celebrating one year with tres leches cake

has it really been a year? well, happy one year to design. bake. run. then! to celebrate the one year anniversary of my little blog here (you can see the first entry here), i made this delicious tres leches cake (recipe courtesy of miss martha stewart). i have to say, tres leches cakes are so ridiculously good. you cannot go wrong with the three milk combo. and c'mon… sweetened condensed milk – O.M.G. seriously, so, so good!

i remembered a couple months back while attending a kiddie birthday party at my brother-in-law's house and they had a tres leches birthday cake. on the drive home i told m i wanted a tres leches cake as my birthday cake (my birthday is this month) instead of his famous cheesecake; m was a little offended. hahahaha… i guess he was probably thinking because his famous cheesecake wasn't all that great or tasty anymore in my eyes. i told him it's just that the tres leches cake was just so darn good. i could never have enough of it. actually, i think it's so good because i don't eat enough of it and only on special occasions such as birthdays like the one we went to. okay, the point i'm trying to make here is, m doesn't eat a whole lot of baked goods these days but after i made this cake, i made him try it. he said he would only eat a couple mouthfuls and before i knew it, he ate the whole slice! he said it was for sure one of the best cakes he's ever eaten; and definitely better than store-bakery-made. he wants it as his next birthday cake. i told him right then and there, "see, i told you. that's why i wanted it for mine too!" hahahaha

alright, if you'd like to see how good this cake is, feel free to make the recipe and let us know. don't you agreed? tres leches cakes are really something delicious. i will for sure be making them again and again. just not all the time so it's still one of the best things ever! ;)


this tres leches cake is seriously one of the best thing ever, if not the best thing ever. nice and moist with all that soaked milk – delish!

tres leches cake
recipe from martha stewart

ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled, plus more for baking dish
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 5 cups fresh fruit (optional), such as oranges or berries, for serving

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat eggs and 3/4 cup sugar on high until pale and thick, about 4 minutes. Add vanilla and beat to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat to combine. With a rubber spatula, fold in melted butter until incorporated. Transfer batter to dish and bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating dish halfway through.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together milks. Poke warm cake all over with a wooden skewer or toothpick, then pour milk mixture over top and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.
3. Whip cream and 1/4 cup sugar to medium peaks. To serve, spread whipped cream evenly over cooled cake. Top with fruit if desired. I didn't bother with the fruit toppings except for the few blueberries that I put on top of the cut slices. The cake tastes delicious with or without the fruit topping, I think.

umm... so, the last year in review? well, let's say i haven't done as much design as i'd like (or at least post them up on here anyway). i hope that in this second year i can put up more design-related entries. i'd love to experiment with some thing such as watercolor art. nothing spectacular or anything, just some artwork; if not mine, maybe even c's. he love watercolor painting and have the best kiddie art for a 5-year-old. i really should post his lady bug watercolor painting he did for me a while back. he thought of it all by himself and it looks amazing. hah! probably better than what i would have done. but yes, all in all, i'd love to post more design works here.

now with running, i'm still chugging along. i run all the time, i just can't be bothered to blog about it. maybe i will pick that up again too, i don't know. it may help me with my pace/speed/etc. i still need to improve on my pace and get a better finish time. i hope that by the time the 2014 sf marathon comes around, i can run an easy 9:15 to 9:30-min/mile pace for the half marathon. that race is still a whole year ahead, so i hope to do great things from now til then.

and lastly, it's been a wonderful year for anything baked goods related. i do love how i stumbled upon a recipe for those cute mini creme brulee cupcakes. the pictures for those turned out fantastic as well and is one of my popular posts on here. the coffee nutella french macarons were one of my first few baking posts and to date it is my most popular post. i hope that this next year i will land upon or create some amazing goodies. i know i'm still baking like mad; although i have slowed down a little bit the last several weeks. i still have a lot of baking on my to-bake bucket list and i have some recipes i'd like to try or experiment. i can't wait to share them here and look forward to another year of journaling anything and everything design, bake and run related. :)