Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Tres Leches Cake


Tres Leches Cake
Originally uploaded by sh1mm3r.
I attend a potluck type dinner every month with a bunch of friends/co-workers, and each month has a different theme. This month's International Dinner Group theme was Mexico, and I didn't see how we could have a Mexican meal without a tres leches cake!

I have quite the history with tres leches cakes. When I worked as a cake decorator for a upscale supermarket in Indiana, I would get in trouble from the assistant manager because I would refuse to make tres leches cakes for the case. They were a lot of trouble, and nobody ever bought them, and we were always swamped with orders. So tres leches cake had an unhappy history in my mind that desperately needed correcting.

I surfed the internet for a recipe and ended up making a variation of the one on the Betty Crocker site. I am not ashamed to use cake mixes as a basis for a good cake - it's just the dry ingredients. It's what you do with them that matters. I read a lot of reviews and took some of the ideas into consideration.

Without any further ado, I present my modified recipe:

Tres Leches Cake

This needs to be made the day before serving. Please plan accordingly.

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® yellow cake mix
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup rum
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
3/4 cup whole milk or evaporated milk
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup rum

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease and flour or spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan.
2. In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, rum, oil, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.
3. Bake 29 to 35 minutes or until edges are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes. Poke top of hot cake every 1/2 inch with long-tined fork, wiping fork occasionally to reduce sticking.
4. In large bowl, stir together sweetened condensed milk, whole milk, rum, and whipping cream. Carefully pour evenly over top of cake. Cover; refrigerate about 12 hours or until mixture is absorbed into cake.
5. Serve with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Jenny's notes: Okay, so originally tres leches cake doesn't have rum in it, but the Cuban version definitely does, and I think it adds a lot of flavor to what would otherwise be just a super sweet cake. You can leave it out, just sub water in the cake and milk for the three milks mixture.

The original recipe said to soak for 1 hour, but 1 hour is not long enough - you'll just end up with a soggy half soaked cake. 12 hours is optimum.

What you should end up with is a sweet, light, delicious cake! I have to be honest, I liked this more than I expected to.

Categories: Cake, Mexico, Milk, Rum

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You tres leches cake looks good. I actually have a post up right now about one I made for Cinco de Mayo but I think I soaked mine too much cause its leaking at the bottom.

I love your site and check it everyday!

Nora B. said...

I am now very curious about this Tres Leches cake....I have never heard of it or tasted it. So now, I must try making it and find out for myself what it tastes like.

Cheryl said...

You gals are really making me want to finally try tres leches. It just looks so good.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Jenny, it looks so tender!

I used to be a part of an Orkut community (long time ago) about baking and people went crazy over this recipe. I've never tried it, though.

Karen Baking Soda said...

I've heard of tres leches cake, never had a chance to try (what can I say? Europe you know) but seeing yours convinced me to make one myself.

Unknown said...

Thus is my go to cake recipe for any birthday for adults. Everyone always raves about it.