Off The Menu: The 112 Eatery Tres Leches Cake
This story was created by our partners at the Heavy Table, a weekly culinary newsletter dedicated to covering the best food and drink of the Upper Midwest. Back them on Patreon to receive four distinct email newsletters focused on dining, the restaurant business, spirits, and home cooking: http://www.patreon.com/heavytable
BY JAMES NORTON
A solid 10+ years ago, we discovered and fell in love with 112 Eatery in downtown Minneapolis. [4] It was open late, the steak tartare was tops, and the vibe was superb. And, bonus: It served up insanely tender, rich, and perfectly turned out slices of tres leches cake, the best we'd tried.
This cake was so good that I thought: If I could learn to make this cake, I could stride across the surface of the earth like a minor god. After an extremely lazy amount of minimal Googling, I found a tres leches recipe online that seemed plausible, so I figured I'd try it out and dial it in from there.
But, twist: Dialing it in wasn't necessary. The finished cake was a dead ringer for the 112 Eatery version, everybody loved it, temples were established and sacrifices made.
EXPERT NOTES
For the initial microwave-the-leche step, be SURE - absolutely sure - you watch the bowl as it cooks. You have about a 10-second window from "everything's going fine" to "Chernobyl," and as long as you hit the off switch during that big rise-and-foam moment, everything will be fine.
I've found that this cake gets considerably better - more uniformly tender, and more thoroughly soaked - about 24-36 hours after you make it, so not only can you make it well in advance of a gathering, you probably should.
Photo by Becca Dilley / heavytable.com
TRES LECHES CAKE
Makes one 13 by 9 pan
Milk Mixture
1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cake
2 Cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Cup whole milk
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 Cups sugar
Whipped Cream Frosting
1 Cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp corn syrup (fresh is best, chuck anything past six months old)
1 tsp vanilla extract
To make the milk mixture, put the sweetened condensed milk into a microwave-safe bowl, cover it tightly with plastic wrap, and microwave it on medium low power. Stir it often (it tends to explode a little) and keep going for about 10-12 minutes, until its slightly darker and noticeably thicker. Then whisk in the milk, cream, and vanilla. Cool the mixture to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease and lightly flour a 13x9" baking pan. Whisk together your flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Heat the milk, butter, and vanilla together in a saucepan over low heat until the butter is melted.
Whip the eggs with an electric mixer on medium-high speed in a large bowl. Add the sugar gradually over the course of a minute. Continue to whip until very thick and voluminous, 4-8 minutes.
Reduce the mixer speed to slow and add, one at a time, the melted butter mixture, the flour mixture (in two additions). Then increase the mixer speed to medium and whip until the batter is fully combined and smooth, about 30 seconds.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 30-35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
Using a skewer, poke about 50 holes in the warm cake- you do not need to poke all the way through. Then pour the cooled milk mixture over the cake. Let the cake cool slightly at room temperature for 15 minutes, then refrigerate it until the milk mixture is completely absorbed, about 3 hours.
For the frosting: Let the cake sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Beat the heavy cream, corn syrup, and vanilla together in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed to soft peaks, 1-2 minutes. Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cake and serve.
[4] EDITOR'S NOTE: I haven't been back there since before the pandemic, but I have heard from friends that it's not at its best currently. If nothing else, the hours are seriously curtailed - closing at 9 (9!) on most weekdays, and 10 on the weekend. The tres leches cake is still on the dessert menu, though.