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ZoeBakes Tries Our Tres Leches Cake

The food blogger put her own spin on our recipe for a simple, flavorful treat appropriate any time of year.
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Published Sept. 7, 2018.

ZoeBakes Tries Our Tres Leches Cake

The Perfect Cake: Your Ultimate Guide to Classic, Modern, and Whimsical Cakes contains an impressive roster of recipes, from multilayer cakes to rustic fruit-topped treats, elegant tortes, beautiful bundt cakes, filled cupcakes—and even cake pops.


 

For a simple but flavor-packed dessert for a celebration, Zoe from ZoeBakes turned to our Tres Leches Cake, featured in our cookbook, The Perfect Cake.

So what exactly is a Tres Leches Cake? Zoe, who decided to bring this Mexican-inspired cake to a Cinco de Mayo celebration earlier this year, explains: “Tres Leches Cake is a light sponge cake that is soaked with three kinds of milk: sweetened condensed, evaporated and heavy cream (milk-ish enough to count), hence the name.”

Zoe is a big fan of our recipe-creation process here at America’s Test Kitchen. “As is suggested in their name, they test the living daylights out of every recipe they print, so I always trust they will work,” she writes on her blog.

As for our new cookbook The Perfect Cake, Zoe writes, “The book is filled with the how’s and why’s of baking cakes, so you understand what you are up to while baking. I love a good tutorial on baking, so this is right up my alley. It’s a great book and covers all the basics of cake baking.”

Cooking at home is all about personalizing recipes once you've got the techniques down. Zoe put her own spin on our Tres Leches Cake by using some fridge finds and a sweet garnish. “I had a little bit of homemade creme fraiche left over from my Pot de Crème, so I added it to the whipping cream and made a slightly more decadent topping," she wrote. "I also wanted a slightly thicker layer of the cream, so the crème fraîche stretched it for me. Then I dusted with cinnamon, which is not required, but it’s delicious.”

The Perfect Cake

Whichever kind of cake you prefer, you’ll likely find it in this collection—America’s Test Kitchen’s first- ever cake cookbook, The Perfect Cake—and also learn how to make the most perfect-looking and -tasting version of it.
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What’s your favorite dessert? Tell us in the comments below and head to Zoe’s blog to find the full recipe for the Tres Leches Cake!

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