The Ideal Cake To Use For A Moist And Delicious Tres Leches

On paper, a tres leches cake recipe seems to defy baking logic. Why would anyone want to drench a light and airy cake in liquid? But it's this unique construction that creates a symphony of flavor and texture, proving there are many routes to a delicious cake. Tres leches translates from Spanish to "three milks" and is named after the combination of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and heavy cream or milk that is poured over a baked, airy cake and left to sit until the cake has absorbed all the liquid and become pudding-like but still sliceable.

Tres leches cake is not a complicated recipe to make, but there are several ways things can go wrong, including ending up with a soggy, wet cake that falls apart or a dry, heavy cake that does not evenly or fully absorb the soaking milks. The fix for these issues, in addition to using the right amount of milks, comes down to the type of cake used for tres leches cake. A sponge cake, named for the appearance and texture of what it mimics, is the best cake to bake for a sublime tres leches.

A sponge cake is a type of cake, but not just one specific recipe. There are actually several types of sponge cake, including angel food cake and genoise cake. What they all have in common is an open crumb full of small air bubbles and the fact that they rely on whipped eggs for lift and structure rather than baking powder or baking soda. Though some recipes include a small amount of leavening, it's in addition to the generous amount of whipped eggs and not instead of them. Sponge cake can have whole eggs, egg whites, or separated whipped yolks and whites that are folded together before baking. The choice gives a slight range in how high the cake rises and the intensity of the spring and bounce, but the overall look and taste will be similar.

There is also usually little to no added fat in a sponge cake, like melted butter or oil, which is a marked difference from cakes that begin by creaming sticks of butter and sugar together or oil-based cakes, like carrot cake. The lean composition of a sponge cake contributes to the open-air structure and slightly dry texture, so it is primed to absorb the three milks all the way through.