My sister wants to know what this is really called. Someone described it to her, so she’s never eaten it. She thought it was French so she asked me, but I’ve never heard of trois-lait gateau nor can I find it in my dictionary. She thought it started with tres, which in French means very, not 3. She also thinks “leche” might be involved in there somewhere, which is making me think either someone translated the name wrong, or it’s Spanish or Italian, not French. Anyone know what this is?
I know it as a Mexican cake called tres leches. Very very yummy stuff! Check your local Panaderia if you have one. Here are some recipes if that’s what you are looking for.
Sure sounds like Tres Leches to me too! But the real version, I think it is more from Honduras or Nicaragua (my SO used to live down there). The Mexican versions I’ve had (I now live 9 miles form the border) are more watered down. I haven’t had a chance to look at the recipes you’ve posted but a true Tres Leches cake takes several days to age…
I’m not a big fan of caramel and milky desserts, but this is HEAVENLY!
Off to look for some better info…
Tres Leches cake is a Mexican dessert delicacy; I was unaware that the French had a version… although I wouldn’t be surprised, as I have heard it said (possible urban legend) that the cake was invented by the Nestle’s corporation as a way to boost canned sweetened condensed milk sales near their factory in Mexico in the 1940s.
It’s tasty stuff, though. Very rich. Basically, a sponge cake saturated with sweetened condensed milk, with a thick fluffy icing. Yow!
It certainly is delicious.
Also becoming somewhat mainstream as a flavor, apparently.
Martha Stewart’s magazine Everyday Food ran a recipe a couple months ago, I think.
It’s certainly not just Mexican. Tres leches is a very popular dessert here in Panama too.
My brother had one for his wedding cake. The whole thing was tiered and weighed about 100 lbs. all told. I think my parents still have a large chunk of it in their freezer for my brother and his wife’s anniversary.
That said, tres leches cake really does have three different kinds of milk in it, not just the sweetened condensed. I want to say my brother’s had regular whole white milk, sweetened condensed milk, and maybe evaporated, but I’ve lost the exact recipe. This recipe confirms my memory, but my understanding is that it can be soaked in any three kinds of fatty milk, that is, anything but skim or low-fat milk.
The exact history of this cake is unknown, but it predates any efforts by Nestle at selling canned milk.
Robin
[url =“ttp://www.texascooking.com/features/sept2002treslechescakerecipe.htm”]Here’s a discussion and recipe.
I can’t vouch for how accurate it is, as I’ve never made it, but is sounds pretty yummy.
well the woman who told my sister about it just gave her some, and it was really good. Thanks for the recipes, I think I might want to have this for my next birthday (I hate the icing on normal cakes, but no one wants to eat a dry cake, but the icing on this was really good)