This strawberry tres leches cake is an ode to strawberry milk. A spongy vanilla cake is soaked in a strawberry milk mixture and topped with a creamy strawberry mascarpone frosting. It’s the perfect spring or summer twist on a classic tres leches, with the strawberries bringing a tart and sweet flavor and a beautiful light pink color.
The base of this tres leches cake uses an Ina Garten cake recipe, which yields a light spongy cake perfect for soaking up liquid. For the strawberry milk, strawberries are mixed with a touch of sugar and lemon juice and left to macerate, and then are blended together with whole milk and mixed in with sweetened condensed and evaporated milk. The strawberry milk is best if made at least a day in advance so that the strawberry flavor can steep throughout the milk.
The frosting is a must for this cake recipe and adds more of a rich creaminess and a slight tartness rather than additional sweetness. The frosting is made by blitzing up freeze dried strawberries in a food processor to form a powder. This is mixed with a bit of confectioners’ sugar and then blended with heavy cream and mascarpone to form a light and fluffy pink frosting.
Strawberry tres leches cake
Course: Cakes and custardsDifficulty: Baking session1
9 x 13 inch cake45
minutes25
minutesThis strawberry tres leches cake balances creamy richness with a bright, fresh strawberry flavor. A vanilla sponge cake is soaked in a strawberry milk and topped with a wonderfully creamy strawberry frosting for the perfect spring or summer dessert. The vanilla sponge cake base is borrowed from Ina Garten’s recipe.
Ingredients
- For the strawberry milk
1/2 lb strawberries, hulled and quartered
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup whole milk
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
1 cup sweetened condensed milk (from a 14 oz can)
- For the cake
1 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
- For the frosting
1 cup freeze-dried strawberries
2 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
Instructions
- Make the strawberry milk
- Place the strawberries in a blender with the granulated sugar and lemon juice. Stir with a spoon and let sit for about 20-30 minutes to macerate.
- Then pour in the whole milk and blend until smooth. Mix in the evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk and mix to combine. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight to allow the strawberry flavor to infuse. The milk can remain refrigerated for several days.
- Make the cake
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium high (ideally with paddle attachment) for a full 10 minutes until light yellow and fluffy. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F.
- Pour in half the flour mixture and mix on low just until combined. Add the milk, mix, and then repeat with the second half of the flour mixture. Mix just until you see no more white specks of flour.
- Grease a 9 x 13 x 2″ baking dish with butter and pour the batter into the pan. Smooth the top and bake for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 30 minutes.
- With a chopstick or skewer, poke holes all over the top of the cake. Pour some of the strawberry mix evenly over the cake. Once the milk starts to pool on top, pause and wait for the liquid to absorb before pouring on more of the milk mixture. Continue to repeat the process of pouring, allowing to soak and adding more of the milk until you have used most or all of the milk mixture and the cake is no longer absorbing more. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
- Make the frosting
- Before serving, prepare the frosting. Add the freeze-dried strawberries to a food processor and pulse until it turns into a fine powder. Stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Pour in the heavy cream and mascarpone and use a fork to mix it in and moisten the strawberry powder.
- Pulse until the mixture has thickened and is whipped and fluffy. Pause and check frequently because the mixture can whip up very quickly. Spread the frosting over the top of the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- You can serve the cake as-is or top each slice with fresh sliced strawberries or a sprinkle of powdered freeze-dried strawberries.
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