Here is Rose’s Tres Leches cake from RHC, it was delicious! The frosting is corn starch stabilized whipped cream, the cake was unmolded and frosted about 3 hours ahead of serving (but kept chilled). I beveled the whip cream away from the lower edge, so that the milk syrup could leak out without ruining the cream (see third photo). For the top, I made caramel squiggles and placed them on the cake at serving time, with a little rosette of whip cream underneath each one to hold it in place.
The photos don’t show the top of the cake as well as one might hope- my daughter very kindly took these while I was playing host, and she wasn’t tall enough to get an overview!
As I was making this I was thinking that this would make the ideal cake for someone who is just getting started with genoise or biscuit. The cake uses a whole egg foam, which I find easier than all whites or separate yolks and whites. There is no butter or chocolate to fold in, and soaking it with nearly 5 cups of the milks will cure any fear of syruping. I was able to bake this nicely in a 2.5” springform with a parchment collar (calls for a 3” pan), and my finished height before trimming the crust was 2 5/8”. My oven was running a little hot, so it may be possible to get a little more height out of this with a proper temp. I did strain the milk mixture, as it had a lot of “skin” from boiling.
I was amazed at how easy the caramel was to do. I made a half-recipe of TCB’s caramel for a cage, using a 1-C glass pyrex in the microwave. I dipped the base in tap water to cool, and just poured it out of the pyrex to make the squiggles when it reached the right temp. I had triangles on a sheet of white paper under my Silpat as a guide. They were made in batches of 5 or 6, re-warming the caramel in the microwave (and re-melting any mistakes) in between batches. With the pyrex, I found it was best to keep pouring between squiggles, breaking the connections when cool. I stored them between sheets of wax paper until serving time.
They were easier to make than a cage, plus I didn’t have to be there to serve- no breaking required, and serving sizes were portioned out by the caramel (food was all laid out for people to help themselves). They lasted on the cake for about 1.5 - 2 hours before I noticed a little bit of melting at the base.
Editing to say that I didn’t (and never do) use a thermometer for the caramel, I just stopped the cooking and cooled it when it got to the color I enjoy eating. I would call it a medium-dark caramel, just getting to a rusty color when the pyrex was placed on white paper. My thermometer doesn’t work at caramel temperatures.
Fabulous. Super gorgeous. WOW. WOW. WOW! My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw this. I love your rendition. Love the bevel design. The 1st picture, taken from above the cake, really shows the squiggly (I thought they’re all 1 piece but looks like they’re individual pieces, and placed nicely on the star piping). AMAZING Julie! Agree with Hector that you are truly an asset and an inspiration.
Am I the only oen who can’t see the avatar? I see the picture below Julie’s name hasn’t changed from before. It’s the yellow cake with the berries around and on top.
Oh my, you all are so kind! Thank you! I feel so proud now.
I like the avatar because it’s a picture my daughter took- kind of like having her photo on my desk.
Silke, someday when you’re in the mood, try making the caramel triangles, they really aren’t very difficult and you just remelt any that don’t come out quite right, so it’s not stressful. Personally, I find the piping bag more difficult, maybe because one often pipes directly on the cake and mistakes are hard to undo. Also, piping borders requires all the shells, etc. to be the same, whereas the caramel squiggles are meant to be somewhat irregular.
Rozanne - thanks for the tip. After logging off, it’s still showing the same picture. But then I cleared out internet cookies & internet files. And then logged off - it works! Great avatar Julie.
Thanks Jenn. I assume you have a sugar thermometer to get the caramel perfect? I’m a total whimp with caramel, which is why I pushed myself to do the Karmel Cake. Usually it ends in a big mess….
With regards to the piping - I cheated when I did the wedding cake, I piped the chocolate decorations on silpats weeks before, then carefully took them off and put them in the freezer in little containers, sorted by color, so I had no stress when I assembled the cake…. If I can work the caramel out I’d have another low stress way to decorate. Perhaps I’ll try that for the Thanksgiving pumpkin cheesecake dessert.
