Tres Leches Cake and the Taco Experience

Last night we had guests over for dinner. One of the guests and Luke dubbed it the Taco Experience. While I argued that it sounded like the tacos would be roofied, the moniker stuck and it's supposed to become some sort of recurring event.

For the evening, we made tacos of both pork and tilapia, the previously posted slawlsa, mango guacamole, refried black beans, chile con queso and brown rice Mexican style. Everything was homemade and very tasty, having been dubbed a success.

For dessert, I wanted to do something that would go along with the Mexican theme and chose a Tres Leches Cake. I combed through a number of recipes and finally settled upon that of Alton Brown. The ingredients were fairly limited and also comprised mostly of things I had on hand. I served it with diced mango.

Tres Leches Cake
(350* for 20-25 mins. and
makes 1-13x9 in. cake)

For the cake:

Vegetable oil
6 3/4 oz. cake flour, plus extra for the pan
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
5 eggs
8 oz. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease and flour the pan. In a medium sized bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.

Using a stand mixer, place the butter in the bowl and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for about 1 minute until light and fluffy. Decrease the speed to low and with the mixer still running, gradually add the sugar over 1 minute. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl, if necessary. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix to thoroughly combine. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches and mix just until combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. This will appear to be a very small amount of batter. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden and reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees F.

Remove the cake pan to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Poke the top of the cake all over with a skewer or fork. Allow the cake to cool completely and then prepare the glaze.

For the glaze:

1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup half and half (I used heavy cream because it was in the house already.)

Mix these in a bowl and pour over the perforated cake, allowing it to sit overnight in the fridge.

(Now, I actually found that the cake did not absorb about 8 oz. of this mixture, so if you're sporting, you can adjust the amounts before combining them, or do what I did and siphon off the excess liquid with a turkey baster, transferring it to a container to use later on in coffee or tea or something.)

The topping is really easy to make and incredibly tasty, but is ultimately entirely optional. It does make it look very pretty, though.

For the topping:

8 oz. sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Again putting the trusty Kitchen Aid to use and using the whisk attachment, mix on low speed until it forms stiff peaks. This can take some time, so feel free to do something else kitcheny and just remember to keep an eye on it. When stiff peaks are achieved, turn it up to medium until thick. Spread evenly over the top of the cake and enjoy!