HCB: Tortas de las Tres Leches

I have never heard of this cake before and was very curious as to what it would taste like. The idea of a cake that is soaked in 4 different kinds of dairy mixture sounds so odd. I was so intrigued that I made the cake a week ahead :).

The cake itself is easy to put together. Combine eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk over simmering water. The eggs was already at room temperature so it didn't take long for it to get warm to the touch - as Rose suggested. Then beat the eggs mixture on high until it tripled in volume. Then sifted flour and fold until everything is well mixed. I have to admit that this time my arm got tired folding the flour in! It feels like forever until everything is mixed, and I was afraid that my slow arm caused the batter to lose volume and ended up destroying the cake. Well about 1/2 hour later, I found out that everything's fine. The cake turned out looking so nice that I had to take a picture of it. It did rose a bit in the center, but it became flat right away after I flip it out of the pan.


Oh did I also mention my kitchen smells like egg heaven when this cake is baking. YUM!

Rewind a little bit, while the cake was baking I made the leche mixture. I should've planned better and made this before I started the cake because it took about an hour for the the milk mixture to reduced by half. Once it's reduced, I added the heavy cream and condensed milk. After both the cake and the milk mixture cooled - I put the cake inside a small trash bag. I figured using a trash bag is easier then using 2 sheets of plastic wrap. I placed the cake back inside the cake pan, then poured the milk mixture over the cake. Then everything is refrigerated for 8 hours.

8 hours later...
I took the cake out of the fridge. Then lifted the trash bag. I've decided I was not about to attempt to flip this heavily soaked cake. I was too afraid that my hands would slip and the whole thing would be splattered all over the floor. So using a really long metal spatula, I lifted the middle of the cake a bit and pulled the trash bag away. It worked :)!

At this point it was already 8 PM. So I didn't bother with fancy decorations and just decorated the cake simply - like in the book. Here's the result.



I found it funny that you can see some milk oozing out of the bottom of the cake.



Tasting impressions: I love this cake and so did everyone. It's very moist (with all those milk) and lightly sweet. The taste is better than I had anticipated, so I was glad I made it :).