Tres Leches Cake

Hello! It has been a long while - I have been traveling and working, with not much time to focus on anything creative. I have a few projects in line, which includes more baking/cooking and some crafts.

This past weekend was a birthday weekend, and was requested to make a Tres Leches Cake.

Since I have not been blogging for a while, I totally forgot to take step by step pictures - my bad! But here is the recipe I put together and the cake turned out delicious!

Tres Leches Cake

For the Cake:

1 box of white cake mix

5 Eggs

1/3 cup of water

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Two 8 or 9 inch cake pans, lined with wax paper, and greased

I accidentally forgot the oil, but the cake turned out fine! Less fat right? You can also substitute the cake recipe for one made from scratch. I took a shortcut by using boxed cake mix, but modified it to make it more spongier.

Preheat your oven to 350 F

1. Whip the eggs together at high speed until it increases volume (almost double), and is a pale yellow color.

2. Slowly add in the cake mix and mix on med speed until  half of it is incorporated.

3. Add in water and vanilla

4. Slowly add in the rest of the cake mix until well incorporated and no lumps are visible. The batter will be medium-thick viscosity.

5. Evenly pour batter into your cake pans

6. Place in middle of the oven rack and bake 30-35 min or until knife/toothpick comes out clean.

7. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in pans.

8. After cooled, remove from pans. You might have ended up with rounded cake tops, no worries, just even slice off with a serrated knife to even out the cake layers nice and flat.

9. Place the layers on two separate plates.

Tres Leches Syrup

1 Can sweetened condensed milk

1 Can evaporated milk 

1 cup cream or half and half

2 tsp Rum extract (or real rum!)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. This one is easy, mix all ingredients together.

2. If you did not have to slice your cake tops, make sure you poke holes in the cake with a fork. If you did slice the cake tops, you can go ahead to step 3.

3. Take your two plates of cake, and evenly pour the Tres Leches syrup on both layers. Don't be shy! the cake will absorb all the liquid, but do this step slowly. I ran into an issue while putting the cake together, where I put too much sauce and it was dripping out while I was frosting it. You should pour enough syrup to where the cake is very moist, but excess is not pooling on the sides.

4. Place in fridge while you prepare filling and whipped cream frosting.

Whipped Cream Frosting

1 1/2 Quart Heavy whipping cream 

1/4-1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp rum extract (optional)

1. In a cold bowl, pour in whipping cream and beat on high speed until it begins to thicken. 

2. Add in vanilla, rum extract, and a portion of your sugar and continue to mix. 

3. Continue to add powdered sugar to taste and mix until whipped cream is a thick consistency, where you have stiff peaks. 

4. If not ready to apply to cake right away, place it fridge to stay cool. 

Filling and Garnish

Fresh strawberries

Semi sweet chocolate morsels

Wax paper

Piping or ZipLoc bag 

1. Set up a double boiler with a pot of water and a heat proof bowl place over it. Make sure the bowl is not submerged in water. 

2. Allow the water to come to a medium boil, add your chocolate chip morsels to the bowl and allow to melt. Stirring frequently until the chocolate is smooth with no lumps. 

3. While waiting for the chocolate to melt, place a sheet of wax paper, and outline the size of your cake pan. Place this wax paper on a flat baking sheet (also make sure there is room in your freezer to place the baking sheet in)

4. After the chocolate is melted, transfer to your piping back and allow to cool for a few seconds. 

5. To make the chocolate garnish,  create swirls or squiggles or anything you like. I just went with constant circular motions to make one large piece of chocolate "lace". 

6. After you have finished placing your chocolate design on the wax paper, pop it in the freezer until it is completely solid, and cold enough to where when handling with you hands, the chocolate does not melt right away at room temp. 10-20 minutes. 

7. Slice up some strawberries to use for filling and top your cake with. 

Cake Assembly

1. Take your bottom layer, apply liberal dollops of whipped cream and some chopped strawberries to the center of the cake. 

2. Using a angled spatula, evenly spread the filling on the cake, add more if needed. 

3. Carefully transfer the second layer on top. 

4. Evenly add the whipped cream frosting to the cake. Pipe in a border if you like (I did with a star tip on the bottom)

5. Carefully remove your chocolate garnish from the wax paper and place on your cake (you have to work quickly and carefully! Once you put that thing down, you can't pick it up or move it, unless you take off the frosting layer and start over again with a new garnish. 

6. Top with a sliced strawberry.

I think the cake turned out very elegant and was also very delicious! It was pretty much gone by the end of the day!