Guest Blogger Tracie: Tres Leches Cake

As promised, here is the second recipe from guest blogger Tracie, I however cannot vouch for the tastiness of this cake as she did not share any with me, but I am sure it was good, it is Pioneer Woman's after all, and as we all know I am quite fond of just about every recipe she has ever written.

The second thing we made while waiting for the other dough to rise was Pioneer Woman’s Tres Leche Cake. I love Pioneer Woman. Maybe a little bit too much, and maybe I also have daydreams about marrying a cowboy. Not her cowboy, just *a* cowboy[Emma: me too, me too]. PW’s recipe is here found here. Tres leche cake tastes like milk, sweetened milk, but there is a distinct milk taste. So if you don’t like milk (*cough cough* Emma *cough cough*)[Emma: milk is gross, and this may in fact be why Tracie didn't share this cake with me...] this cake might not be for you. The cake itself is light and airy, but the milk you pour over it adds some weight and makes it seriously moist. It’s both light and heavy and, most importantly, tasty.

I did the necessary greasing of a 9 x 13 pan , but the cake still stuck a tiny bit so I recommend going the grease and parchment paper route, just to ensure it doesn’t stick.

There are quite a few photos missing from this baking escapade, as some of our friends came over and distracted my photographer[Emma: I am a social butterfly, what can I say?].

Basically though, you:

Mix together flour, salt, and baking powder.

Separate the eggs.

Beat ¾ cup sugar and the egg yolks on high until they turn a light, pale, yellow. Then add the vanilla and milk.

Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and combine gently

Beat the egg whites with the rest of the sugar on high (in a clean, dry bowl) until they reach hard peaks, but make sure not to over beat them and let them get dry

Then fold the egg whites into the batter until just combined. I winged this a bit. I think you are supposed to do that thing where you add a bit of the mix to the egg whites and combine that before you add all the egg white into the rest of the mix. I also, maybe got a bit distracted by *someone* talking to me and stirred more than I should have. But it was fine anyway.

Pour it into the greased (and parchmented) pan, making sure the batter is evenly spread.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Then turn the cake out onto a rimmed dish (or in my case a jelly roll pan) and allow it to cool. This also takes place after Em had left and I was taking photos. I’m not sure why there is that dented in bit. And I’m not here to assign blame.

Once it is cool, use a fork to poke holes in the cake. I poked a lot of holes, but I suppose you can do as many as you like.

Then combine heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk.

And stir to mix them all together. It makes about three cups of milk but you only need to use two to get the cake properly saturated.

Then pour the milk over your cake slowly, making sure to get the edges (I poked a bunch of holes around the edges to make sure it would hold the milk).

Let the cake absorb the milk for at least half an hour before you ice it. Icing it? Frost it? I just made a simple whipped cream to icing it. One cup of heavy cream and 1.5 teaspoons of sugar, beat together on high in an electric mixer. Sorry there are no photos of this step either. But I trust you can imagine it as well as I can illustrate it.

Then icing the cake. I don’t think PW covered the edges of her cake. But I covered mine because I like it that way.

My mom asked for a rustic, swirly, look on the top. I didn’t really comply because I like smooth cakes [Emma: does this remind anyone else of Martha Stewart? Just a little? I once saw her snatch a craft away from someone for not glittering it properly]. It ended up somewhere in the middle.

And then you cut a piece and eat it! I suppose you could top it with something, PW uses maraschino cherries, but I think they are gross so I left the cake plain. And it was just as good.

The end

Thank you for your time and patience, and extensive use of your imagination[Emma: And thank you Tracie for being my very first (and most likely only) guest blogger!].