Tres Leches Cake

So we were invited to a family taco feed a few weeks back and I kindly offered to bring dessert.  I was trying to think what might go with Mexican food when it hit me: Tres Leche Cake!  I had just seen  an episode where Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman) had made one of these cakes.  Of course she had made it from scratch (which is an eventual goal of mine), but I didn't want to subject my friends to something as crazy as a first time attempt of a scratch cake, just in case it went horribly awry.  It was also so last minute when I decided to make this, I thought let's just use a regular yellow cake mix for now and see how it will turn out.  Well, I must say, I'm so glad I did, because it really turned out AWESOME.

Tres Leches Cake - Amazing creamy goodness on a plate!

By the way, our main camera is on the fritz so I quickly took the following pictures with my cell phone.  I apologize the quality is not as good as normal, but you will get the general gist of things.  First, make a yellow cake in a 9x13 pan according to package directions.

 Once it is baked, let it cool a bit on the counter

While it is cooling you can make the "Tres Leches" part of this cake.  If you remember anything from your high school Spanish class, tres means "three", and leche means "milk".  So this cake literally means "three milks".  The three milks you will need are:

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can of evaporated milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

Pour the three milks into a bowl and stir gently to combine

When your cake is mostly cooled (you can still do this if it is slightly warm) poke holes in the top with a fork

Once the entire top of the cake is covered in holes, pour half of the milk mixture on top of the cake.  Be sure to pour slowly and cover the entire cake.  This, will feel wrong.

My gosh... what have I done!!!

Seriously.  You will start to panic when you see all the milk just sitting there on top of the cake.

It's swimming in milk... Noooooo!

But rest assured, this cake is going to absorb all this moisture.  All you need is to give it a few minutes... check this out.  Five to seven minutes later I return to find that all the milk had disappeared!

What kind of witchery is this??

I thought, oh my, I still have half a bowl of three milks left, no way will this all go in here... I was actually afraid to add the last half.  But I did it anyway.  For you.  For science. For God and country. For cake lovers everywhere.

Round two....

Now I've gone and done it.  It's for surely ruined.  I've made cake soup.

But hold the phone... I let it sit for ten minutes.  I was even afraid to go back in the kitchen mind you, and lo and behold when I did, this is what I found:

What a difference 10 minutes makes, right?

So amazingly all the liquid was absorbed yet a second time, and the cake looks no worse for wear.  Matter of fact it looks delicious, because all that wonderful sweet liquid will make for a very cool, very MOIST, very creamy cake.  I covered this with plastic wrap and stored it in the fridge for a few hours until we left for the party.  I also stored it in their fridge after we arrived, until it was time for dessert.  I waited to top this this with whipped cream until right before serving, which worked out perfectly. 

This dessert was amazing cool, sweet and creamy.  A perfect ending to a slightly spicy meal.  Here it is surrounded by some heavenly sunset light, as if God himself approved of this dessert.
 

Yum!!!

So this was just a fabulous dessert.  Everyone loved it's creamy texture and how cool and refreshing it was.  Let me know if you make it and how it turned out for you.  Enjoy!