Tres Leches Cake with Berries
If you’ve never made a tres leches cake, I highly recommend that you do.
They are divine.
A tres leches cake is a yellow cake which has had a mixture of three milks (tres leches literally means “three milks” in Spanish) poured over top of it after baking. The cake absorbs the milk mixture and, as the cake is chilled, sets up into an almost custard-like texture rather than just soggy cake.
This recipe is a fantastic one to try! The recipe itself is pretty simple and straightforward, and the cake is delicious.
This cake can (and, in my opinion, should!) be made days in advance, making it such a great dessert to plan and have ready ahead of time.
Out of medical necessity my family eats very low fat, so when I made this cake I used the heavy cream called for but the evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk I used were both fat free.
I’m happy to report that the cake still turned out wonderfully and no one would’ve ever been able to tell that I hadn’t used “regular” canned milks.
Speaking of the three milks, I know from experience that looking back and forth between your baked cake and your milk mixture is bound to generate thoughts of “there is no way that cake is going to be able to absorb ALLLLL of this milk!”.
But! Please let me reassure you that yes, it can. And it will.
Pour the milk slowly, maybe 1/2 cup at a time, pausing to allow the poured milk to disappear into the cake before pouring more on, and remembering that the cake will continue to absorb the milk mixture as it chills!
Ina Garten’s Tres Leches Cake with Berries, Food Network Magazine May 2017.
