Tres Leches Cake
Prep: 20 Minutes | Cook: 25 Minutes | Resting Time: Minimum: 1 hours, Ideally: 8 hours/overnight
Total: 1 hour 45 mins - 24 hours 40 minutes
Makes 20 Servings
Ingredients
Cake
1 cup Sugar
5 Eggs, separated into yolks and whites
1/3 cups milk
1 ½ cups Flour, sifted
1 Tsp Baking Powder, sifted
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Milk Mixture
2 cups milk
1 can Condensed Milk (14oz)
1 can Evaporated Milk (12oz)
Whipped Cream Topping
1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
½ cup sugar
Recipe
Using 3 different bowls separate the egg whites, sifted flour and baking powder, and egg yolks, and sugar
Using a stand or hand mixer, mix the egg yolks and sugar until they become a light yellow (2-3 mins). Add milk and mix thoroughly.
Slowly add the sifted flour and baking powder to the egg yolk mixture. Mix until fully incorporated (might need to use a spatula to work the ingredients down from the side of the bowl occasionally)
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, whip egg whites until they form stiff peaks.* Take the whipped eggs whites and add them to the egg yolk mixture. Gently fold the egg whites into the mixture while being sure not to mix too vigorously. The gentler this mixing process is, the more fluffy your cake will be.
Transfer the cake mixture to a 9 x 13 baking pan and cook for 25-30 mins at 350F.
While the cake is cooking, mix together the milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk. Make sure that the mixture is uniform and set aside.
When the cake comes out of the oven, use a fork to poke holes throughout the cake. This will allow the cake to absorb as much of the milk mixture as possible. Allow the cake to cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes before adding the milk mixture.
Once cooled, add the milk mixture to the cake and allow it to soak in. You may not use all of the milk mixture depending on how fluffy/dense your cake is. The fluffier your cake is, the more mixture will be absorbed by it. Allow your cake to absorb the milk mixture for at least 1 hour (up to 24 hours in the fridge) before adding the whipped topping.
Using a hand mixer, add cold heavy whipping cream and sugar to a bowl. Whip until it becomes the consistency of whipped cream (5-10 mins depending on what you’re using)** Place the whipped topping on top of your cake and serve cold.
*Stiff peaks are a term used for the ability of whipped egg whites to stand almost vertically when they are perfectly whipped.
**You can also use a food processor to make whipped cream. It’s important to not let the whipped cream overmix, otherwise it will begin to curdle and start resembling butter
Why the Recipe Works
The formula of cake soaked in liquid is commonplace in desserts around the world (i.e. tiramisu). By soaking the tres leches cake in a mixture of 3 milks, it gives the cake moisture and a perfect level of sweetness.
The fluffy cake mixture serves 2 purposes; First, more air pockets give the milk mixture additional spaces to seep into the cake, allowing the cake to actually absorb the mixture. Second, the fluffier the cake, the lighter the dessert feels. This is important because inherently tres leches is a heavy dessert with 4 types of dairy. Failure to get a fluffy tres leches will lead to a very heavy dessert when it should be very light and airy.