Can I just tell you that you have to make these and leave it at that? No, you probably won’t believe me, will you? I don’t use that kind of forceful declaration very often. Well, just believe me, okay?

Often I’m led down a cooking path by the description of a recipe. Maybe it’s something unusual about it – or in it – that piques my interest. Other times it’s because there’s such an interesting background story about it. Or maybe it’s a homegrown recipe from way back. In this case, it’s Molly Wizenberg, of Orangette blog, cookbook fame, and her husband’s restaurant Delancey fame too. I’ve always admired Molly’s writing – she has a gift of building up a great story and I was following her long before she became famous. I read her blog and liked it. This recipe came from her column in Saveur.

And I got hooked on it because of the story. She and her family were on a drive in Washington, and her daughter was hungry. So was everyone in the car and most of the stores were closed in Edison. They found Breadfarm was about to close – they grabbed some things and dived into the bags as they stood in the parking lot. What emanated from them all were ooohs and aaahs. But it was the little package of freshly baked graham crackers that made the biggest impression. They were gone before she arrived home. And, because you’re Molly Wizenberg, you obviously can pick up the phone and tell the people at Breadfarm that you want to feature them and their recipe in an article in Saveur.

I’m ever so glad she did. Normally I’d probably not make home made graham crackers. Crackers, in general, are a lot of work, and one meal, usually, and they’re gone. But Molly just made this graham cracker/cookie sound so divine that there just wasn’t anything to do but make these. First, however, I had to go shopping. I don’t stock whole wheat flour much – it turns rancid so quickly (the remainder is in the freezer for now). And I certainly had never used whole wheat pastry flour. Had to go to two stores before I found those items. It also uses wheat bran – another thing I don’t keep on hand because it doesn’t keep all that long, either.

Fortunately I read and re-read the recipe before I began to make them. Making these requires several visits to the freezer as the precious little graham cracker cargo are chilled and slightly frozen before baking. I was home anyway, so I was certain to make these at a time when I would have no distractions.

My kitchen freezer is very full. (Actually, this is a mini form of hoarding, I think – I can’t seem to ever get my freezer to some manageable amount of fullness – it’s always chock full.) So I had to slide the cookie sheets with the rolled out cookies/crackers on parchment into my garage freezer (yes, there is room there). It required 2 visits to the freezer, and technically they were supposed to have a 3rd visit, but I did a shortcut on that one.

The batter is easy enough to make – you cream the butter, sugar (she calls for cane sugar, I used moscovado) and honey for awhile, then add the dry ingredients in 3 separate additions and continue mixing until it pulls away from the workbowl using the stand mixer. The batter is divided in half and pressed into a 1-inch thick rectangle on parchment. A 2nd piece of parchment goes on top and a rolling pin is used to squeeze down the dough to 1/8 inch thickness.  The recipe says to keep the dough in its rectangular shape. Well, I couldn’t do that – I was handling it too much, so I just lived with the results of an oval shape and re-rolled the scraps. Some time was spent in the freezer, then you poke the crackers with a fork and either perforate the dough into squares, or in my case, I used a square cookie cutter, which worked just fine. Back into the freezer they go, so they’re cold-cold before you bake them. They are separated and placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet. And they’re baked.

And I remind you – you have to make these. They’re just SO good. They’d be loverly with cheese as an after-dinner course. I’m serving them with my lemon velvet gelato on Father’s Day – this won’t post until a week or so later.

What’s GOOD: the taste. Oh my yes, they taste wonderful. And although you will have spent more time than usual making a batch of these, you’ll be glad you did, if you can make the time to do it. They make a very nice snack, or a straight-out cookie. And maybe you’ll think it’s not so bad because it’s almost all whole wheat flours.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever is bad about the cookie/cracker. It just takes a bit of time to make. And they’re a little bit fussy – trying to get the dough flat and square as you roll it out – you don’t want them to be thicker on one side than the other, not only would they not bake evenly, but they’d look funny.

