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