Literally meaning three milk cake, this Latin American cake is a super moist cake that will have you thinking about other ways you can flavor it and make it your own!
Technically I should not be calling this Tres Leche because I only used 2 kinds of milk, the eggnog and whipped topping. But the classic preparation uses sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream, which is just a little fat overindulgence for me.
Besides, read the note at the end. If desired, use the same amount, in equal portions, of both canned kinds of milk mentioned above in lieu of the eggnog if you want to be classically correct. (Which, and I think you will agree, this sponge cake adaptation is far and away much tastier.)
Ingredients
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon rum or vanilla extract (use twice the amount if using just vanilla)
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter, cooled
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries, cherries or raisins
- 1 1/2 cups flavored eggnog (*see NOTE in directions)
- Whipped topping
Preparation
- 1 Grease a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F.
- 2 Blend the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl; set aside.
- 3 In a large bowl with an electric or handheld mixer, beat eggs, sugar and almond extract on high speed until thick and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- 4 Add melted butter, continuing to beat on high until butter is well incorporated.
- 5 Reduce speed to low and beat in the flour mixture until just mixed in. It can be lumpy.
- 6 Fold in the cranberries evenly.Pour into prepared pan and bake 25 minutes, or until springy to the touch.
- 7 Remove from oven and poke roughly 20-30 holes in the top with the end of a wooden spoon or equivalent*.
- 8 Immediately pour the eggnog over the top slowly, being careful to fill every hole. Don't pour more than recipe calls for or the cake will be too "watery".
- 9 Immediately place in refrigerator, uncovered, until it cools completely.
- 10 Remove, cut into desired pieces and serve with whipped topping dolloped over the top.
- 11 NOTE: I used Caramel Eggnog in this recipe, but choose Golden, Pumpkin, Vanilla, Sugar Cookie or Cinnamon. Even Light Eggnog is perfect here.
- 12 *The classic way of poking the top of this cake is with the tines of a fork, but I find the eggnog is too thick to get into every poked hole.
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