Thursday, May 6, 2010

Tres Leches Cake

Oh yes. Yes it is. It's The Pioneer Woman's famous cake.

When I saw that post for the first time, I wanted to cry. I've never wanted to eat a cake so badly in all my life.

A sponge (only cake I'll eat) soaked in sweetened condensed milk (the only sweet food that turns me into a voracious spoon-licker)... a match made in Veggie Mama heaven. In fact, if there was a heaven, this is all they would serve. And every television would be running Monty Python's The Meaning of Life continuously. Ahhhh.

I am keeping the recipe written exactly as it is on PW's site, but have removed all the unnecessary capital letters cos they make me itchy.

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 whole eggs
1 cup sugar, divided,
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cups milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cups heavy cream
_____
FOR THE ICING:
1 pint heavy cream, for whipping
3 tablespoons sugar

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (non-US darlings, 180C). Spray a 9 x 13inch pan liberally until coated.

2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.

6. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.

7. 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.

8. Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes.

9. 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 with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve.



Now as you can probably tell, my milk mixture didn't sink all the way to the bottom of the cake, which is what you are aiming for. I didn't have a big enough rimmed platter, so was worried I'd lose most of the milk to the bench, the floor and the surrounding houses.

It was just one of those things.

Still tasted amazing, though... and look how pretty it is when you mix the batter with the whipped egg whites:



4 comments:

  1. Oh my! I am going to have to make this cake! It looks delicious (and easy to make)! Thanks for sharing it :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my gosh, do it! It is ultra-delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh my gosh, do it! It is ultra-delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh my! I am going to have to make this cake! It looks delicious (and easy to make)! Thanks for sharing it :)

    ReplyDelete