A cake as light as a feather……that’s delicate on the tongue.
A cake topped with three kinds of milk….maybe even four!
A cake whose origin is a convoluted mystery — was it Nicaragua, or Costa Rica? Mexico or Cuba? Spain perhaps?
Or was it Nicaragua or Mexico’s answer to the Italian tiramisu?
Like the mystery of the Incas, no one can say for sure where or when tres leches cake was created.
We do know that condensed milk first came into use in the mid-1850s as a way to preserve milk in cans, without refrigeration.
Evaporated milk first became available during the 1870s when milk companies were able to heat the evaporated milk so that it would not spoil in the cans, thereby making the sugar unnecessary.
They both became an immediate success in urban areas where fresh milk was difficult to distribute and store.
In the 1930’s when the Nestle Company opened up plants in Mexico during World War II, a recipe for Tres Leches was printed on the outside of the evaporated milk, condensed milk and cream cans.
Nestle is therefore responsible for taking the Tres Leche Cake mainstream.
Have you ever made a Tres leches cake?
