Pastel de Tres Leches con Fresas

Lordy lordy look what is insanely delicious....

I loved The Pioneer Woman before, but good lord. This cake. THIS. CAKE. 

I've heard of Tres Leches cake before and I'd thought about it from time to time, but I'd never had it. For about two weeks, though, it has been on my mind. Oh, my, how I wanted this cake. Finally, an early morning jaunt about in a mist of rain led me to Aldi, where the low low price of sweetened condensed milk told me that, well, today was a good a day as any other.

So, between that and the iced vanilla coffee that I'd gone there for, the brioche from the Red Hen Bakery, and some bacon...I was ready to experience the wonders.

I halved the recipe from The Pioneer Woman (while using three egg whites/egg yolks) and then made a quick whipped topping out of whipping cream and sugar, with sliced strawberries on top. Here are the measurements for the whole cake, rather than my halving. 

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 5 whole Eggs
• 1 cup Sugar, Divided
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• ⅓ cups Milk
• 1 can Evaporated Milk
• 1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
• ¼ cups Heavy Cream

 Now.

You want to set your oven to 350 F.

Beat the yolks with 3/4 cup of sugar until it is pale yellow, then stir in the milk and vanilla. I actually used soy milk, as we were out of cow milk, and it was delicious.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Pour the yolk-milk mixture over this and gently mix together.

Now, beat your egg whites until soft peaks form. Pour in the remaining sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff, but not dry. Fold this into the batter. Pour into your prepared pan (9 x 13 inch, buttered or sprayed or whatever) and then bake for 35 to 45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

This smelled incredible. 

Seriously.

I may or may not have later broken off a teensy-tinsy bite.  

Now, put it on a cooling rack to, you know, cool.

While it is cooling, mix together the sweetened condensed milk, the evaporated milk, and the heavy cream. I didn't used the entire amount, I just mixed in equal parts - about a half cup of each - and then mixed it together.

Move the cake to a rimmed plate or something. Use a fork to prick the top of your cake a bajillion times and then pour this mixture liberally over the entire cake - be sure to get the edges!!

 Look at that cake, half drowned. It's already soaked up a lot.

At this point, I wanted to just dig in.

It'll pour around the cake but the cake just soaks it right up. You'll see.

While it does that, make your whipped topping. If you want to top it with fruit or not, that's up to you. Either way, this baby is DELICIOUS. Seriously. It stays moist and tasty for days, although it was epic willpower that kept me from eating this whole thing in the first twenty-four hours.

 Even at this point, you could just eat it all. Seriously.

I am going to make this a billion more times. I can't wait to experiment with it, but also just to really enjoy this recipe. It's so easy and delicious! Enjoy!!