Christian Haller Online

“Three-Milk Cake” has grown from a Hispanic restuarant phenomena to almost a commodity over the past twenty years.  You can now find it in mainstream restaurants that have never seen the far end of an enchilada.  Like most recipes of this sort, the roots are ill defined because with the popularity comes localized variations that have their own life.  True tres leche seems almost certainly to have serious roots in Mexico, according to my research.  Others suggest that Nestle has a hand in things to promote sweetened condensed milk.  I can believe this as it is used all over South America, Mexico and the Caribbean as sort of a sweetener/milk additive for numerous dishes.

One challenge with dishes like this is finding the authentic true-to-form of the original, free from the variety of reverse-engineering errors and omissions.  The version presented below is as close as I can come to the match what I consider to be fairly authentic tres leche. The result is better than that being produced in most places these days. A great recipe to get your kids involved.

Ingredients:

For the cake: 

• Vegetable oil
• 6 3/4 ounces cake flour, plus extra for the pan
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 ounces unsalted butter at room temperature (overnight is best; this takes much longer than you think and temperature is crucial to proper results).
• 8 ounces sugar
• 5 whole eggs
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract 

For the glaze: 

• 1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup half-and-half 

For the topping: 

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 8 ounces sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Procedure: 

For the cake: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
2. Lightly oil and flour a 13 by 9-inch metal pan and set aside. 
3. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside. 
4. Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed until fluffy, approximately 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and with the mixer still running; gradually add the sugar over 1 minute. 
5. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl, if necessary. 
6. Restart the mixer and add the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix to thoroughly combine. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. 
7. Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches and mix just until combined. 
8. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. This will appear to be a very small amount of batter but fear not. 
9. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden and reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees F. 
10. Remove the cake pan to a cooling rack and allow cooling for 30 minutes. Poke the top of the cake all over with a skewer or fork. 
11. Allow the cake to cool completely, about an hour.

For the glaze: 

1. Whisk together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and the half and-half in a 4-cup measuring cup. 
2. After the cake has cooled for about an hour, pour the glaze over the cake. 
3. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the cake overnight. 

Topping: 

1. Place the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer. 
2. Using the whisk attachment, whisk together on low until stiff peaks are formed. 
3. Change to medium speed and whisk until thick. Spread the topping over the cake and serve.