dirty coconut chai tres leches cake
The softest sponge cake soaked in a chai-spiced triage of milks, robed in two flavors of soft whipped cream.
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 chai tea bags
- 5 eggs, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon, plus more for dusting
- 2 tsp instant espresso
glaze
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 2/3 cup canned full fat coconut milk
- 1/3 cup chai-infused milk
- 2 tbsp coconut rum (optional)
whipped sweet cream
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp instant espresso
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 x 9 inch square cake pan.
- Warm the whole milk until steaming. Steep the chai tea bags for 10 minutes (or longer). Gently squeeze any milk stuck in the mesh. Discard.
- Separate the egg yolks and whites into separate bowls.
- Beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cup of sugar until creamy and bright yellow, then add the vanilla and 1/3 cup of chai milk. Beat in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, espresso, and salt until thick.
- In the second bowl, whip on high speed the egg whites until soft peaks form, about 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat vigorously until stiff peaks form, another 3-4 minutes.
- Add a couple spoonfuls of the egg whites into the yolk batter and fold gently with a spoon or spatula. Then swirl in the remaining egg whites until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake 25-30 minutes until no longer jiggly and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean. Let cool 10-15 minutes.
- In a bowl, whisk together the remaining chai milk, sweetened condensed milk, coconut milk, and rum (if using). Poke a butt-ton of holes in the cake with a skewer or a fork. Pour the glaze evenly over the cake. Some will seep out the bottom and into the sides of the pan. Cover the cake and refrigerate at least 3 hours, and up to 3 days in advance.
- Very soon before serving (no more than 2 hours), beat the heavy cream and powdered sugar until smooth with stiff peaks, about 4-5 minutes. Divide the cream in half, and into one fold in the instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water. This step is optional, but tasty.
- Plop spoonfuls of each whipped cream onto the chilled cake and spread, swirling to make cool patterns. Finish with a generous dusting in cinnamon. Slice and serve immediately.
Notes
*To store: Leftover tres leches keeps covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. After this, I find the whipped cream starts to lose its structure and seeps into the cake.