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You know that phrase, OMGosh? Well, this is one of those. SO good. The biscuits, those lovely golden brown rounds you see there, are just beyond tender and tasty. Once you see what’s in them you’ll know why. And the berries? Well, I used mostly blackberries (fresh) and about 1/4  blueberries (also fresh). The only berry you can’t use for this is strawberries, just so you know.

About the only time I bake these days is when I know someone’s coming to visit, and that was the case here. I increased the recipe because I was expecting about 9 people, but then a few people couldn’t come at the last minute, so I had more than enough. I don’t know how well this will freeze – I have a smaller dish of this left over and will try freezing it. I’ll  put a paper towel on top of the biscuits (to absorb any of the ice crystals that form), then seal it with foil.

Because berries are certainly in season at the moment, I used mostly blackberries (so good) and a few blueberries.

There are two steps – one for the berries (tossed with sugar and a little bit of flour) and one for the biscuits (the usual, except that it uses heavy cream as the liquid/fat as well as butter).

The berries go into the baking dish and the biscuits are hand-formed (easy) and placed on top of the berries in about 1/2 inch thick rounds. It should go immediately into the oven so  the biscuits don’t have a chance to become sponges for any juices formed by the berries.

Into a 375° oven it goes and bakes for about 35-40 minutes. That dish you see above is fairly big (it’s bigger than a regular pie pan/plate) and it took 40 minutes. The smaller one took exactly 35 minutes. The picture at right is the dish just before it went into the oven.

Originally this recipe came from Lindsey Shere’s cookbook, Chez Panisse Desserts, but I found the recipe, adapted somewhat she says, from Orangette blog. The only difference is the choice of berries. Molly Wizenberg used different ones, and as I mentioned, I used mostly blackberries with some blueberries. I’d guess that any combo of berries would work fine here. The recipe IS about the whole dish – the fruit and the biscuits – but I’ll just tell you, those biscuits on top are something else!

What’s GOOD: everything about this was scrumptious. I’ll definitely be going to this recipe if/when I ever make another berry cobbler. I don’t know if it would work with stone fruit – it might. My guests raved about it and so did I.

What’s NOT: nothing. As I said, it’s sublime.

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As I am recovering from my food poisoning – wow, has it been a long haul (as I write this it’s been 17 days, but hopefully by the time you read this I’ll be fully recovered!) – if you are just sick for an overnight, or 2 days, it’s not food poisoning. True food poisoning generally lasts about 2 weeks, and then some. I’m nowhere near as ill as I was when I first got home from my trip, but I still have occasional pain in my stomach and some food just doesn’t sound good – mostly meat and vegetables. And salads. It’s hard to find things other than lots of white food (chicken seems to be okay) that I can eat that doesn’t cause the pain. (The only good news is that I’ve lost 6 pounds.) Anyway, sorry about that detour – I was so happy the day I made this – I actually wanted to bake, and I was having my bible study group over, so a perfect occasion to create something to share. And the cake tasted wonderful, even with the nuts, which I wasn’t so sure would agree with my tummy.

When I designed my kitchen in my house (this was in 2006) because I had plenty of room, I created a kind of baking center on one side. My stand mixer, blender, toaster and food processor all hide in an appliance garage. The oven is a few feet away. All my baking needs are in the drawers below the countertop, and the drawer dishwasher (meaning that it’s half-high) is built into the island, so literally I just have to turn around. There’s also a small sink one step away too, so the dirty bowls and stuff get rinsed off and go right into the dishwasher. That also makes it easier, too, when the dishes are clean, they’re all put away without hardly taking a step. The dishwasher was planned mostly for wine glasses – it has a china/light cycle and it does a beautiful job of spotlessly cleaning the lovely Riedel glasses that grace the bar shelves in the family room. Whenever I entertain, all the wine glasses go into that dishwasher because it does such a good job – it’s a KitchenAid, fyi.

