Tres Leches Cake

Hi everyone! How's your day? Mine has been a rush Labour Day holiday....... now still rushing to complete this post fast so that I can meet the dateline for Bake Along which ends in about 2 hours. I should be able to make it....

Made this Latin American cake this afternoon & managed to take some shots with my compact camera (coz the memory card for the dslr is missing... long story..) before rushing to the hospital to visit my dad where I also met up with my cousins from kl. Came home just after nine, had dinner & started editing the photos... I've been taking longer than usual editing the pictures ever since we bought a new iMac. I usually use PhotoScape for editing but I'm not able to use that with iMac. So, until I decide on another software,  I'll have to make do with the editing using the netbook.... not an ideal thing given the failing eyesight.

Now, about this cake.. I really wanted to try baking this cake because I was quite curious with the outcome, texture & taste, given the not-so-normal way to finish a cake... I'm referring to the soaking part. It's basically a sponge cake soaked in milk, lots of it! I decided to use only 50% of the recommended proportion of milk mixture for soaking, yet I think this cake is just too sweet to my liking. If I do make this again, I'll  certainly do some tweaking to the proportion. Whatever it is, I'm glad I baked it. If not for this baking event, I may not have come across this cake or thought of attempting to bake it..... 

Ok... here's the changes I made..

1. I made half the recipe & used a 6x9 inch pan. I lined & greased the pan.

2. I replaced the heavy cream with low-fat milk & halved the recommended amount of the milk mixture for soaking. Which means, for half recipe, I only used 1/4 can each of evaporated & condensed milk & 1/16 cup of low-fat milk.

3. I served the cake with chocolate ganache (mine is quite watery though..) instead of the icing.

4. I didn't wait for the cake to cool down before piercing the holes & pouring the milk mixture. I did it right after taking the cake out of the oven.

Tres Leches Cake
Recipe by The Pioneer Woman.

Ingredients
1 cup All-purpose Flour (I used cake flour.)
1-1/2 teaspoon 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
Preparation Instructions


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 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. 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. Cut into squares and serve.

I'm submitting this entry to Free & Easy Bake Along event #43 (Theme - Tres Leches Cake) hosted by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids.