Famous Milk ‘N Berries Cake (Tres Leches Cake Like Porto’s)

So here in Los Angeles there is a famous bakery called Porto's and they are known for a lot of things but one of their most famous desserts is a tres leches cake with berries and cream. I have had it and it is heavenly. It is creamy, it is lovely and soft and has all these lovely summer berries in it. Here's what we're going to do. We are going to make this cake together right now and we're going to figure out what makes it so good. So there are a few steps to this cake but it will all be worth it in the end. We're going to start out by mixing together our dry ingredients. So into this bowl I'm going to add in my flour, my baking powder and my salt. Give them a little mixy mix. We're going to set them over to the side and we are going to bring in our egg yolks. Now I have the egg yolks here, I have the egg whites separated because we're going to get to those in a minute. Into the egg yolks, I have them at room temperature so they whip up really well. I'm going to use my electric hand mixer. Turn your machine on high and we're going to whip up these egg yolks and as they're starting to thicken we're going to slowly stream in our sugar. Now what we're going for here is to get a lovely almost sauvignon kind of thick fluffy egg mixture. That's why I'm telling you it's hard to do this by hand because you need to get them really lovely and thick. So I never had a cake like this until I had Porto's cake at a birthday party. And in Ireland, we don't really have a cake like this, but it's really unique. It's just the texture is amazing. The flavor is amazing. I would say if you haven't had a tres leches cake yet, then definitely pay attention to this recipe because it's well worth it. So once you get this lovely and thick, I'm going to turn down the speed here a little bit and I'm going to add in my milk followed by one of my favorite ingredients, which is vanilla extract. You do this on low speed because as you can see the milk is flattering a little bit. And while this is also still on low, we're going to take back in our dry ingredients, add them in and you just want to mix this just until your flour is combined. You know my rule about over mixing flour, it makes it tough, it makes your cake kind of firmer. So just mix it in and that looks good. I think we're done here. Perfect. And now I'm going to bring in my egg whites. Now they have also been sitting at room temperature because they whip up so much better when they've been out sitting at room temperature for a few minutes. So I'm going to use my hand mixer again with clean beaters and I am going to whip up the egg whites just until they get really foamy and start to thicken. Okay, so look, this is looking good. Our egg whites are thickening. Now I'm slowly going to stream in white sugar. And it's the same deal. The reason we do it slowly is because we don't want to dump the sugar in on top of our egg whites because it will deflate them. So you add a little bit at a time. This is the same rule when you're making meringues, pavlovas, things like that. So bit by bit, you got to be patient here. These egg whites are looking good. I'm happy with how thick they are. I'm gonna turn off my mixer and bring in our egg yolk mix and then fold those two together. You just want to combine the two until you can't see egg whites anymore. You can tell already this is a really soft, airy, fluffy cake. But there's a little secret step that we're going to do to it as well. So you want to stay tuned for that. Okay, lovely. That's our cake batter. Like I said, it takes a few steps, but it's not that long. I'm going to bring in my cake pans and then just divvy it up between the two. As you can see, I'm going to bake these in two eight by eight pans. You could also make a round and do two eight or nine inch round pans. That's totally fine. Okay, great. Cake batter is in our pan. Now let's get this into the oven. So bake your cakes off at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius for roughly 35 to 40 minutes until they're golden brown and they're firm in the middle. Once you touch them while they're in the oven, I'm going to take this opportunity to make the mix that we're going to soak the cake in, which makes it a tres leches three milks cake. So here I have a nice big jug into this. I am going to add in condensed milk. The measurements are on my website, but this is a can of condensed milk and a can of evaporated milk and a little bit of regular milk, three different milks. That's where it gets the name from. And then I'm just going to give these a mix together. Condensed milk and evaporated milk are very different. I get this question all the time. The difference is simply condensed milk is sugar and milk boils down and evaporated milk is just milk boils down. That's why it's not thick. It's not really sweet. It's just a little bit sweet because of the milk. That's why condensed milk is so thick and syrupy. So I'm just gonna set this over to the side and wait for our cakes to be done. Look at that 35 minutes and these guys are gorgeous and I can't believe how much they actually rose up. I was a little bit worried because the batter was thin, but they've gotten lovely and thick. While your cakes are still warm, poke them with a skewer. This is just going to allow our sauce to like really soak in there. Don't be shy with this. Just like really go for us. Okay, awesome. And then what you want to do is just divide up your milk mixture over the two cakes. Just like that. You might want to give it a minute to soak in and then add a little bit more. So here's what you want to do. Let them cool down, then cover them and then pop them into the fridge. You want to leave them in the fridge overnight. During this time, the flavor and the texture just gets so much better. So I'll see you guys tomorrow because we're going to finish off this cake. So it's been 24 hours, our cakes have soaked up overnight. So now it is time to assemble. Now the assembly could not be easier here. We're going to recreate the way the Porto does theirs with berries and whipped cream. It's kind of rustic. So I'm going to lay my first layer onto my platter here. And then I'm going to add a big dollop of whipped cream. Now when it comes to whipped cream, I get asked a lot, how do I make my whipped cream, I take plain cream, and I whip it, I don't add vanilla, I don't add sugar, I like it to be just cream because you've got sweetness in the cake in the berries, you want all of those flavors to stand out. That's why I keep the cream quite neutral. And then on top of the cream, I'm going to scatter over some summer berries, raspberries, blueberries, and some cut up strawberries. The summer is a perfect time of year to make this cake because all of these lovely berries are in season and they're at their very best. I know I haven't tasted it yet, but I can already kind of tell why this is such a famous cake from Porto's. Gemma, what are your favorite bakeries in LA? And you know what, there is a bakery around a few blocks from my house here in Santa Monica, and it is Sweet Lady James. It's I love the bakery. It's beautiful. It has a bit of a European vibe is they serve like huge slices of cake with like cafeterias of coffee. It's just it has a really lovely feel to it. My favorite cake comes from there and maybe we'll recreate this in another episode, but they make Swedish princess cake. It has a layer of marzipan fondant. It has a real almond flavor to it. It is absolutely hands down I think my favorite cake from any bakery in the world. I absolutely adore it. So now carefully place your second layer on top. This is a heavy cake so just be careful as you go. Then I'm going to get the rest of my whipped cream, put it over the top and work it down the sides. We're kind of going for a rustic naked kind of a situation here. The lovely thing about decorating cakes like this is that the rougher it is, the better it is. Gorgeous. And what I'm going to do just to finish it off is pile up my leftover berries on top. Look at that. Simple, gorgeous. Now we have to dig in and try it. Just as I'm cutting into this, I can tell it's going to feed a lot of people. A lot of happy people. Look at that gorgeous. The color is beautiful. All those lovely summer berries popping. Oh my gosh. The cake is divine. It's really moist because of the milk that we put into it, but it's not soggy. And then with the berries that are in season and the freshly whipped cream. I mean, this is my idea of heaven. This is very similar just to like a Victoria sponge cake that we would have had in Ireland. Plain, simple, absolutely delicious. Oh my God. Straight off the bat, I can see why this is such a hit at Porto's. It has flavor, texture and looks so amazing. This is without a doubt going to be a hit this Fourth of July, summer celebrations, whatever you're doing. Thank you so much for watching and get this recipe on my website.