HOW many milks?? (Tres Leches)

I can't lie to your faces, blogworthies...I am kinda pleased right now.   After years of searching (ok maybe three recipes over the last 8 years worth), I have found a decent Tres Leches recipe (most delicious cake in the world:  Cake Description from Wikipedia).

Tres Leches AND Strawberries!

An added bonus is that I was able to use about 5 strawberries of the 500 that I purchased yesterday at bargain basement prices!

Truth be told, I should have tried this recipe a long time ago...it IS the highest rated one on Food Network...but the recipe looked hard, so I settled for lesser Tres Leches.  For this recipe, unless you are crazy and love to spend 10 hours getting egg whites to peak, you'll need some form of electric mixer :).

I set off making this cake yesterday because the cake should actually soak in the milk mixture overnight.  I have been fighting off a bit of a cold lately, so I took extra care not to breathe on the cake to avoid bringing a cake of death into work tomorrow.  

Cake 'o Death

Alright enough talk, let's get to the goodz!

The Recipe

Basically I followed Emeril's Recipe right off Food Network with a few adjustments...

You'll need for the Cake:
6 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking power
1/2 cup milk (recipe says whole but I used 2% and it was fine)
1 teaspoon vanilla


For the "Three Milks" to Soak the Cake in:
1-14 ounce can evaporated milk (different than condensed milk!)
1-14 ounce can condensed mlik
1 cup heavy whipping cream

For the Frosting (This is where I deviate from the Emeril recipe)

1 cup heavy whipping cream

A couple tablespoons of powdered sugar.  

Get a 9 x 13 baking pan and spread a little bit of oil in it to keep the cake from sticking when you add the batter later.  

Preheat oven to 350 F

Separate the eggs (this is pretty easy, spoon out the yolks).  Beat the 6 egg whites until soft peaks form.  This takes a long time so hang in there!!   This serves as a base of a VERY fluffy cake and is the key to success in this recipe.  Add sugar as you continue mixing and then add the egg yolks, one at a time, while continuing the beat the mixture.   

Mix the flour and baking power and then add to the egg / sugar bowl.  Alternate adding the flour mixture with adding the 1/2 cup milk.  Add the vanilla.  Do not let the mixture to sit or settle...add instantly to the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes or until golden- delicious.  

While the cake is cooking, make the "three milks".  Just mix together the evaporated milk, condensed milk, and cream.  

When cake is done, remove from the oven, and let it sit for about 5 minutes.  Then pour the milk mixture over it and let it sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours.  This is when the magic happens.....

After the cake has sat in the fridge, pour out any extra mixture (without pouring out the cake!).  Now whip the cup of whipping cream and powdered sugar together for the frosting.  Once it has thickened, spread the frosting on cake.  

If you want, you can add fruit as a garnish to the cake.  I added strawberries because (if you read yesterday's post), I have a billion of them.  I'm sure almost anything else would be awesome too.  

Success!!

Heaven in a pan