So, I went through my huge to-try recipes for a dessert that sounded good to me. I suppose I could have made anything, but hey, I’m the cook, I get to choose! I had some apples on hand (Granny Smith) which I’d intended to make applesauce with (you know, I was on the BRAT diet – bananas, rice, applesauce and toast during the early stage of my food poisoning) but never got around to preparing it. Bingo, this recipe just moved to the top of the list.

Hopefully you already read Elise Bauer’s website, Simply Recipes. She’s a wonderful cook, and I’ve made many of her recipes over the years. And this one she did in 2008 but I just hadn’t gotten around to trying. That’s corrected now and it will be a keeper.

She gives the credit for the recipe to someone named Mrs. Paxton from Virginia. But Elise mentions she’s made it a lot over the years. Did I say this was a keeper? Yes, indeed. It’s nothing all that unusual to make, although it uses oil as the fat in it. It has toasted walnuts and coconut in it. I didn’t have fresh coconut, so Elise says to soak regular sweetened coconut in water, then drain. All done in the stand mixer, poured into a greased and floured bundt pan and baked a long time. My only caution – make sure it’s done before removing from the oven – I have a taller, less-wide bundt pan, and the 1 hour baking wasn’t quite enough. The batter closest to the center tube of the bundt is that last place it cooks through. I used a cake tester, but I didn’t poke it enough just near the center tube, so it was just a bit under-done there. But it was fabulous. In every way. The glaze isn’t a necessity, but adds a lovely touch to it, especially if you like things sweet. Next time I make it I probably will reduce the sugar in the cake part by just a tablespoon or two – with the glaze, it makes it pretty darned sweet. But altogether good nonetheless.

What’s GOOD: For the third time, did I say this is a keeper? Yes. Delicious in every way. Do chop up the apple in little pieces, like 1/3 inch at the max, even smaller if you can make the time. The apples do stay in place in the batter – all over – and don’t sink to any one place. It’s a thick batter anyway. The glaze is delightful, especially if you have a pretty bundt pan with lots of grooves. I couldn’t get the cake to accept all the glaze, so used the last of it to sweeten the whipped cream I made. I think vanilla ice cream would be best with this, which is what Elise recommends. I had some salted caramel gelato, and those who had that thought it was a wonderful combo. I still vote for vanilla ice cream. I think the cake was even better the 2nd day.

What’s NOT: not a single thing – it does take awhile to bake and you need to test it during its last 15 minutes of baking. It also takes awhile to cool because it’s a dense cake. Make a day ahead if you can but don’t glaze until close to serving time.

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My photo isn’t all that great in this one – shaky hands, I guess. But you sure can tell that’s a chocolate cake, right? But this one’s made with olive oil instead of butter, and served with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream. This one’s delicious, and maybe you can convince yourself it’s “healthy” because of the olive oil, right? We try every trick!

It was just about 18 months or so ago that I discovered olive oil cake. And I made Nancy Silverton’s version/variation of Dario’s cake, called Dario’s Olive Oil Cake with a topping of rosemary, sugar and pine nuts. That one’s a real favorite of mine. I’ve made it several times now. Then, not too long ago another olive oil cake hit my radar, that one Diane Phillips’ version of Dario’s cake which she called more of a coffeecake (I didn’t blog about that one). Then this one appeared. Oh gosh – olive oil and chocolate. Who’d have thunk it – that chocolate and olive oil could make a cake? It does. And well. This cake isn’t from Dario’s, it’s Diane’s version of an Italian chocolate cake made with olive oil.

It has all the normal ingredients for a cake – this one being a type that uses boiling water, but not in the traditional manner as cakes are called a hot water cake – no, it’s used to dissolve the cocoa and espresso powder only. Then you add all the other usual things to make a cake – eggs, flour, soda, sugar. It’s poured into a 9-inch high sided cake pan, baked, cooled 10 minutes, turned out to cool completely, then dusted with powdered sugar. Cut and serve. To raves.

What’s GOOD: This has a lovely light texture. If you’ve never made an olive oil cake, then you might think it would be heavy. Nope. Altogether lovely, and the chocolate flavor is just so good. Loved this one.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever.

