Tres Leches Cake

Cakes with many layers and fancy looking decorations are all well, I don't deny that at all. But sometimes simple is best. Especially when you want a dessert to wow your guests that is home made but still not the center piece. Still tastes stupendous and feels like you slaved over it. Here you go for that perfect piece of cake that satisfies above all criteria!

Time: Preparation Time (45 min), Cooking Time ( 60 min)

Difficulty Level: Easy - Medium

Ingredients:

• 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
• 1 can of maraschino cherries

FOR THE ICING:

• 1 pint Heavy Cream, For Whipping
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar

Method de Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9 x 13  inch pan liberally until coated with cooking/baking spray.
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. Separate egg whites and yolk. Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture into first mix (flour, salt etc) and stir very gently until combined.
4. Beat egg whites on high speed until a soft peak forms. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff  but not dry.
5. Fold the egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread out to even the surface.
6. Bake for 35 to 45 min or until a toothpick or small test poke comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter or any plate with curved sides and allow to cool.
7. Combine the milks - condensed, evaporated and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When the cake has cooled ( ~ 1/2 hr or more) pierce the surface a lot with a fork. You can do it evenly in lines or randomly no one will know trust me :)
8. Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the combined milk mixture - pour slowly all along including the edges of the cake. Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for about 30 minutes.
9. To ice the cake, whip 1 pint of heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable. Spread over surface of cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries.
10. Cut into squares or rectangles and serve. Yum!

Confessions:

• I don't own a Kitchen-aid so far and this was made with a hand blender and that works just fine for all the mixing, beating etc :)
• The part about saving the 1 cup of milk mixtures - yes don't pour more than that. If you do the cake will end up being soggy, so save back that amount.
• The amount of whipped cream topping you get with a pint is hugeeeeeee, so either reduce that quantity to half a pint or make sure you can use it with something else if you don't like to slather your cake with whipped cream.

Source: Adapted almost exactly from my Lady Ree here.