Tres Leches Cake -A Latin American dessert (Serves 8-10)

 Our Valentine gift....

Tres Leches cake or three milk cake is a yummylicious, delicious Spanish dessert. It is a butter cake soaked in three kinds of milk and hence has a dense and soft texture that melts in your mouth. We first fell in love with this sweet, custard like cake in a Mexican restaurant.We just couldnt wait for a second visit to the restaurant and so we had to try making it in our own kitchen. Here we are with this dessert for you all …

For the cake

All Purpose flour 1 cup
Baking powder 1 tsp
Salt ½ tsp
Unsalted butter ½ cup or 4 oz (room temperature)
Sugar ½ - 1 cup (depending on one’s sweet level)
Whole eggs 5 nos
Vanilla extract 1 tsp

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Lightly butter a 13 by 9 inch cake pan and keep aside. Mix cake flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Place butter onto another bowl and using an electric mixer, beat the butter on a medium speed until fluffy. Add sugar little by little and beat for another minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, if needed. Now add eggs one by one and beat them well. Add vanilla extract and mix to combine everything. Lastly add the dry ingredients into the batter in 3 batches and mix well. Transfer the batter onto the prepared cake pan and bake in the middle rack of the oven for about 25 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden brown. Remove cake pan and allow to cool (We need the cake in the pan itself, so do not take the cake out of the pan). Once cooled completely poke the top of the cake all over with a fork and keep aside.

For the glaze

Evaporated milk 1 (12 oz) can
Sweetened Condensed milk 1 (14 oz) can
Half and half 1 cup

Preparation

 Combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk and half and half in a bowl. Once combined, pour the glaze over the cooled, poked cake. Refrigerate the cake overnight.

For the Topping

Whipping cream
Cherry
Spread the whipped cream over the cake and decorate with cherries….

Enjoy this delicious, cake with your love on this Lovers Day..

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY...... 

Tips

Use fat free evaporated milk and condensed milk for a healthier version of Tres Leche
Replace sliced strawberries for cherries

Recipe courtesy: Alton Brown’s, Food network (We made slight variations to adjust the sweetness to our palate, but the basic recipe was adapted from Food network website.)  

 We are sending this to the St Valentine's Day event hosted by Priya (http://priyaeasyntastyrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/02/announcing-hearts-for-st-valentines-day.html)......