Tres Leches Cake

Pricked all over and soaked while still warm, because a cold sponge refuses the milk and sits in a puddle.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (condensed milk), dairy (double cream), dairy (evaporated milk), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

the sponge

• 5 eggs, separated
• 200 g caster sugar
• 200 g plain flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 80 ml whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon salt

the three milks

• 397 g tin condensed milk
• 350 ml evaporated milk
• 250 ml double cream

to finish

• 350 ml double cream, for whipping
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• ground cinnamon

Method

1. IT IS PRICKED ALL OVER AND SOAKED WHILE STILL WARM, because a cold sponge refuses the milk and sits in a puddle. A warm crumb is open and its starches have not yet fully set, and it draws liquid in readily by capillary action; a cold one has firmed and the milk runs off the top and pools in the bottom of the tin, leaving a dry cake floating in cream. So the sponge comes out of the oven, is left ten or fifteen minutes to stop steaming, and is pricked and soaked while still noticeably warm to the hand. The pricking matters as much: a skewer pushed right through to the base every couple of centimetres gives the milk a route to the bottom instead of a surface to sit on.
2. THE SPONGE IS MADE WITH WHISKED WHITES AND IS DELIBERATELY LEAN. No butter and very little milk. A rich buttery sponge repels liquid -- fat and water do not mix -- and it will not absorb three-quarters of a litre of milk however long it is left. A dry, airy, almost plain sponge is structurally a sponge in the literal sense, and it is the only kind that works.
3. THE MILK IS POURED ON IN THREE GOES, TWENTY MINUTES APART. All of it at once overwhelms the crumb and most runs straight to the bottom. A third at a time, each left to be taken up before the next, and by the third the sponge has swollen visibly and there is almost nothing standing in the tin.
4. IT IS CHILLED AT LEAST SIX HOURS AND PREFERABLY OVERNIGHT. The milk goes on redistributing itself through the crumb for hours, and a cake cut after two is wet at the bottom and dry at the top. Overnight, it is uniformly saturated and firm enough to cut cleanly.
5. THE WHIPPED CREAM GOES ON LAST AND ONLY WHEN IT IS COLD. Spread onto a warm or even cool cake it slumps and weeps. Straight from the fridge, onto a thoroughly cold cake, and back into the fridge.
6. The oven heated to 180°C and a deep 23 x 33 cm tin lined.
7. The yolks beaten with two-thirds of the sugar until pale and thick, then the milk and vanilla beaten in.
8. The flour, baking powder and salt folded in.
9. The whites whisked to soft peaks, the remaining sugar added and whisked to stiff peaks, then FOLDED into the batter in three additions.
10. Baked 28 to 32 MINUTES, until a skewer comes out clean.
11. Left in the tin 10 to 15 MINUTES only -- it must stay WARM.
12. The condensed milk, evaporated milk and 250 ml of double cream whisked together.
13. The WARM sponge PRICKED ALL OVER with a skewer, pushed right through to the base, every 2 cm.
14. ONE THIRD of the milk poured slowly over and left 20 MINUTES.
15. The second third poured on and left 20 MINUTES, then the last third.
16. CHECKED: almost nothing should be standing in the tin. Covered and CHILLED at least 6 HOURS, preferably overnight.
17. The remaining cream whipped with the icing sugar and spread over the COLD cake. Dusted with cinnamon and kept chilled.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes