I recently had to make a birthday cake and wanted to try out something different. So I went back to my roots and thought of the Three Leches Cake: a spongecake soaked in a mixture of evaporated and condensed milk with whipping cream. This dessert is served often back in Mexico, but I decided to elevate it with an Italian meringue and poached pears to add a seasonal flavour.
While the cake seems laborious, the fact that you do not have to cut or layer it makes it an easy one to make if you substitute the meringue for whipped cream. You can also add any kind of seasonal fruit and it will taste just as great. This is a wonderful recipe to make variations from. But being the type of baker that I am, I decided to go wild. This specific recipe takes bits and pieces from several places. The pears are from a recipe on David Leibovitz's site, the cake and three milk cream was adapted from Taste of Home, and for the Italian Meringue, I turned to Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume 2".
INGREDIENTS
For the Poached Pears
- 3 Bosc pears
- 1 quart water
- 1-1/3 cups sugar
- 5 cloves (optional)
- Cinnamon and nutmeg for final decoration
- Parchment paper
For the Cake and Three Milk Mixture
- 4 eggs (separated)
- 2/3 cups sugar (divided in half)
- 2/3 cups cake flour
- Pinch of salt
- 3/4 cups whipping cream (35%)
- 3/4 cups evaporated milk
- 3/4 cups condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 tablespoons rum
For the Italian Meringue
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 3 egg whites from large eggs at room temperature
- Pinch of salt
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- A candy thermometer is highly recommended
GETTING STARTED WITH THE POACHED PEARS
The longer the pears sit in the poaching liquid, the better. They should also cool down completely before you handle them, so I recommend you start with these. You can make more than needed and store the rest in a jar. They make great snacks. Here is the mise en place for this element.
Use Bosc pears since their flesh will stand up better to the heat than other varieties. Unless you're planning on making mush.
- 3 Bosc pears
- Parchment paper
Peel, quarter and core the pears. While you are already cutting, make a circle with the parchment paper the size of the pot you'll use to poach them in. Make a hole in the center of the paper. This will help the pears remain submerged while you poach them.
- 1 quart water
- 1-1/3 cups sugar
- 5 cloves (optional)
Place water, sugar and cloves in a saucepan. Bring to a very slow simmer. Add the pears and cover with the parchment paper.
The parchment paper makes sure that the pears will poach evenly.
Simmer the pears for about 20 minutes, or until cooked. Once they are tender (they can be easily pierced by a small knife), remove them from the heat and leave them to cool in the liquid. We can now continue with the rest of the cake while they cool.
MOVING ON TO THE CAKE
This is the cornerstone of this dessert. The trick is to get a very spongy cake base that will absorb the milk mixture. Start by turning on your oven to 350˚F. When you are baking, it is important to have the oven evenly heated, so pre-heating it is something you'll want to do every time. Now comes time for the mise en place.
Notice how the eggs and sugar are divided. This will allow the egg whites to reach room temperature. The sugar is also divided because we'll use it in different components.
With the oven preheating, prepare your baking pan. I used a 9-inch round baking pan with 2-inch sides. To prepare a pan for this cake, butter it all over and dust with flour. Once there is a film of flour all around it, bang it (pan side down) onto your sink and you will get an evenly coated surface. Cut a piece of round parchment paper to fit the bottom. This is especially important for this case since, as you may have noticed, it contains no oil or butter. This will make it somewhat sticky and will make it harder to remove from the pan.
Put the parchment paper in after the pan is buttered and floured and you're done... well, you still have to make the cake. But you're well on your way.
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/3 cups of the sugar
Place the yolks in a bowl and beat for about one minute. When they start getting sticky, gradually add the sugar and continue beating until it increases in volume, becomes lemon yellow, and forms the ribbon (lifting a bit of the mixture and letting it fall creates slowly dissolving strands).
The mixture will go from a deep yellow to a light yellow.
- 4 egg whites at room temperature
- 1/3 cups sugar
- Pinch of salt
In a mixer, start beating the egg whites until it starts to bubble. Add a pinch of salt and continue beating. When soft peaks form, add the sugar gradually.
Add gradually to let it mix well. Otherwise a large part of the sugar will go to the bottom.
Mix on high until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over beat. Yes, there is such a thing. Here is what the egg whites should look like.
Perfectly beaten I have to say.
- The beaten egg whites
- 2/3 cups cake flour
Take the bowl with the egg yolks and stir in a large spoonfull of beaten egg whites. This helps to lighten the egg yolk mixture. Then in three alternating additions, fold in the egg whites and sifted flour, making sure you partially fold it before you add the next addition. They key here is not to look for a full mixture, this will eventually happen. You want to retain as much air from the egg whites.
Notice how we only lighten the mixture.
As we keep folding, we add more egg whites and flour.
This is what the folded batter should look like, notice how it still has some volume.
Transfer the batter onto your baking pan with the parchment paper on the bottom.
Notice how it still retains the air. But you have to do it swiftly, don't let it rest for too long.
Place immediately in the middle rack of the oven and let bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is light brown and springs, and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Notice how it has puffed and coloured evenly.
Place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Placing it on a cooling rack allows it to cool from all angles, including the bottom part. It will also shrink very slightly, allowing you to remove it easily by loosening the sides with a regular knife and turning it over into the cooling rack to cool completely.
- 3/4 cups whipping cream (35%)
- 3/4 cups evaporated milk
- 3/4 cups condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 tablespoons rum
In the meantime, you can make the three milk mixture by combining the whipping cream (unwhipped), the evaporated milk, condensed milk, vanilla and rum.
You can take a sip or two... better yet, don't. It's too good to just stop once you start.
Once the cake has cooled completely on the wire rack, move on to a serving dish and poke with a toothpick or skewer all over.
Also, notice how porous the cake is. This will help it absorb the liquid.
Spoon the mixture, starting with the middle and working your way to the edges. Let it absorb before adding more liquid. The idea is for the liquid to be absorbed by the cake, and not to make a puddle in your serving dish. But since this does happen, I use a dish with tall(ish) edges.
Slowly does it, and in no time the cake will take in all the mixture.
Place in the refrigerator while you make the meringue topping.
MAKING AN ITALIAN MERINGUE
Get ready for the final component, you're almost done.
See how a few ingredients get turned into greatness.
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup water
Place the sugar and water in a saucepan on high heat until it starts boiling. Move the pan around in circular motions (VERY carefully) until it turns clear. Cover and let simmer while you do the egg whites.
Cover it at this point and put the heat to medium.
- 3 egg whites from large eggs at room temperature
- Pinch of salt
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
In a standing mixer, beat the egg whites. When they turn bubbly, add the salt and cream of tartar. Once they have formed stiff peaks, add the vanilla.
Because we haven't added any sugar yet, the whites will be a bit fluffier than the previous ones you made for the cake.
Go back to the sugar syrup, remove the cover and boil on medium high until the temperature reaches 238˚F.
I went slightly higher, but this will do. Do not go above 240˚F.
Start your mixer again on medium speed and VERY carefully add the boiling syrup in a steady stream until all of it is in the egg whites.
It can be scary to do this the first time. I would not recommend this to anyone that is not using a stand mixer, or that has someone in the kitchen helping out if you're using a handheld mixer.
Beat for about 10 minutes or until the mixture has cooled down completely. You'll know it's done because it will be safe to touch the metal bowl, it will be a very shimmery white and passing a knife or spatula on the mixture will create still walls such as below.
Have a spoonful, you deserve it if you've made it this far.
DECORATING THE CAKE
Making a remarkable cake is as much about the taste as it is about making it look good to eat. In this case, I added a layer of Italian meringue to the cake and placed the quartered pears on top in a star shape.
Looks ok, but you can do much better.
I then took a large star tip and a pastry bag, and made large stars all over the sides and top. I then set my oven to broil at 400˚F and placed the cake on the upper level for a minute, just until I saw the slightest hint of colour (you will need to watch it VERY closely, as oven times will vary on the broil setting), and removed it before it got too dark. I ended with a slight sprinkling of ground cinnamon and nutmeg to decorate the pears.
And behold the result.
Only the top gets the nice browning.
And there you have it. Given that this cake has a lot of cream and sweetness, a nice Prosecco, dry champagne or any other crisp drink goes well with it. In our case, we held a party at a microbrewery and a white beer went well with it.
Bon appétit!