Happy Cinco de Mayo!

One of my most favorite desserts, besides a good lemon meringue pie, is a Tres Leches Cake.

I mean, seriously.  How can you go wrong with a light, spongy cake soaked in three different kinds of milk?  And topped with whipped cream?

You can't.

And with this being Cinco de Mayo and all, it's the perfect excuse to make this.

Let me show you how, using a recipe I adapted from The Pioneer Woman.  I converted her recipe to be gluten-free, and added some cinnamon just for fun.




You will need:

For the cake:
1 cup of all-purpose flour or cake flour**
1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum**
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 eggs (separated)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup whole milk

For the milk syrup:
1 can of evaporated milk
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

For the topping:
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons of sugar

Now for the work:

First, preheat your oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease and flour a 9x13 cake pan.

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cup of sugar on high speed until the yolks are a pale yellow color.  You can use either a stand mixer or a hand-mixer.  I used a hand mixer because it's just easier.  Using a spatula, stir in the milk and vanilla.

Pour the egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir slowly together.  You don't want to over-stir, or else the cake will turn out to be dense.

In yet another mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and continue beating until the eggs whites form stiff peaks.  Be careful not to over beat, else the egg whites will dry out and crumble.

Stir the egg whites into the cake batter, again very carefully.  If you mix it too much, the egg whites will deflate, and the cake will lose it's airiness.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and spread evenly.  Bake for about 30 minutes, or until done.  Allow to cool.

While the cake is cooling, make the milk syrup by pouring the evaporated milk, condensed milk, and whipping cream together in a bowl or measuring cup (for easy pouring) and stir until combined.

 When the cake is cooled completely, prick it several times with a fork.

Then pour the milk mixture over the entire surface of the cake.

Allow the first bit of milk to seep into the cake before adding any more.

Once you have poured as much milk as you want, let the cake soak for about an hour before adding the whipped topping.

As you can see, we had a Littlest Pet Shop critter baking with us that day.  With Emma around you never know who will show up in our kitchen to help.

To make the whipped topping, pour the whipping cream into a bow, add the sugar, and beat at high speed until the cream is thick, like this:

Spread the whipped topping over the cake, and store in the refrigerator.

You can add any toppings you want, but the Pioneer Woman put maraschino cherries, and Emma loves maraschino cherries, so that is what we put on top of ours.

As a note, I have found that this cake is even better the next day.

Enjoy.

**As noted, I made mine gluten-free by using my gluten-free cake flour, and adding 1/2 teaspoon of xathan gum.