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Diane Phillips, the cooking instructor who made this, is Italian. And this is her grandmother’s recipe, one that she has made hundreds and hundreds of times over her lifetime. It’s a beautiful cake – almost more like a coffeecake than a dessert cake – but it could be either one. It was scrumptious.

At the cooking class, Diane says her mother is probably rolling over in her grave because she serves this occasionally with a crème Anglaise. The cake is a firmer style – notice it has some bigger holes in it – this isn’t a super-tender kind of cake, but kind of like the difference between white bread and corn bread. They’re just different. The flavors were wonderful, and if I’d felt I could have, I’d have licked the plate of the crème that still clung to it. Someone in our cooking class did just that. My mother would have rolled over in her grave if she’d seen me do that!

In the photo at top you can’t quite see that the apple slices are placed in a decorative pattern, cored-edge down into the batter. Makes for a very pretty look when it’s done. The recipe calls for 5 Golden Delicious apples. Two of them are peeled, cored and diced into the batter itself. The other 3 apples are peeled, cored and sliced, and go into the pattern on the top.

The crème Anglaise starts off with apple juice. But after watching Diane make this, I decided that when I make this myself, I’ll use apple juice concentrate – why go through the process of reducing apple juice when you can use concentrate? The cake can be made 2 days ahead (covered, unrefrigerated). The sauce can be made up to 4 days ahead and can be frozen for up to a month.

What’s GOOD: the sauce was divine. It’s rich, but makes a nice moisturizer for the cake, which is just slightly on the dry side (good dry, though). It could also be served with whipped cream (easier). The cake has very nice flavor from the apples. Diane served this as part of a brunch, but it could be a dessert too.

What’s NOT: the sauce takes a bit of time to make, but hey, you can do it ahead, so do that!

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Yes, I know, it’s way past Halloween, but it’s not too late to make pumpkin cake. Just leave off the tarantula, okay?

My friend Cherrie, nearly every year, throws a pre-Halloween lunch for her friends. She is a consummate hostess. She sends out printed invitations (from her computer). She usually does some kind of theme (this year it was witches’ hats), and she always does a bang-up menu. This year she did a delicious and rich crab and pasta casserole, green salad, croissants. She had an appetizer that we all enjoyed on her spacious back deck. It was a beautiful and pleasant day. She set a gorgeous table (did I tell you she has boxes and boxes and boxes of house decorations for every single holiday of the year?).

There at right  below, you can see one of the table settings. She loves doing this – she gets such gratification from the fun time we all have at her house. She cooked for days. She, who has a broken foot and is still wearing a boot (similar to mine, other foot, different injury), yet she cooked a big meal and set this lovely table. We had champagne and other drinks ahead of time, wine with lunch if we wanted it. Then she served dessert. Her friend Karen made the cake, which was just lovely. It’s a light textured cake (my favorite kind), rich with pumpkin pie spices, and has a really nice creamy frosting. The gingersnaps are really only on the top of the cake (none IN the cake) but if you get a little bit of gingersnap crumbs with each bite, you can definitely taste them.

My advice: if you’re going to keep the cake several hours, don’t add the gingersnap crumbs until just before serving, so they’re still extra crunchy. I think Karen said it’s only about 4 gingersnaps – you probably could add a few more. You could also serve this with some ice cream (a bit of calorie overkill, though). The recipe came from Taste of Home.

What’s GOOD: Karen said the cake was cinchy easy to make. She decorated it with Halloween paraphernalia – not in the picture above is a big black “BOO” that was up above the tarantula, stuck into the cake with 2 long picks. I liked the tenderness of the cake – I’m not into dry, firmer cakes, that’s for sure, and this one hit all my favorite pumpkin/fall taste buttons.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever. A lovely cake, great to take to an event and if you’re so inclined, decorate it with fall or Halloween trinkets. But don’t forget the gingersnaps. They really added a lovely touch.

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So, picture a deliciously tender pumpkin cake with lots of those pumpkin pie spices in it. Then add some mini-chocolate chips, and then add a cream cheese frosting. Oh my.

