Tres Leches, the sponge cake that is never dry

I’m sure that at some point in your life you have eaten a dry, hard, flavorless cake, the kind that you have to drink a little coffee with in order to swallow it down. The person who invented the Tres Leches (Three Milks) cake probably had a traumatic experience of this nature, and decided that he or she would never go through anything like that again: the sponge cake would from now on be soaked with a liter of milk. No more dry cakes.

Well, it’s not literally a liter of milk: it’s a little evaporated milk, a little condensed milk, and a little whipping cream. Hence the name, descriptive to say the least, of this very popular dessert in Mexico, Nicaragua and some other Latin American countries. It is a simple cake, with a traditional vanilla flavor and a touch of cinnamon. But its simplicity is what makes it perfect, because it is super easy to prepare and it will never be dry, which is what usually scares beginners to the world of baking.

The topping is usually a meringue, but having made both versions, it seems to me that whipped cream works better (just in case there wasn’t enough milk in there!): it is lighter and less cloying. Furthermore, if you add a tablespoon of cream cheese or mascarpone to the cream when whipping it, it stabilizes and lasts in the refrigerator without problems for a few days, while the meringue dissolves more easily.

The resting time in the refrigerator, by the way, is essential: when you soak the cake with the milk, it will be absorbed quite quickly, and in five minutes it will have disappeared. But don’t be fooled: during those hours the liquid will be distributed evenly throughout the cake, and if you take it out ahead of time the center of the cake will be dry, while the outer parts will be too wet.

Recipe

Steps

1. Separate the six egg yolks from the egg whites and place them in different bowls. In the yolk bowl, add 150 grams of the sugar and the salt, and beat for one minute with a whisk, or until it has a creamy texture and has doubled in volume.

2. Add the vanilla extract and whole milk, and beat until everything is well mixed.

3. Beat the egg whites with a whisk until stiff peaks form. Continue beating, adding the rest of the sugar little by little, until the mixture creates peaks that hold their shape.

4. Transfer one third of the whipped egg whites to the bowl of egg yolks and fold in with a spatula using encircling motions, trying not to deflate the egg whites. Repeat with the other two thirds.

5. Mix the flour and the baking powder and then sift them into the mixing bowl. Incorporate it with a spatula, making wrapping movements, until there are no flour lumps.

6. Grease a mold of the desired shape — in my case, rectangular 34×23 centimeters — with the butter, then transfer the batter and spread it with a spatula. Tap the pan a couple of times against the countertop, then bake at 180ºC (350ºF), with heat only from below, for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.

7. Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix the evaporated milk, condensed milk, whipping cream and vanilla extract. When the cake is cold, without removing it from the mold, pierce the entire surface several times with a fork. Then gradually pour the milk mixture over the entire surface of the cake.

8. Wrap the mold with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for the cake to soak evenly, a minimum of four hours but ideally overnight.

9. Whip the cream until it starts to become creamy. Add the cream cheese or mascarpone, and then continue beating adding the sugar little by little, until it forms peaks that hold their shape.

10. Spread the whipped cream over the entire surface of the cake. Sprinkle cinnamon on top. Serve, if desired, topped with fresh fruit.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition