Baking Costa Rican

280 Bakes Owner Louise's husband is Costa Rican, and his birthday was today. Check out the cake she made for him below!

This is Tres Leches. It's a sandwich cake with condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 'normal' milk poured in to the sponge once it's baked and cooled. Also called 'Queque Frio' (cold cake), it's a popular, traditional birthday cake, saved for special occasions because of the amount of eggs required - 10, and that doesn't include the Royal Icing!

Here's the recipe in case you'd like to try this huge cake. You need to set the cake overnight, so make sur eyou leave enough time. 

For the cake:
14 ounces cake flour, plus extra for pan
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
16 ounces sugar
10 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cans of mixed fruit cocktail (drained)

For the glaze:
1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup milk

Topping:
Royal Icing (see link)
1 can tinned peaches
Strawberries, cherries, raspberries, or other sweet fruit. 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and oil two large Pyrex dishes. 

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter in a separate bowl, until fluffy. Add the sugar at intervals.  Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix to thoroughly combine. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine.

Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches and mix just until combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. This will appear to be a very small amount of batter.

Bake on the middle rack of the oven for around 30 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden. Remove the cake pan to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Poke the top of the cake all over with a skewer.
Allow the cake to cool completely. Put two tins of mixed fruit cocktail on the top of one cake and place the second cake on the top like a sandwich.

Now prepare the glaze. Whisk together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and the milk in a bowl. Once combined, pour the glaze over the cake. There may be leftovers, it's a generous amount. Refrigerate the cake overnight.

The next day, make Royal Icing and totally cover the cake. Double the recipe was required here. Where it says '3 ounces of egg white', that's about 3 egg whites.

Decorate with the tinned fruit and chill until serving. 

Louise's husband specifically asked for a non-vegan cake.... With 10 eggs in the cake and 6 in the icing, it's definitely not for vegans!

Birthday Boy's Verdict:  BEAUTIFUL!  SO COSTA RICAN!

Yep, the sponge is so delicious, the milk adding extra flavour and being chilled enhances the flavour. It may be your new favourite cake - just make sure there's a few people about to help you finish it off... It's a big one!

The Team at 280 Bakes
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