The recipe comes from a blog that’s no longer being updated, Culinary in the Desert, but I saved this recipe in 2005, when it was posted, because in the fall I’m all over pumpkin anything. Our evenings are starting to cool down (although we’re told we’re having another heat wave here in SoCal later this week) and I almost wanted a sweater to wear this morning.

As I mentioned last week, the 2 young neighbor girls came over to cook with me, so I had them make this cake. They could hardly keep their hands out of the baked cake pan, they wanted some so badly. But it had to cool and the frosting needed to be made, spread and then “set,” before we could slice and serve. But oh gosh these are delicious. SO tender. There’s nothing unusual about the recipe – it uses oil, not butter. I always use Libby’s pumpkin because I think theirs is the best out there. I had mini chocolate chips, and there weren’t all that many in the cake. The frosting is a usual kind of cream cheese and butter with some minced walnuts added. I cut these in little bars, about 3 inches long by 1 inch. They’re still definitely a CAKE, not a cookie in case you are confused by the use of the word “bar.” The smaller size makes for easy eating with your hands rather than a knife and fork. I tasted one bar and kept 6-8 more. The rest of them went home with my neighbor girls, Juliette and Felicity.

What’s GOOD: because I love pumpkin, that definitely hits the mark. I loved the few mini choc chips in the cake too. And well, what’s there not to like about a cream cheese frosting? If you wanted to cut down the calories, make about 1/3 less frosting. I had plenty – maybe just a tad too much, but hey, I ate it and liked it just fine. You probably could make it with light cream cheese also.

What’s NOT: there wasn’t anything about these that I didn’t like. Nothing!

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Knowing some of you as I do, I’m venturing a guess that many most of you will look at that picture, read the word anise, and just decide nope, it’s not for you. You’d be making a big mistake. You’re going to miss out on a really wonderful taste treat. Curiously, I don’t like licorice. Period. I don’t eat the candy, nor the liqueurs made from it. Yuck. But this cake, oh yes, I love it.

Back in 2007 (a couple of months after I started writing this blog, and my photos were awful, I must tell you!) I posted this recipe. Most of you weren’t reading my blog back then. It was a baby blog, you could say, and I didn’t have all that many readers. Still today I have no idea whether people download recipes or not (I know how many people look at my blog, but downloading the pdf, or the MasterCook files, I don’t know).  This is a recipe I’ve been making for well over 20 years. And not all that often, but when I do make it, it’s always a hit. I had a group of women friends over for a potluck lunch and at the last minute (well, 9:30 for an noon lunch) I decided to whip up this cake. It took about 45 minutes of preparation, then the rest was easy (baking and cooling time).

The original recipe came from Mark Miller’s cookbook Coyote Cafe: Foods from the Great Southwest, Recipes from Coyote Café. Back in the early 80s I was quite enamored with southwestern food (still am, but Mexican food has to stand in since southwestern restaurants have basically been and gone) and on a trip to Santa Fe on a food tour, I ate at Miller’s restaurant. I was smitten. With his cookbook in hand, I have prepared some of the recipes from it, but the standout by far is this cake.

Over the years I’ve changed it some – it’s still resembles his recipe – with eggs, butter, anise seed, sugar, vanilla, flour, etc. But I lightened it up (the texture mostly) a little bit many years ago. I reduced the amount of butter, and I separated the eggs to whip the whites to texturally lighten the cake from a heavy pound cake to just a “cake.” It’s still made in a tube pan, and baked for a little longer.

Let’s talk about anise seed a little bit. You know already that it is part of the licorice family – in some countries anise and fennel go by the same name. They certainly are similar. They’re both very aromatic.

