Tres Leches Cake

This cake is best baked the night before, then frosted and topped with strawberries right before serving.

Also... this is a huge cake that is quite rich, so could easily serve 10 or 15 (depending on their appetite for cake and tolerance for sweet richness). I always make too much cake every year. Next year, I think I'll try halving the recipe and making it in a 9x9 pan. Additionally, the original recipe calls for 3 tbsp of sugar for the icing, but I'd recommend 1 or even none--the cake is sweet enough as it is, and unsweetened whipped cream might help balance it a bit.

Something I want to try next time too is making this in a muffin tin--I think these would make fantastic little mini cakes!

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 eggs, whites and yolks separated
1 cup sugar, divided (3/4 and 1/4)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk

Tres Leches mixture
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

Icing
1 pint (16 oz/2 cups) heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoons sugar
1 lb of strawberries

Instructions
* Separate your eggs first, so your whites will be closer to room temperature before you start whipping them. Add a pinch of cream or tartar and/or salt to keep them from collapsing. If you don't have a hand mixer, a hand blender or regular blender will help turn the egg whites from translucent to opaque. But after that, use a hand whisk to take over. If you try using something with blades after you've gotten almost to the soft peak stage, the blades will collapse the whites.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Beat/mix egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Add milk and vanilla, stir.

Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.

Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.

Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into the middle of the prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, put back in the original pan, then pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all of the tres leches mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can.

Allow the cake to absorb the tres leches mixture overnight.

An hour or so before serving: wash, pat dry, then cut the strawberries into fourths. Whip the 1 pint heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar until thick and spreadable. Spread over the surface of the cake. Top with the cut strawberries.

Original tres leches cake recipe from The Food Network