Tres Leches Cake for Hubby's Birthday (#Daring Bakers September 2013 Challenge)

Pastel de Tres Leches – Three-Milk Cake is very popular in Central and South America. It is a super moist, light, airy and super delicious sponge cake soaked in three kinds of milk (evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream). Tres Leches is a very light cake (especially if made without butter), with many air bubbles in its crumb. This distinct texture is why it does not have a soggy consistency, despite being soaked in a mixture of three types of milk.

This month's daring baker's challenge, hosted by Inma from La Galletika, Sept. 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and WOW did she bring something decadent and delicious! Pastel de Tres Leches or Three Milk Cake, creamy yet airy, super moist but not soggy...just plain delish!

September is very special month for me as this month is my Husband's birthday. I was searching for something new to try for his birthday which he or I have never tasted before. Hence, when I saw this month's Daring Bakers Challenge, I sort of immediately made my mind on what to make for his birthday...a Tres Leches Cake!

I made this cake a day before my husband's birthday and the day was so busy as I baked another cake for a friend who was leaving the town and made some Nutella Cookies for her cute l'il nephew Ayan. All of it, in the middle of the week juggling myself between some office work and some baking at home. While this cake was baking in the oven, it gave me some solace as the house was smelling so fresh and so festive that I really forgot all the crazy stuff going around. This cake was enough to calm my senses down.

I poured the three milk syrup over the cake and left the cake in the refrigerator to let it soak the syrup and went to watch the movie; The Lunch Box, a movie with the moving performance by Irrfan Khan (Life of Pie fame). The movie was set in the city I live, Mumbai and depicts the life of people in Mumbai very minutely. When I was back home, it was midnight of September 26 and my husband's birthday. I checked on the cake kept in the refrigerator and saw that the cake had completely absorbed the milk syrup and then I whipped the cream and kept the cake ready for his birthday with some cherries on top.

I wasn't sure if I would get good reviews about the cake as it was a special day and I tried something I never made or tasted before, but my hubby was really impressed with the cake. Once again, thanks Inma for sharing the wonderful recipe with all of us!!!

(Print this recipe)

Tres Leches Cake

Preparation Time: 1 hour

Cooking Time: 25 minutes for the cake

Soaking Time: 2 - 6 Hours (you can also leave the cake to soak over night)

Prepares one 9x9 inch cake

Serves - 12 people

(Source: Daring Bakers)

Here's what you would need to make the Tres Leches Cake

For Vanilla Sponge Cake

5 large eggs (separated)

1/2 cup (100 gms) granulated sugar)

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup (130 gms) all purpose flour (sifted)

For three milk Syrup

1 can (400 gms) sweetened condensed milk

1 can (340 gms) evaporated milk (see below to substitute store bought evaporated milk)

1 cup half and half or milk (I mixed 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 cup cream)

1 cinnamon stick

2 tsp rum

Topping and Filling

1 cup (240 ml) whipping cream with about 30% fat (I used Amul cream with 25% fat content) 

1/4 cup (75 gms) icing sugar

fresh/ canned fruits for decoration

Substitute for Evaporated Milk
1 cup milk powder
3/4 cup water
Add the two and stir it until well combined. Now, measure and use only the quantity specified in the recipe above.

Here's how you can make it:

Vanilla Sponge Cake

Preheat your oven to 180 degree C/350 degree F. Line a 9x9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper.

• Separate the egg whites from the yolks when the eggs are cold. Let it sit for 1 hour to come to room temperature before preparing for the cake.
• Beat the egg whites on medium speed for 3-5 minutes until soft peak comes.
• When soft peak forms, start adding sugar 1 tbsp at a time while continue to whisk.
• Whisk the egg whites till it forms stiff peaks, about 5 minutes. Set it aside.
• In another bowl, beat egg yolks, at medium speed for about 5-6 minutes, until the egg yolks becomes pale in colour, creamy and puffy. Stir in vanilla extract.
• Add the egg yolks over egg whites and fold it gently using a rubber spatula until well combined. Try not to lose any volume from the mixture.
• Sift the flour over the egg mixture and fold it very gently just until combined. DO NOT over mix the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin. DO NOT knock the cake tin when containing batter.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven for 25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Once, the cake is baked, let it cool in the cake tin for 5 minutes and then transfer onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely before proceeding on to the next step.

• Once the cake is cooled, invert the cake to a dish having high edges, see the one shown in the picture above. Using a fork, poke all over the cake (on the sides too) to better absorb the milk syrup evenly across the cake.

Three Milk Syrup

• In a saucepan, add the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, half and half and cinnamon stick and bring it to a boil. Once the milk mixture is boiled, reduce the heat and simmer it for 5 more minutes. Remove it and let it cool completely.
• Add rum on the cooled milk syrup and pour it all over the cake. Let the milk syrup drop over the sides of the dish. 
• Let the cake rest in the refrigerator over 2 to 6 hours (best if left overnight) and the cake will magically absorb all of the milk syrup from the sides. 