In this recipe, the anise seeds have to be toasted. I have a cute little stovetop spice toaster thing. I bought it years ago and have no recollection where. Might have been in an Indian market, since Indian cuisine uses a lot of toasted spices. It’s about 8 inches long, and the metal pan is little more than paper thin, but that means the spices toast in a jiffy. The mesh lid clips down so when hot spices begin to dance and/or pop, they don’t go flying.  Once the pan heats up you absolutely have to be right there at the stove gently shaking the pan – otherwise the spices would burn. It’s a miraculous little thing and when I use it I’m ever so glad I have it. But you can use any old pan – just watch it carefully so the spices don’t burn. Generally it takes 2-4 minutes to toast spices over a medium to medium high heat. As soon as they’re done, however, tip the contents out onto a plate so they don’t continue to toast. With my little toaster, I just set it onto the cold granite countertop, and move it about 3 times, shaking it as I move it and the spices stop toasting.

The cake batter is fairly standard. But it sure looks different because of the finely ground toasted anise seed in it – it makes a lovely taupe color as you can see in the photo at right. I’d just folded in the whipped egg whites when I took that picture. The batter is relatively thick, and you do need to fold those whipped egg whites until you can’t see any streaks. Then it’s scooped into the tube pan, leveled slightly and baked. The original recipe said it baked in 50-60 minutes. Mine takes longer, from 60-80 minutes, depending on your oven. I used my instant read thermometer and baked it until I got a reading of about 200° in several places.

It cools in the pan for awhile (an hour), then you can remove the outer part of the tube pan. Even though the pan is greased and flour-dusted, I always run a knife around the edge (mine is old – it’s not a nonstick – I think tube pans – mostly designed for making angel food cake aren’t ever supposed to be nonstick). Once the outer rim is removed, then I run a knife underneath the cake and around the center tube and usually the cake will come out of the tube onto your outstretched hand and forearm. Then gently place it onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

I think this is best with nothing but vanilla ice cream or whipped cream – you want the anise flavor to shine through. If you add fruit or syrups or anything, it will just dampen the anise flavor.

What’s GOOD: to me, the anise flavor is just off the charts. When I served this to my group of lady friends they – to a person – raved. And I mean RAVED. The cake isn’t hard to make at all. Do use anise that’s not too old, or it won’t have good flavor. Am sure my jar is at least a year old, but it hadn’t been opened, so I knew it was good. Freeze the left overs, if you have any. It’s best eaten the day it’s made if at all possible.

What’s NOT: well, if you don’t like anise, I’m sorry! But remember, I don’t like licorice and I just adore this cake. You might be a convert to this type of anise flavor.

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Since I’ve made cream cheese brownies by an age-old recipe for a lot of years – and liked them – I thought why should I try something different? But as I read about the development of the recipe, I concluded that there probably was sufficient reason to try them.

With an upcoming group of ladies coming to my house for a book review, I decided to make these a week or so ahead. As I read the article in Cook’s Illustrated, the recipe developer talked about never being completely satisfied with the old recipe – it produced either a dry-ish brownie with a soggy kind of cream cheese middle, or the cream cheese part was chalky and tasteless, or the brownie part was wet and too dense. Or even worse, she found the brownies overpowered the subtle flavors of the cream cheese layer. So, off she went to figure out how to make these a better way. And indeed she did.

The pictures at left: (1) the foil slings; (2) the brownie bottom layer with the cream cheese batter poured over the top; (3) the cream cheese layer has been spread out, then a reserved amount of the chocolate batter is poured on top and then – (4) it’s swirled just 10-12 times, and (5) baked.

Here’s the more detailed directions. First off, you prepare a foil sling for the 8-inch pan (no, don’t use a 9-inch, please!). Get those foil liners folded just right and they fit perfectly. Pressed into the sides and corners, you spray it with baking spray or grease it with butter if you’d prefer.

Then you make the cream cheese filling – it’s easy – the cream cheese is briefly warmed in the microwave, then mixed with sugar, sour cream and a tablespoon of flour. That gets set aside.

