I wanted to offer a variety of desserts for our office Cinco de Mayo party, so in addition to margarita cupcakes, I also made a party-size flan and a tres leches cake. (I didn't get a photo of the flan at the party, but I used a recipe from La Golondrina Cafe that was printed in the Los Angeles Times. It was fantastic and I enthusiastically recommend the recipe without reservation.) For the tres leches cake, I used a recipe from Alton Brown.
The recipe is easy and I especially liked the fact that Brown provides weights for all of the ingredients. To make the cake batter, you beat room temperature butter with sugar; add eggs and vanilla; gradually add the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, and salt); and pour the batter into a 9-inch by 13-inch pan. The recipe says you should bake the cake until the internal temperature is 200 degrees, and when I tested it after 20 minutes it was 194 degrees. However, the top of the cake was nicely golden and the cake definitely seemed done, so I didn't bother trying to get it up to 200 degrees. After cooling the cake slightly, I poked holes all over the top with a fork and then let it cool completely in the pan.
When the cake was cool, I poured over a soaking liquid of evaporated milk, heavy cream, and half and half. I chilled the cake overnight and the following morning I frosted it with sweetened whipped cream (heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla). I sliced the cake at home and put the slices in a plastic container, keeping them refrigerated until our party in the afternoon. A little bit of soaking liquid seeped out of the cake in the interim. The photo above shows two slices of cake that sat in my fridge at home all day while I was at work; you can see the tiny puddles of liquid that formed around the bottoms.
This cake was freakin' delicious. It was not soggy and surprisingly light despite being saturated with three types of full-fat dairy. The whipped cream frosting was weightless but beautifully sweet and creamy. The cake overall is quite sweet but also refreshing, especially because it's served cold. It was my personal favorite among the three Cinco de Mayo desserts and I think this cake would be lovely served for any occasion.
Recipe: "Tres Leches Cake" by Alton Brown, recipe available from Food Network.
Previous Posts:
The recipe is easy and I especially liked the fact that Brown provides weights for all of the ingredients. To make the cake batter, you beat room temperature butter with sugar; add eggs and vanilla; gradually add the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, and salt); and pour the batter into a 9-inch by 13-inch pan. The recipe says you should bake the cake until the internal temperature is 200 degrees, and when I tested it after 20 minutes it was 194 degrees. However, the top of the cake was nicely golden and the cake definitely seemed done, so I didn't bother trying to get it up to 200 degrees. After cooling the cake slightly, I poked holes all over the top with a fork and then let it cool completely in the pan.
This cake was freakin' delicious. It was not soggy and surprisingly light despite being saturated with three types of full-fat dairy. The whipped cream frosting was weightless but beautifully sweet and creamy. The cake overall is quite sweet but also refreshing, especially because it's served cold. It was my personal favorite among the three Cinco de Mayo desserts and I think this cake would be lovely served for any occasion.
Recipe: "Tres Leches Cake" by Alton Brown, recipe available from Food Network.
Previous Posts:
- "Happy Siete de Mayo: Tres Leches Cake," May 8, 2010.
- "Hold the Alcohol, Add Extra Zing: Margarita Cupcakes," May 17, 2017.
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