This one is one of my favorites!

Tres Leches Cake

Ingredients for the cake:

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

½ cup butter, softened

6 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract (not artificial flavoring)

3 tbsp. Water

1 ¾ cups flour

1 ¼ tsp. baking powder (use only ¼ tsp. if you are baking in a high altitude like me)

¼ tsp. salt

Beat the sugar and butter in a lg. bowl until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, add the vanilla and the water and mix together. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk together then add all at once to the wet ingredients and mix until all ingredients are combined. Pour the batter into a greased & floured 9-inch spring form pan. Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake, 55 – 60 minutes.

The three milks:

1-12 oz. can evaporated milk

1-14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract (not artificial flavoring)

Before the cake is ready to come out of the oven, stir together the canned milks, the heavy whipping cream and, the vanilla. As soon as the cake is done poke holes in the top of the cake with a toothpick or a wooden skewer and pour 1 ½ cups of the milk mixture over the cake slowly and evenly. Reserve the rest of the milk mixture to be poured on the individual servings of cake as you plate them.

The Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream

3 tbsps. Powdered sugar

1tsp. pure vanilla extract (not artificial flavoring)

Whip the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until it starts to get fluffy then add 3 tablespoons powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla, continue to whip until the whipped cream will hold a medium-stiff peak. 

My favorite fruits for this cake are strawberries (obviously), raspberries or a mixture of berries, mango or a combination of toasted coconut & fresh pineapple chunks.

Tres Leches Rum Cake
Substitute 3 tablespoons of rum for the water in the first mixture

I think the one main thing that I do differently with my tres leches cake that makes it stand out for most people is that I don’t entirely soak the cake with the milk mixture. When I slice the cake I pour some of the reserved milk mixture into a shallow serving bowl and place the slice of cake into the bowl and top it with the home-made whipped cream then the fruit.

This cake also makes a beautiful presentation as a whole cake when you mound the whipped cream onto the top of the cake like a cloud and put the fresh fruit onto it!

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The only differences to this recipe for high altitudes is the drastic reduction in the amount of baking powder, (as noted above) because if you use the  amount of baking powder called for originally in this recipe it will rise too quickly at higher altitudes which will cause it to  fall. Also, cakes are more prone to stick to the baking pan at higher altitudes. I simply make sure to grease the baking pan really well with vegetable shortening before I flour it and when I’m ready to remove the cake from the pan I run a spatula first around the sides of the cake and then after I remove the side of the spring form pan I run the spatula all around the bottom of the cake to be sure to loosen it from the bottom of the pan.