Milk Cake ~ A take on Tres Leches

Milk Cake 

Tres Leches is a three-milk dessert that has recently gained popularity in the American food scene, particularly in Texas, New Mexico, and California. It's just three kinds of milk mixed together in a sponge cake. It originates from Nicaragua. 
Those of you who love something rich, melted in the mouth and sweetly delicious, will not regret taking a bite of this heavenly soft, luscious dish of goodness. 

It has been on my list to make for a number of years. And finally, I did go ahead with it for a 60-person Sunday brunch. 

Everyone has their own concoction to make it look pretty. Here is mine.

It was made a bit differently this time. The caramel spikes were fun to make.

Sponge Cake

4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup boiling milk
2 tbsp salted butter

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt.
Boil the milk and butter together.
Keep aside.

At a high speed, beat all the eggs until light and tripled in volume. Lower the speed and pour in the sugar slowly. Add the vanilla. 
On the lowest speed, add 1/3rd of the dry ingredients, then half the liquid, followed by the dry, wet, and ending with the dry. 

Depending on the size of the bowl you use to assemble the cake, you need three pans of 20 cm/ 8-inch or 23 cm/ 9-inch each.
Line each one with parchment paper. Butter and flour each tin. 
Divide the batter equally and bake for 25 minutes in a preheated oven of 170C | 350 F. Test with a skewer to ensure the cakes are properly cooked through. The skewer must come out clean. Prick all the cakes all over to make holes for the milk to soak in easily. Allow the cakes to cool.


Tres Leches Mixture

1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 cup rich milk
2 tsp vanilla essence
pinch of salt

In a pan simply mix it well with a wooden spoon.

Caramel
In a pan 

On a medium-high flame, melt

1 1/4 cup sugar

Swirl over the heat until the liquid is a beautiful amber color. 

Remove it from the fire and add 1 cup of cream over the caramel. This will splatter, so be careful.

Add a pinch of salt

1 tbsp of Tahitian vanilla extract OR 2 tbsp of rum

Walnuts
3 cups walnuts, chopped 


Assembly:
Divide the milk mixture into 3 equal parts. 
From 1 part, pour 3 tbsp of the milk mixture into the bottom of your serving bowl. Place one of the cakes in the dish. Pour the rest of the milk over and allow it to soak. 
Once all the milk has been soaked up, pour the caramel in a thin layer and cover with chopped walnuts. 
On cake # 2, pour one-third of the milk mixture. Then turn the cake into the serving bowl and pour the rest of the milk over the cake. Keep it slow and even all over. Once all of the milk has soaked in, add the caramel and cover it with broken walnuts. Repeat with cake #3. 

Cover and chill over night. 

Tips 
Ensure the eggs are at room temperature. 
Keep the measured dry ingredients and the milk should be boiling hot when you start the beater. It cannot ''wait'' once it has been beaten. 
The rich milk can be whole milk, half and half, or simple cream. I used whole milk. 
Caramel can be made at home or bought at a store in glass jars. 
I added 2 tbsp of rum to my caramel.

My published cookbooks are available for sale through myself and on Amazon.

The World of Parsi Cooking: Food Across Borders is a 3 award winning book. It has been self published in July 2019 and will be going into its second print in 2022. 

The Art of Parsi Cooking; reviving an ancient cuisine was published in 2016 by Austin Macauley and continues to be available through amazon book depot book depository and from the publishers.

Reviews on the book can be viewed here.