I love now? Tres Leches cake. It is incredible. In the way it tastes AND in the way that it is completely saturated in three types of milk, but instead of being soggy, it holds it's texture as a cake. The flavor is to DIE for. Whether or not you're a milk lover, this divine cake is guaranteed to have you coming back for more (hey, that rhymed!).
Muy muy muy muy delicioso
(guess three years of Spanish didn't completely fail me...although i'm pretty sure it's not gramatically correct to use that many "muys" in one sentence)
Tres Leches Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 whole eggs
1 cup sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened, condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
For the icing:
1 pint heavy cream, for whipping
3 tablespoons sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated. (I decided to be cool and use wax paper too so that the cake would slip out perfectly and it was a disaster because it stuck to the cake. NEVER AGAIN)
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs.
Beat egg yolks with 3/4 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 1/4 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. (Mine was ready at 25 minutes, I guess my oven runs hot) 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.
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 (or strawberries!). Cut into squares and serve.
Looks and sounds delicious! I'm a milk freak too!
ReplyDeleteObjectively, this sounds so awesome, mashAllah--and in no small part to your excellent writing! Sadly, "Leches" reminds me of lactating women, which hasn't been appealing for quite a while.
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