Tres leches cake is a famous Mexican dessert recipes. "Tres leches" is Spanish for three milks because this cake contains whole milk or cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk. You might imagine that such a combination would produce a heavy, dense cake but actually, tres leches cake is light and moist. It has a lot of air bubbles in it.
This cake is soaked in milk and often flavored with vanilla. This cake is famous in Mexico and it is not difficult to make yourself. This cake can either be a sponge cake or a butter cake and, as you would expect, a sponge cake gives lighter results.
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Soaking cakes in liquid is not a new concept and there are various traditional cake recipes, which call for this step. Rum cake is a Christmas favorite and you might have tried a Savarin or Baba. Italian tiramisu is soaked in coffee to flavor it and Puerto Rican rum cake is also famous. These cakes are doused in alcohol to flavor them.
A lot of other cake recipes tell you to brush some kind of liquid over the cake to moisten it and add flavor. Good tres leches cake is moist instead of mushy and aromatic instead of overly strong flavored.
Early Recipes for Three Milk Cake
It is not certain how tres leches cake was invented, although this cake is more popular in Mexico and Nicaragua than anywhere else. The Nestle company claims it helped this cake to evolve during the second world war but that is not proven. Sweetened condensed milk has been around since the early nineteenth century, although many people do not realize this.
Due to the lack of refrigeration available at the time, sweetened condensed milk was invented because fresh milk did not keep for long and this ingredient was used to make various Mexican desserts, including cakes.
Tasty Toppings and Flavorings
Tres leches cake can be served as it is or topped with cajeta, which is a goat's milk and sugar based caramel sauce. Some restaurants in Florida and Texas add cajeta to the tres leches cake, technically making it a cuatro leches (four milks) cake, but this is a Tex Mex serving idea, rather than an authentic Mexican one.
A tot of rum or brandy can be added to the soaking liquid or you could try Irish Cream or Kahlua. Some toasted coconut would be good too and you might like to flavor the milk mixture with a nut or fruit extract.
For a southern style tres leches cake you can add drained peaches to the batter and peach schnapps to the soaking liquid. For a Caribbean spin, what about adding some coconut milk to the milk mixture and perhaps some light rum too? These steps are optional and you might just prefer to make a traditional recipe for tres leches cake.
Tips For the Best Tres Leches Cake Recipe
A lot of traditional Mexican recipes can be adapted and you can add your own flavorings to tres leches cake, for example. Sometimes however it is nice to make Mexican desserts following the traditional recipe, so you can serve something truly authentic.
MexicanDessertRecipes.net The Sweet Side of Mexican Food.