Tres Leches to Write Home About

One dessert I’d never made before last week includes a traditional Tres Leches Cake. A Tres Leches Cake can be translated to “three milk” cake, and is known for its’ heavy moisture and sweet flavor. The cake itself is a tasty combo of a cake batter mixed with a tasty meringue, which after baking is soaked in evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and whole milk mixed together. It is a treat my husband and I had a couple of times a year in Texas, but realized that we had not had it more than maybe once since moving to Oklahoma. Below is a recipe we used from watching Basics with Babish’s video that turned out phenomenally! We are huge fans of both Binging with Babish and Basics with Babish and refer to a lot of his videos when meal planning.

An additional thing we tried was crushing Buc-ee's Beaver Nuggets and using them as a topping for the Tres Leches to add as sweet flavor and satisfying crunch to the dish and WOW! It was amazing!

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​Once we finished and iced the Tres Leches our cat Leo came to check it out. We noticed a trail of whipped cream on the counter and the culprit (in the top left of the photo) licking the left overs off of his tail. While we had a good laugh, we decided that it would be best not to take that cake to work and to just bring the other one. 

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Ingredients:
Cake:
10 eggs, separated by whites and yolks
2 cup white sugar
1&1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup milk
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
Pam/cooking spray
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
4 ounces whole milk
Strawberries, thinly sliced for garnish

Whipped Cream:
16 ounces heavy whipping cream
4 Tbsp sugar 
2 tsp vanilla extract

Equipment:
Stand mixer
Parchment paper
2 round cake pans (10 inches)

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For Fun:
Buc-ee's Beaver Nuggets crunched up as a topping

Directions:
Cake:

• Pre-Heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• First, separate your 10 eggs, putting the egg whites in one mixing bowl and the egg yolks in another. 
• Begin beating the 10 egg whites on high in your mixer while slowly adding in one cup of sugar. Once the mixture is well beaten check to see if you have what is known as a "white peak" from your meringue. If you do, remove the mixing bowl from the mixer and start on the next phase.
• Begin beating the egg yolks in your mixer while slowly adding the other cup of sugar on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until it is thin and pale.
• In a large bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder, mix it and set it aside.
• In the mixing bowl with the egg yolks add vanilla and milk while mixing, then slowly add in the bowl of dry ingredients listed above. 
• After mixture is well mixed and there are no lumps, remove from under mixer and add in the meringue. Hand stir the meringue in until you can no longer see white within the mixture.
• In the two pans, spray cooking spray on the bottom of the pans. Then, cut out/fold parchment paper to best fit on the bottom of the pans, and spray the parchment paper with cooking spray as well.
• Fill each pan about half way with cake batter (we filled it up a little over that and it was fine).
• Then place pans in the oven and bake for 25-35 minutes. 30 minutes was perfect for our oven, but it is good to have a range.
• Check to make sure cakes are fully cooked through, then let sit to cool for at least one hour.
• After cooling, use a knife to go around the edges of the cake and then carefully flip the pans over to remove the cake (temporarily) from its' pan. Remove the parchment paper, then place the cake back inside its' pan (repeat).
• If your cake is taller than the pan, carefully slice off the top to make it even or lower than the pan. If your cake is a perfect height, poke holes throughout the cake with a stray or coffee stir or chopstick. 
• In a separate bowl, add whole milk, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk together in a bowl. It should be very runny!
• Evenly pour the milk mixture over the tops of the cakes until all of the mixture has been poured into them.
• Place cakes in the fridge, covered with tin foil or plastic wrap, overnight (or for at least 8 hours).

Whipped Cream:

• Once the cakes have set overnight (or at least 8 hours), you can start working on your whipped cream!
  
• Beat heavy whipping cream on high with your mixer, slowly adding in the sugar and vanilla.
  
• Continue to whip on high until the mixture becomes light, fluffy, and spreadable.
  
• Once complete you should remove your cakes from their pans by flipping them out onto the serving dish of your choice.
  
• You can then coat your cakes with the thick whipped cream, making sure to get even coverage on both cakes. 
• Then you are done! Add toppings of your choice, cut, serve, and enjoy!

Meringue/egg white mixture for cake batter

Freshly baked cakes

Cakes with the tops cut off to create an even surface with wholes for the milk mixture