Assembly

• Once the cake absorbs all the milk syrup, you are good to serve it
• Whip the cream until soft peaks, add the sugar 1 tbsp at a time and whip it as best as you can. My cream did not whip to the stiff peaks as it contained lower fat %. For better results, you can whip the cream by placing the cream bowl over a bowl containing ice. 
• Layer the whipped cream on top of the cake and decorate it with fresh/ canned fruits of your choice.

Hope you would also enjoy making this recipe as much as I did.

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Happy Baking!

Swedish Prinsesstarta - Princess Cake (# Daring Bakers May 2013 Challenge)

This is my first participation at Daring Bakers Challenge. I have been trying to participate for a long while now but something was pushing me back. Somewhere in my mind, I had the feeling that Daring Bakers Challenge was attempted by only the genius and the great bloggers and I, a new baker with my new small blog, doesn't fit into the role. 
But looking at this month's Challenge hosted by Korena from Korena in the Kitchen who challenged everyone to make a Swedish Prinsesstårta, I couldn't help but think why not give this cake a try. And I decided to dedicate this to my Princess, my Sweet little sister Shruti, who celebrated her 24th birthday this month. And to top the happiness, she got selected in her Pre-PG Exam and will now be getting entrance in Collage to be Super Specialized Dentist.

A Princess Cake (Prinsesstårta in Swedish) is a traditional Swedish cake consisting of alternating layers of airy sponge cake, whipped cream, and thick pastry cream, all topped with a 2–3 mm thick layer of marzipan. Although the texture is slightly different, the flavor is very similar to that of angel food cake, and the marzipan and whipped cream (along with the heavy, cream-based frosting) is highly comparable to a buttercream in both texture and flavor.

A little research revealed that the original recipe was created in the 1930s by a Swedish home economics teacher named Jenny Åkerström, who taught the three Swedish princesses of the time. She published a series of four cookbooks called “The Princess Cookbooks” and in one of the editions, there was a recipe for “Grön Tårta” (green cake). One story is that this later became known as “princess cake” (Prinsesstårta) because the three princesses are said to have loved it so much. Another story is that Ms. Åkerström actually created three very elaborate “princess cake” recipes – a different one for each princess – and that the current version is a simplified combination of all three. That explains the princess connection, but the reason for the cake being green still seems to be a mystery. Today, Prinsesstårta is popular in Finland as well as Sweden – so much so that the third week in September is officially Prinsesstårta Week!

At first the Challenge looked difficulty as it needed a lot of things to be prepared in a short duration as I saw the Challenge only in the last week (May 24th). I had all the ingredients at hand and decided to make this Princess Cake from scratch. I prepared the pastry cream, sponge cake, marzipan on May 25th and kept everything in the refrigerator to assemble the cake the next day i.e. on Sunday. But to my dismay, I discovered the cake I baked was not properly baked from the center and it could not be used to cut into 3 slices. :(

The next day I had someone visiting at home and could not bake another cake until night. Thats when I baked the cake, whipped the cream and tried to assemble the cake in a hot and humid May mid-night and in the room with no Air Conditioner. There were a lot of challenges in finishing this cake but at the end I am glad I could finish it and it tasted awesome! This cake might not be the best looking cake I have ever made but this is definitely one of the best tasting cake that I have made. 

I apologies for the poor quality pics as the battery of my camera was over and I had to click all the pictures with my Samsung Galaxy Note II. Here's some pics of the the Prinsesstårta in the making-

I would like to thank Korena once again for putting up the challenge to make this sweet and beautiful Princess Cake!

Here what you would need to make this Princess Cake:-

Marzipan
Sponge Cake
Whipped Cream
Pastry Cream
Sponge Cake
Whipped Cream
Pastry Cream
Raspberry Jam
Sponge Cake

1 Sponge Cake (recipe below)

1 cup/ 240 ml pastry cream (recipe below)

1 cut ripened mango
2 cups/ 500 gms heavy whipping cream (I used Rich's non dairy cream)
300 gms Marzipan (recipe below)
Yellow, Red and Green food colouring

Icing sugar/ corn flour for rolling

Sponge Cake

Fine dry bread crumbs for the pan 

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup/ 200 gms caster sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup/ 70 gms all purpose flour

1/2 cup/ 65 gms corn flour/ corstarch

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

Pastry Cream
Recipe adapted from Le Cordon Bleu London

1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk (whole or 2%)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup/ 50 gms granulated white sugar
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cornstarch (corn flour)

Eggless Marzipan
Recipe adapted from Cake Central
1 cup/ 115 gms Homemade Almond Flour
1 cup/ 225 gms icing sugar
1/4 cup/ 60 ml. corn syrup
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp lemon juice/ water or rum

Here how you can make the Swedish Prinsesstarta:

Sponge Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Line the bottom of a 9 inch spring form cake tin with parchment paper then butter the paper and sides of the pan. Dust the buttered pan with bread crumbs to coat the sides and bottom of the pan. Set aside.