Next is the chocolate – it’s melted in a small bowl in the microwave with butter. Then you mix up the main part of the brownies and add in the chocolate. This 8-inch pan uses just 4 ounces of chocolate. That’s all! A small amount of the batter is set aside, then you spread the cream cheese filling on top and dollop the remaining chocolate batter in 6-8 blobs and using a kitchen knife, you swirl it all, leaving a 1/2 inch edge unswirled. Into the oven it goes for 35-40 minutes and they’re done. The brownies need to cool for an hour in the pan, then once removed from the pan still in the foil slings for another hour. So, NO, you can’t eat these immediately! I let them cool a couple of hours, then cut them into smaller than the directed size. I thought my book group friends might like a smaller sized brownie, so I cut the pan into about 1 1/4-inch squares.

What’s GOOD: indeed, these cream cheese brownies had just the right distinction of brownie (chocolate) and cream cheese (filling). You could definitely taste the cream cheese part, but you could also taste the chocolate, but it wasn’t overpowering at all. I used Valrhona chocolate (just about the best out there). These were just delicious. Definitely worth making again.
What’s NOT: nothing in particular – it does take a few extra dishes to make the 2 different layers, though.

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If you’ve never had Tres Leches (in Spanish that means 3 milks) cake, you’re really missing something. And I’m just going to say that this one, made from a Nestle boxed mix, is just about as good as any homemade version I’ve ever had. And since it IS a boxed mix, that means it’s super easy. It also means I’m going to go get another box so I can have it on the shelf. (Although, you won’t want to keep sweetened condensed milk – which is in the box – on your pantry shelf for more than a few months as it thickens and darkens.)

My thought was that Tres Leches Cake was Mexican in origin, but when I searched on wikipedia, I found out that it actually may originate from Europe. However, it became popular in Central America in the early 1900s (probably when canned milk and sweetened condensed milk proliferated and apparently Carnation and/or other brands included a recipe on the label and since it was distributed throughout Central and South America it became a national dessert in several countries). See the article if you’d like.

Essentially it’s a butter-rich cake (the mix is enough for a 9-inch round cake pan – and do NOT make it in an 8-inch pan – it will never fit) that’s baked, and once it’s cooled for a few minutes you poke jillions of holes all over the cake and pour over it a mixture of sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and straight milk (some recipes call for heavy cream but the mix suggests whole milk which was plenty rich enough). The milk mixture is not thick, really, and it just fills in all the little holes throughout the cake. It does not sink to the bottom. There at right you can see the cake after it was baked and just after I poured the milk mixture all over it. It sat out on my counter for about 30 minutes while the cake cooled, then into the refrigerator it went. Within about an hour or so every bit of the milk had been absorbed in the cake. Ideally it’s refrigerated for about 4 hours. This is a cake you can NOT leave out on your kitchen counter overnight – all that milk would spoil.

In the photo above left you can see the mix – although the bag with the cake mix I’d already emptied into my mixing bowl. This one is made by Nestle and I found it at my regular supermarket. It contains the cake mix bag, the sweetened condensed milk can (on the left) and a can of evaporated milk (on the right). I also caution you to not use a 9-inch pan that’s shallow. It may fit in a standard 9-inch cake pan, but I happen to have a deeper 9-inch one that was perfect. The cake did shrink some once baked and all the milk mixture did fit in the pan.

What I want you to notice is that in the photo above, on the plate toward the back of the cake slice you can see just a little bit of the milk/cream. The entire cake is just saturated with the milk, but it doesn’t ooze all over. Just a tiny bit. We had whipped cream with it.

Some recipes you’ll find online have a frosting on top. For me that would be over the top – this cake is very rich and to put frosting on it (unless it was just a whipped cream mixture) would make it too sweet and heavy for me. If you don’t like cake mixes, just do a search for Tres Leches Cake and you’ll find dozens of them to make from scratch. I’ll definitely make this again. I think kids would love this cake.

What’s GOOD: I really, really liked this. Because it’s so moist. It’s also rich and sweet too. It was EASY, which I liked a lot too. Very suitable for guests. For me, the cake has sort-of the texture of bread pudding, but it’s not weight-heavy like bread pudding is. Fabulous.

What’s NOT: I don’t want to know how many calories each slice contains. Just don’t tell me, okay?

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