Strawberry Tres Leches Cake

My biggest frustration when it comes to baking is wasting time and money on a recipe that doesn’t work out. It doesn’t happen too often anymore, so when it does, I get super annoyed. That’s what happened with this Strawberry Tres Leches Cake. I was so excited to make it and bring it to Jenny’s house for her BBQ/Pool Party, but I had a few issues with it. I wasn’t even going to post it here, but the problem is that I just love the idea in concept so much, that with a few changes, I think it can be rescued.

First, a quick refresher. A classic tres leches cake is a sponge cake that you poke a bunch of holes in while it’s still warm. You pour a mixture of three milks (that’s the tres leches) overtop, and the sponge cake soaks it all up. It’s topped with a layer of whipped cream and fresh fruit, and it’s perfect. For this strawberry version, you add pureed strawberries to the milk mixture, and then only use strawberries for the fresh fruit on top. Like a twist on strawberry shortcake! What could go wrong?

 Quite a few things actually:

  • The Cake: One of my other biggest pet peeves in baking is having to separate eggs, whip the whites, and fold them into something. It just irrationally annoys me, and I usually won’t make something if the recipe is asking me to do that. So this recipes requires you do so, and not only did it bother me, but the cake shrank significantly after baking. We’re ta;king almost two inches on each side. I’m sure there’s science behind this somewhere, or I did something wrong, but guess what? Don’t care. In the previous Martha Stewart recipe I used when I made Tres Leches cake, you don’t have to separate eggs, and there was no shrinkage whatsoever. Let’s use Martha’s recipe instead!
  • To Cool or not to Cool: In this recipe, it says to let the cake fully cool before poking the holes in it and pouring the milk mixture over tip. I found that the cake barely soaked up any of the liquid (more on that below). In Martha’s recipe, you poke and pour while the cake is still warm, and this makes so much more sense to me.
  • The Soak: In the recipe, it says that there will be a lot of milk mixture to pour over, but that it will all get soaked up by the cake. Nope! I had so much liquid leftover that I couldn’t even pour it all over the cake even if I wanted to, plus in the morning, there was still so much excess that I had to actually pour it off. Instead, we’re using Martha again, but decreasing the amount of milk by 1/2 cup, and adding strawberry puree.

I know it sounds like I hated this cake, but even with all these complaints, it was still delicious and my friends ate it right up! My issues are more with the method and my own impatience. I like my streamlined version below even better and can’t wait to make it again!

 Strawberry Tres Leches Cake

Source: Martha Stewart via this post + strawberry inspiration from A Cozy Kitchen

Ingredients

For Cake:

  • 5 eggs
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted and cooled

Tres Leches for soaking:

  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk (300 mL)
  • 1 can evaporated milk (376 mL)
  • 1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
  • 8 oz strawberries, pureed in a blender and strained to remove the seeds

Topping:

  • 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • sliced strawberries for garnish

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a 9×13″ pan with non-stick spray.
  2. In a large bowl, whip the eggs and sugar until pale and thick, about 3-4 minutes. Mix in the vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined. Pour in the melted butter, and fold in gently with a spatula until combined. Pour the batter in the pan, and spread evenly with an offset spatula. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  3. While the cake is baking, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, milk and strawberry puree. When the cake is done, poke all over with a toothpick or skewer.  Slowly pour the milk mixture over top the cake (it will totally absorb) and let cool to room temperature.
  4. When cake is cool, add the whipping cream and sugar to a large bowl and mix on high speed until medium peaks form.  Spread over the cake with an offset spatula and top with strawberries. Chill until time to serve.