• In the bowl of your stand mixer or hand mixer, place all four eggs and sugar and beat on a medium high speed for about 5  minutes until the eggs tripled in volume, fluffy and light pale yellow in colour. The mixture will fall from the beater in thick ribbon.
• Add vanilla extract and beat it to incorporate in the egg mixture.
• In another bowl, sift all the dry ingredients i.e. all purpose flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt and whisk it together.
• Add the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and fold it in with the help of the rubber spatula by cutting in the centre and folding it in just until the flour is completely incorporated into the batter. Do not over mix the batter. 
• Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes. The cake is done when the top of the cake is spongy to the touch and a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out with few moist crumbs.
• Let the cake cool in the pan for a few minutes then run a knife around the edges and remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Do not worry if the cake sinks a bit from the center.
• Once cooled completely, cover the cooled cake with a cling film and freeze it in the freezer until further use.

Pastry Cream

• In a small bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until sugar completely dissolves. Add the corn flour and all purpose flour and whisk it to incorporate in the egg mixture until it becomes a smooth paste.
• In a big heat proof bowl, keep the milk to boil. (just until the milk start to forming up)
• Remove the milk from heat and add slowly in the egg mixture while continuously whisking the egg mixture otherwise the eggs will scramble! 
• Pour the egg mixture back into the bowl which had milk boiling and cook over medium heat until boiling whisking continuously. Once the egg mixture starts to thicken (after 30-40 seconds), remove from heat and quickly add the vanilla extract and stir.
• Pour the cream into a clean bowl and place a plastic wrap on the top layer of the cream to avoid forming of a skin.
• Let it cool completely on room temperature. Freeze the  cream in the refrigerator for 2-3 days if not using immediately.
• Stir before using the cream to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Marzipan

• Place the almond flour and icing sugar in the bowl of your food processor and pulse it to remove any lumps that may have formed.
• Add corn syrup and almond extract and pulse again to combine. The mixture should still be quite dry and crumbly and would not have a doughy consistency.
• With the food processor running on a slow speed, add the lemon juice just until the mixture starts to clump together. (I missed this part, and added the entire 1 tbsp lemon juice and got a sticky marzipan. I had to add a lot of icing sugar to make it come to a workable condition while rolling)
• Scrap the mixture onto your kitchen top and knead it to form a dough ball. Wrap the dough with a cling film and rest it in the refrigerator over night to let the flavours merge completely.

Here's how you can Assemble the beautiful Princess Cake:

• Whip the cream (I used Rich's non dairy cream) until stiff peaks before assembling the cake. Keep the cream in the refrigerator until use.
• With a long serrated knife and working very softly, slice the sponge cake into three equal layers. Use a spatula to help you lift out each layer of the sponge cake once you cut it. Set aside the middle layer as this will become the top layer of the cake which will give the cake the dome shape as this layer is most flexible and fragile and very easy to bend.
• Place the bottom layer of the cake onto the serving plate or cake board and spread the raspberry jam evenly on the layer. 
• Spread half of the chilled pastry cream over the jam in an even layer keeping 1 inch gap from the sides of the cake so that the pastry cream won't spill over the sides of the cake
• Spread the cut mangoes evenly onto the layer of pastry cream and cover the mangoes with a thick layer of whipped cream. 
• Top the whipped cream with another layer of the cake. Spread the remaining pastry cream evenly over it again keeping some space around the edges.
• Reserve 1/2 cup of the whipped cream separate and pile the rest of the stiffly whipped cream to make a dome shape covering the sides of the cake.
• Place the final layer of the sponge cake (the one set aside earlier - the most fragile middle layer) and cover the cake with the remaining whipped cream making the dome look as perfect as you can. Refrigerate the cake to firm up while you continue with the next step. Considering the hot weather I had kept the cake in the freezer.
• Colour a small  piece from the marzipan into a pink colour to form rose and another small piece into green colour to form leaves. Colour the remaining marzipan with yellow colour. I chose these colour to compliment the season and the mangoes I had put in the cake earlier. 
• Spread the kitchen top and rolling pin with lots of icing sugar or corn flour and press the marzipan into a disc and rolling it out to a 14 inch circle with 1/8 inch thickness. Use plenty of icing sugar on both sides of the marzipan and roll it with your hands to avoid sticking onto the kitchen top. Thankfully, I had worked with a fondant cake earlier which made my job of rolling the marzipan bit easy but the hot weather made this job very tough. 
• Use the rolling pin to drape the rolled marzipan sheet over the cake and smooth it around gently with the help of your hands. I loved the smoothening part of assembling this cake. Trim the excess with a paring knife 
• Decorate the top of the cake with marzipan roses and leaves.

This one's for you - Shruti!

I hope you would also enjoy making this cake as much as I did!

Happy Baking.