Pastel de tres leches is beloved throughout much of Latin America, and yet its origins remain a mystery. Some people claim that it was first baked in Nicaragua, others that the recipe was first printed on the label of a well-known brand of canned condensed milk in Mexico.
Tres leches is usually a sponge cake soaked – as you might have guessed from the name – in a mixture of condensed, evaporated and regular milk, which might be flavored with vanilla, rum and cinnamon. The cake is baked and soaked in the milk mixture while it’s still warm and in the pan. It sits overnight so that the milk and flavorings thoroughly saturate every bite.
Similar cakes – soaked in alcohol and/or custard – came to Mexico from Europe before the 20th century, and these include rum cake, trifle, fruitcake or Italian zuppa inglese and tiramisu. Perhaps the likeliest explanation for how tres leches came to be is that it was an adaptation of one or more of these.
In Mexico City, every bakery offers at least one version of this cake for weddings, baptisms, quinceaños (the traditional party thrown for girls when they turn 15 years old), birthdays and pretty much any other kind of celebration.
Pastelería La Ideal, located downtown and one of our favorite bakeries in the city, maintains a spacious showroom on the second floor that displays all the cakes they can make, and tres leches is one of the many possibilities.
Another one of our favorite pastelerías specializes in different types of tres leches cakes. As if the rich milk combination wasn’t enough, Pastelería La Universal offers versions that include cajeta, caramelized goat’s milk, and rompope, a kind of alcoholic eggnog. They make some of the best tres leches cakes we’ve ever had.
In Mexico City, you don’t have to wait for a special celebration to enjoy tres leches; it’s available by the slice at many markets, coffee shops and restaurants. Better yet, you can get tres leches cake in a cup from Macram, a bakery with locations all over Mexico City that has been devoted for several decades to making just this treat. Besides the original, they make chocolate, rompope, coffee and almond flavors too.
This article was originally published on March 24, 2014.
January 2, 2018 Mi Xiang Yuan 2.0
When Chef Anthony Zhao was planning the relaunch of Mi Xiang Yuan, a home-style lunch […] Posted in Shanghai
December 30, 2015 La Faena
From the point in 2002 when multibillionaire Carlos Slim inked a deal with Mexico City […] Posted in Mexico City
June 28, 2022 Post-Colonial Lisbon Series
Lisbon’s communities from Portugal’s former colonies provide the strongest link to the […] Posted in Lisbon
Published on May 10, 2021
Related stories
January 2, 2018
ShanghaiWhen Chef Anthony Zhao was planning the relaunch of Mi Xiang Yuan, a home-style lunch spot popular with local office workers looking for a healthy set meal, he knew he had to get one thing right: the rice. At the first alleyway restaurant just north of Xintiandi, Zhao sourced many of his ingredients for his…
December 30, 2015
Mexico CityFrom the point in 2002 when multibillionaire Carlos Slim inked a deal with Mexico City to revitalize its historic center until now, there have been layers of change. Streets were made pedestrian-only after months of work by bulldozers and jackhammers. Broken windows and abandoned buildings have been replaced with countless new shop fronts offering shiny…
June 28, 2022
Lisbon | By Culinary Backstreets
LisbonLisbon’s communities from Portugal’s former colonies provide the strongest link to the country’s past, when it was the hub of a trading empire that connected Macau in the east to Rio de Janeiro in the west. Though integral elements of Lisbon life, these communities can sometimes be an invisible presence in their adopted land, pushed…
