GF Tres Leches Cake
Something cool for a warm holiday
Hi friends! Today I have a recipe for you that I originally tested in Brazil with my partner’s family and it was such a hit that I continued tinkering until it reached this final form.
This is a classic tres leches: sponge cake poked with holes and smothered in three milks (hence the name), topped with whipped cream and dusted with cinnamon. We’re having an unseasonably warm Christmas week here in Texas, so this cold cake has been hitting the spot. If you’ve never made tres leches before, I predict this will become a favourite of yours: it lasts for days because it stores in the fridge, it’s genuinely difficult to mess up (the cake is meant to be dry, after all), and it’s perfectly rich without being heavy.
You may notice that I’ve been using GF flour blends that include xanthan gum recently. I’m doing this for two reasons. Firstly, these blends are far easier to access where I am in the US and I assume many of you will be using similar blends at home. Secondly, my instinct since going gluten-free has been to control xanthan gum content as much as I would control other ingredients/variables. This requires a precise scale and testing different quantities in each recipe. However, now that I’ve been testing recipes with blends that include xanthan gum, I’ve learned that the default amount is appropriate for many things!
After the holidays, I’ll give a recap to HausMates about my Christmas baking and share some recipes.
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Overview
Separate eggs and beat yolks with part of the sugar, add milk and vanilla, then whisk together with the dry ingredients to form a batter. Clean the bowl and whisk/beaters, then beat the egg whites while slowly adding the rest of the sugar until a meringue forms. Fold this meringue with the batter. Bake in a 9x13 pan until coloured and a bit dry. Remove and allow to cool to room temp. Combine the three milks. Poke holes all over cake, then pour milks on top. Give the cake at least eight hours to soak up the milks. Gently whip cream, spread over the cake and sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Recipe
Makes one 9x13 cake (16-20 servings)
Sponge Cake
150g GF flour mix with xanthan gum (or add 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum if using a blend without)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs
150g sugar (i)
50g sugar (ii)
75g whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F) conventional or 160°C (325°F) fan. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend the fan for cake, but we actually want a dry cake here!
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Separate eggs, putting the yolks into either a stand mixer bowl or one you will use with handheld beaters. Beat the yolks on medium speed with sugar (i) until pale and fluffy, at least five minutes, then add the milk and vanilla and mix until smooth. Pour this mixture over the dry ingredients and whisk together until smooth.
Clean the bowl and stand mixer whisk or beaters until very clean. It is important that fat from the egg yolks does not remain so use plenty of soap and hot water (fat inhibits the meringue from forming).
Now we will prepare the meringue. Put the egg whites into the bowl you just washed and whisk them on medium-high and slowly trickle in the sugar (ii), over 2-4 minutes, until the meringue forms medium peaks. This means when you pull the whisk/beaters out of the meringue, the tip that forms should gently fold over onto itself. It should be a fairly stable peak, but not pointing straight upwards. This allows the meringue to be incorporated into the batter: too loose and the cake will not puff in the oven as you want, too stiff and the meringue will be very difficult to fold into the batter. (If this is your first time making meringue, look at my video of this recipe on Instagram for a visual guide)
Scoop the meringue on top of the bowl of batter using a silicone spatula, then use this same spatula to gently fold the meringue into the batter. This is the same technique used when making genoise, so click here to watch a video for the folding technique. We want to retain as much of the air in the meringue as possible, while ensuring we fold enough for all the streaks to disappear.
Grease a 9x13 pan (‘casserole dish’) with butter. Pour the cake batter into the pan and gently spread to evenly fill the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for at least 25 minutes, then begin checking. The cake should be deeply golden and shrinking from the sides. If uncertain, always bake for longer with tres leches. We actually want the cake to be dry so it soaks up all the milks. If you pull this when it’s perfectly baked, it will actually be too moist to completely soak up all the liquid.
Allow to cool until room temp.
Three Milks
I have an option here to use powdered milk OR evaporated milk, because each is much easier to find depending on the country where you live.
115g powdered whole milk (or 340g evaporated milk)
225g water (remove if using evaporated milk)
400g sweetened condensed milk
55g whole milk
Method:
If using powdered milk, combine it with the water (some types require warm milk, so check the package). Do not use the ratios suggested on the package. We’re making especially concentrated milk here to replicate evaporated milk.
Combine all milks in a bowl and whisk until smooth.
Poke holes all over the cake with a fork or knife.
Pour the milks over the cake, ensuring you evenly cover the cake. It may seem excessive, but the cake will absorb all the milks with time.
Cover the top of the pan with a lid or with foil/paper and place into the fridge. Allow the cake to sit for at LEAST 8 hours, but 12-24 hours are best.
Topping
450g whipping cream (~35% fat)
30g icing (confectioners’) sugar
Vanilla extract or paste, to taste
Cinnamon powder
Method:
Whisk cream, along with icing sugar and vanilla, with a stand mixer or beaters until thickened and somewhat stiff, but take care not to whip it for so long that it becomes lumpy. Watch it carefully as you beat and stop it just as it can hold its shape.
Spread the whipped cream all over the cake. Sprinkle cinnamon powder on top.
Cut square slices and serve!
Storage: Store the cake inside the pan, wrapped, in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Serving suggestion: You could also top with shaved chocolate, nuts, and/or fruit like fresh berries macerated in a little sugar. Strawberries are especially delicious with this!
Notes for Nerds:
I use King Arthur Gluten-Free Measure For Measure Flour here. If making your own blend, it should be 50% starch (like arrowroot, cornflour (cornstarch), potato starch or tapioca flour), 25% lighter-protein flour (such as brown rice flour or millet), and 25% heavier-protein flour (like buckwheat, sorghum or white teff). Add xanthan gum per instructions above if your mix does not include any.
I’ve formulated the powdered milk and water combo to be nearly equivalent to the evaporated milk. Evaporated milk is often more cost-effective, but I’ve provided both options because I developed this in Brazil where powdered milk is aplenty but evaporated milk effectively doesn’t exist.
I hope you have a lovely holiday this week, and if it happens to be a bit warm, I hope you serve a fat slice of this tres leches to your friends & family.
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Never draw so close to the heat that you forget that you must eat!