Thank you for reading Between the Layers! Please enjoy and share this free post with your friends. Strawberry Tres Leches Cake 🍓🍓🍓 - No. 283An icebox cake for Cinco de Mayo, Between the Layers third birthday, or just because it’s spring
MY FIRST TASTE OF TRES LECHES CAKE was two decades ago at a Nashville restaurant called F. Scott’s. The server highly recommended a sponge cake saturated in milk and perfumed with coconut. It sounded odd but intriguing. At first bite, I thought something had gone terribly wrong back in the kitchen. Who soaks cake in so much milk that it’s wet like a sponge needing to be wrung out? But at second bite, it was cool and quenching. Third bite—a hint of coconut. We were celebrating an anniversary as we had done many times before: One mutually decided dessert and two spoons. Well, actually if it was his year to decide on dessert that meant apple pie or crème brûlée, which were non-negotiable, and if mine, then chocolate or cake, even better if chocolate cake. I recall things got quiet, and two competitive spoons worked voraciously to score that last bite.
Tres Leches reminds me of those trifle-like icebox cakes my mom would prep ahead and stash in the fridge for company.She made one by layering torn bits of angel food cake, chocolate mousse laced with Bacardi, and plenty of real whipped cream in a glass casserole dish. After an overnight stay in the refrigerator, it was cloudlike. When I was researching my book, American Cake, I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that tres leches cake originally was the handiwork of Portuguese and Spanish grandmothers wanting to extend a freshly baked cake a few more days. Pour a sweet milk syrup over it, and tomorrow is resurrection day.
Named for the syrup of three milks—whole milk, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk—spooned onto a baked butter or sponge cake, pastel de tres leches has been a fixture in Mexican, Nicaraguan, and Cuban kitchens for generations. Texas Monthly writer Patricia Sharpe surmised the cake was so well known across the Lonestar State it might have originated as a promotional recipe by a canned milk manufacturer. Sure enough, in the 1940s Nestle opened an evaporated milk manufacturing plant in Mexico, and a recipe for this cake was on the label of those cans. Today, tres leches is a blank canvas and its myriad variations are found in homes, bakeries, and restaurants across the country. Plus, you don’t need a pastry degree to make it, which is why the dead-easy tres leches, along with panna cotta and bread pudding, are on countless American dessert menus. Any line cook who can make pancakes can whisk together cake batter, bake it, douse it with milks, and shove it in the walk in where its shelf life is nearly a week. In honor of strawberry season—and Between the Layers third birthday!— I am sharing a strawberry version of tres leches for all of you who like to bake in a hurry. Maybe you’re putting in the garden or would rather pick peonies bursting into bloom than measure flour. It’s a cake mix version, followed by a traditional method for scratch tres leches. Something for everyone. Just be sure to cut your own slice. Some desserts are not meant for sharing. - xo, Anne
What about strawberry shortcake? That was the kick-off recipe when I started this newsletter in April, 2021 (and it’s still in the archive for paid subscribers). As I recall, we still had one foot in the pandemic, and I’d heard about some interesting writing over on Substack. Fearless, I dove in, and now, 283 newsletters later, I’m still writing! What are your favorite recipes using local strawberries? What’s been your favorite recipe to date from Between the Layers?Strawberries factor into my new book, Baking in the American South, from a Louisiana refrigerator pie to old-fashioned strawberry shortcake. I know strawberry festivals occur around the world, but I was gobsmacked to learn how many strawberry festivals take place just in the South. (Louisiana hosts the oldest in April in Ponchatoula, just north of New Orleans across Lake Ponchartrain. Maryland has 20 strawberry festivals in May and June, and Florida has a dozen.) Haven’t had a chance to pre-order my new book? Here’s the link to do that and grab those six bonus recipes. My local independent bookstore, Parnassus Books, is also offering to ship you a signed copy upon publication. Here’s that link, too. I’ll be sharing the book tour stops in May. As a sneak peek, I’ll be in conversation with Carrie Morey of Callie’s Biscuits in Charleston, Kyle Tibbs Jones of the Bitter Southerner in Athens, Nathalie Dupree in Raleigh, KC Hysmith in Carrboro, Poppy Tooker in New Orleans, and Alana Al-Hatlani and Sid Evans from Southern Living in Birmingham. More to come!
THE RECIPE: Strawberry Tres Leches CakeTres Leches is well suited for cake mixes because the focus is not so much on the cake itself but the milk syrup and the interesting flavors you can infuse into the cake as it soaks. I found in testing that the cake is also well suited to a springform pan as the cake stays in that pan in the fridge to soak up the syrup, making prep and cleanup a snap. (Place a rimmed sheet pan underneath to catch any runaway juices.) You could absolutely add other fresh berries on top, serve with homemade lemon curd, and just take my ideas and run with them. Makes 12 servings Prep: 20 to 25 minutes Bake: 45 to 50 minutes Chill: 2 hours
For a from-scratch, plain tres leches: Place 1 stick soft unsalted butter and 1 cup sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed with an electric mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating about 15 seconds after each egg. Blend in 1 teaspoon vanilla, and set the batter aside. Sift together 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt into a small bowl. Add the flour mixture to the batter about 2 tablespoons at a time, blending on low speed after each addition. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan, and place the pan in the oven. Continue with the recipe, letting the cake cool, then covering it with milk syrup, chilling and garnishing with whipped cream and loads of strawberries. You’re on the free list for Anne Byrn: Between the Layers. If you’re liking what you’re reading, why don’t you become a paying subscriber for more recipes, stories, and content.
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