Leche me have some more!

It’s been almost two weeks since my last post; I’m so sorry about that. There has been a lot of work that I had to catch up on, but now I have a bit of room to breathe, so here’s the next post! Today’s recipe is Tres Leches Cake! Tres Leches means “Three Milks” in Spanish, earning its name because it contains whole milk, heavy cream, and condensed milk. I love this dessert; it’s light yet rich, and it is oh so sweet~!  It isn’t a difficult recipe to make, and it does require some refrigerator time, so make it an hour before your guests come over and then surprise them with this beautiful milky cake!

Ingredients:

·      1–¼ cups cake flour (if you do not have/can’t find cake flour, you can use all-purpose flour, but the texture won’t be as fluffy and light, but it isn’t too much of a difference, so don’t worry about it!)

·      1 tsp baking powder

·      1/8 tsp salt

·      1/3 cup canola/vegetable oil

·      1 cup sugar + 1 cup sugar (for meringue)

·      1 tsp vanilla extract

·      5 large eggs

·      1–¼ cups whole milk

·      1 cup sweetened condensed milk

·      1 cup heavy cream

·      4 eggs whites (for meringue)

·      Powdered sugar (it’ll be dusted over the top of the meringue, so roughly 1 tbsp)

Preheat the oven to 325ºF and grease a 13x9x2-inch cake pan. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt in a small mixing bowl, and set aside (we’ll add this later to the wet ingredients). Combine the oil, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl, and whisk the eggs in one at a time. Stir in ½ cup of the whole milk and gently fold in the flour mixture until just combined. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until it feels firm and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool down to room temperature. Pierce the cake with a fork 30 to 40 times. Whisk together the remaining ¾ cup whole milk, the heavy cream, and the condensed milk, and pour it slowly over the cake. Refrigerate for at least an hour. This refrigeration gives the dry sponge-like cake to absorb a lot of the milks to give it a rich, sweet flavor. Once the cake is done in the fridge, beat the egg whites on high speed in a large bowl until soft peaks form. While whisking, slowly add the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread the meringue over the top of the cake, sprinkle the top with a bit of powdered sugar, and broil for 1 to 2 minutes until the meringue is golden brown. And you are all done~!

This is a wonderful dessert to accompany any yummy dinner, and I strongly recommend giving it a try! And as always, have fun in the kitchen!