Cake Fail; Tres Leche

The stars all aligned the other night for cake baking.  I had all of the ingredients on hand.  The kitchen was clean.  The boys were cooperating.  I set to work putting together a Tres Leche cake by American’s Test Kitchen (ATK).  (There is nothing like a clean kitchen to inspire me to bake something…)

The first problem I had was the browning of the sweetened condensed milk (SCM).  ATK instructs to microwave the SCM for ~15 mintutes.  I didn’t stop to stir enough and had a lava flow of hot, sticky SCM in the microwave.  Had to begin that messy process all over…

The cake took longer to bake than I was expecting but my oven isn’t very reliable or accurate.  I really need a new oven thermometer.  I may have over baked the cake.

After the cake had baked and cooled a bit, I followed the instructions to poke holes in the cake sponge, and then pour the caramelized milk mixture over the top.  The ‘milk’ is meant to be absorbed by the cake.  My milk mixture did not absorb well.  See it just sitting on top of the cake?    That’s what makes me wonder if I baked the cake too long or let the caramelized milk mixture cool too much so it didn’t flow and absorb like it was intended to???

I was counting on this cake tasting great - rich and caramely.  It wasn’t.  The taste fell flat.  There were notes of cinnamon and caramel.  I feel like a little rum would’ve deepened the flavor.  Maybe a little salt too?

Over all I give it a “meh,” not really worth all of the effort.  We hardly ate any of it.  Cake fail.