Tres Leches Cake

On my sister blog, Real Women Eat, we did our monthly "Cook-N-Critique"© this past Thursday. 
For May, the choice was Mexican Foods. Now as some of you might know, I'm not the biggest fan of "Mexican Cuisine", and it's probably because I've never had authentic Mexican food so I wasn't the one who voted on this category. Obviously the other Real Women are fans because I was out voted. So I caved. We knew we wouldn't be able to do our Cook-N-Critique on May 5th in celebration of Cinco de Mayo so someone came up with the idea of "Fiesta de Mayo". LOL.


The dish I drew was Dessert.  Dessert would normally be a breeze for me, but it had to be two things: A) Authentic Mexican and, B) from an actual cookbook you could find somewhere. Now, I can throw down a dessert with the best of 'em, but...Mexican? I didn't have a clue! (Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a authentic Mexican dessert when you haven't a clue what authentic Mexican is? )

They all said "flan" but I had always understood that to be a Cuban dish.  A friend came through for me. I went to the source. The only authentic source I knew. texted Imelda and she responded with "Tres Leches Cake" (three milks).  I had a dessert, now to find it in an actual cookbook you could find somewhere. Luckily I had just gotten my new Taste of Home cookbook "Cooking through the Seasons". So now I was set!  You can read my review (and the recipe) on Real Women Eat but here's the recipe here also...

Tres Leches Cake

4 eggs - separated

2/3 cup sugar, divided

2/3 cup cake flour

Dash salt

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

3/4 cup evaporated milk

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp rum extract

TOPPING

1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream

3 TBSP sugar

let eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

line a 9 inch spring-for pan with wax paper,

Grease and flour the paper. Set aside

in a large bowl, beat the egg yolks for 2 minutes. Add 1/3 cup sugar; beat for 3 minutes or until mixture is thick and lemon colored. Fold in flour, a third at a time.

In another bowl, and with clean beaters, beat egg whites and salt on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating on high and until stiff peaks form. Stir a third of the whites into the yholk mixture. Fold in remaining whites.

Spread the batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

In a small bowl, combine cream evaporated milk, condensed milk and extracts. Transfer cake to a serving plate. Poke holes in top of cake ith a skewer. Slowly spoon the milk mixture over top. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.

For topping, in a small bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add sugar, beat until stiff peaks form. Spread over cake.

Confession:   I've never made home-made whipped cream before!  I kinda got hung up on the whole "stiff peaks" thing, turned my back, and almost made butter!   ROFL!!!