Tres Leches Cake

Tres leches cake is a light sponge cake soaked through with a mixture of three milks until it turns soft and custardy, finished with a layer of whipped cream. The name literally means "three milks," a plain description of the evaporated, condensed and whole milk that together soak the sponge — and it's a fixture at Mexican birthdays and celebrations, cut into squares and eaten cold with a spoon rather than sliced and served dry.

What it really is

A plain, airy sponge — deliberately made without much butter or oil, since a richer cake wouldn't be able to absorb liquid the same way — bakes and cools, then gets pierced all over with a fork or skewer before the milk mixture pours over slowly, soaking down through every hole until the sponge turns soft, moist and almost custard-like throughout, not just damp on the surface. A layer of whipped cream spreads over the top once it's fully soaked and chilled, sometimes with a scatter of cinnamon or fresh fruit.

The cake has to be light and porous enough to actually absorb the milk, not just sit in a puddle of it. A denser sponge, or one baked without those fork holes, leaves most of the milk mixture pooling underneath instead of soaking through — the whole appeal of tres leches is a cake that's uniformly moist and custardy inside, not a dry cake floating in sauce.

How it's served

• Cold, cut into squares, eaten with a fork or spoon rather than dry-sliced.
• Topped with whipped cream and sometimes cinnamon or fresh fruit.
• As a dessert, especially common at birthdays and family celebrations.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the wheat, dairy and egg.
• It's naturally vegetarian.
• Say that it's served cold and very moist, since a guest expecting a dry, sliceable cake may be surprised by the texture.