Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake

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Imagine an Indian Fusion Cake combining the best flavors of both worlds – A sponge cake soaked in the ras malai flavored milk, delivering a rich, creamy, and sweet taste of ras malai, and topped with a rose-flavored whipped cream!! Each bite has a light, spongy, and melt-in-your-mouth texture. I have flavored the Tres Leches with cardamom, rosewater, and saffron. This egg-free and butter-free Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake is insanely irresistible.

WHAT IS TRES LECHES CAKE

 “Tres” means three and “Leches” mean milk in Spanish. A cake that’s soaked in three types of milk – whole milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk is called a Tres Leches or Three Milk Cake – A very Mexican cake. The sponge is soaked in the mixture of these three kinds of milk overnight resulting in a melt-in-your-mouth kind of cake – So moist and so rich. In this Rasmalai Tres Leches, I have flavored the milk with flavors of traditional ras malai, i.e, saffron, sugar, cardamom, and rosewater, and soaked the cake with this amazing flavored milk mixture to guarantee you the taste of Ras Malai in every bite.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RAS MALAI CAKE & RAS MALAI TRES LECHES CAKE

The Ras Malai Cake is a sponge cake flavored with all the Ras Malai flavors like – saffron, kewra water, cardamom, etc where as the Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake is an Indian fusion cake where an eggless sponge cake is soaked with saffron-cardamom-rosewater flavored milk and topped with bites of ras malai and a rose flavored whipped cream. Yum, isn’t it?

An eggless Indian fusion cake soaked with creamy and saffron-cardamom flavored milk and topped with rose-whipped cream. The taste of the Ras Malai milk is the essence of this Tres Leches cake recipe and makes it a great dessert for special occasions like special birthdays, anniversaries, Diwali, Rakhi or Valentine’s Day celebrations.

WHAT TO LOVE ABOUT THIS FESTIVE EGGLESS RAS MALAI CAKE

• Egg less and butter less
• Soft, rich and moist
• Easy to make
• Can be made ahead of time
• Perfect for festivals and celebrations.
• Best Indian Fusion cake

WHY INFUSE RAS MALAI FLAVORS IN THE TRES LECHES CAKE

Why not!!! If we can have an eggless and butterless fusion cake tasting like cake yet Ras Malai, there is nothing better than that, right?! We Indians love our desserts and we even love to cook, bake and entertain. And, this fusion eggless Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake can be your perfect Diwali, Holi, or Rakhi dessert to celebrate with your friends and family. Why only the festivals, you can bake this 3-milk saffron cake for birthdays as well.

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE A RAS MALAI CAKE

For the Eggless Cardamom Sponge Cake

• Light Oil – Any light flavored oil will work.
• Yogurt
• Castor sugar
• Milk
• White Vinegar
• Cardamom powder
• All purpose flour (maida)
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt

For Ras Malai Flavored Milk

• Whole Milk
• Condensed Milk
• Heavy Cream or Evaporated milk
• Sugar
• Saffron
• Cardamom Powder
• Rose/Kewra Extract

For Rose-Whipping Cream

• Whipping Cream
• Rose water
• Dried Rose Petals

For decoration

• Dried Rose Petals
• Silver Bark
• Ras Malai – I have used Nanak brand store bought ras malai

HOW TO MAKE A RAS MALAI TRES LECHES CAKE

STEP 1. MAKE THE RAS MALAI FLAVORED MILK

Make the ras malai milk mixture by combing warm milk with saffron. Add the heavy cream, condensed milk, rose water, and cardamom powder to this milk mixture and whisk well. Keep aside.

STEP 2. BAKE THE EGGLESS SPONGE CAKE

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree F

Grease a square pan and keep it aside. I have used an 8 by 8 pan. You can use any size rectangular or square pan.

Sieve the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder) into a bowl. Add the cardamom powder and mix.

Mix white vinegar with room-temperature milk in a small bowl. Set it aside for a few minutes. The milk will curdle.

In another large bowl whisk yogurt and sugar. Whisk it until the sugar almost dissolves and the mixture becomes smooth. Add oil, curdled milk, cardamom powder and rose water and beat it until well combined.

Add dry mixture into the wet mixture and mixing it using a whisk and halfway through switch to a spatula to avoid overmixing.

Pour the eggless cake batter into a prepared pan and smooth out the surface.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until the toothpick or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

STEP 3. SOAK THE SPONGE CAKE WITH RAS MALAI MILK

Prick the cake with a fork while it’s still hot.

Pour the milk liquid into the cake and tilt the pan so that the milk covers the entire cake. You should do this in batches. Don’t dump all the milk into the cake in one go.

Let it set in the fridge for few hours or overnight.

STEP 4. PREPARE THE ROSE-FLAVORED WHIPPING CREAM

Whisk the chilled heavy cream, rose extract, and sugar on high speed until it forms stiff/ firm peaks. You can add a drop of yellow food color.

STEP 5. FROST THE CAKE

The whipped cream peaks should hold well on the balloon whisk.  Spread an even layer of frosting on the cake then swirl it with a spoon to create texture. Garnish it with dried rose petals, ras malai bites, and silver bark.

Let it sit in the fridge to set well for at least 2 hours before serving.

TIPS & TRICKS TO MAKE THE BEST RAS MALAI TRES LECHES

• Brush your baking pan generously with melted butter/ oil.
• Make sure all your ingredients, are at room temperature when making the eggless sponge. This is important because room temperature ingredients emulsify better.
• Do not overmix your eggless cake batter. Overmixed batter makes the cake heavy and dense. If your sponge is dense and not spongy, then the tres leches cake will not absorb the milk.
• The milk mixture needs to be added to the cake while it is still hot and don’t forget to prick the cake before adding the liquid!
• Be sure to poke the cake all over with a fork to help it absorb the mixture.
• After pouring the milk mixture, make sure you tilt the tin from one side to another so that the entire cake is covered with the milk.
• When adding the milk mixture to the cake. Don’t pour it over the cake all at once. Add about a 1/4 cup at a time, let this soak in then add more. If you just pour it all onto the cake at once, the cake doesn’t soak it up very well.
• I like to leave this in the fridge overnight before serving. The flavors will be better and the cake will be softer if you wait. But if you wanted to you could just leave it in the fridge for an hour and then serve. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

CAN I USE BOXED CAKE MIX FOR MAKING THE SPONGE?

Yes, a box of yellow cake mix can be used to make the sponge cake. However, the boxed cake needs eggs. If you are ok with adding eggs, then its fine. Or else, add 1/2 cup yogurt to the cake mix and follow the instructions. The yogurt replaces the eggs in the box cake mix.

CAN I USE STORE-BOUGHT WHIPPED CREAM TO FROST THE CAKE?

Absolutely yes! In fact, I will recommend using the using the whipping cream from the store if you aren’t very comfortable in whipping your cream at home (as it takes patience and skills). Flavor the store bought whipping cream with rose water, cardamom powder and a bit of saffron.

WHAT OTHER GARNISHES I CAN USE ON MY TRES TECHES CAKE

You can sprinkle some pistachios on top.

WHAT TO DO IF MY CAKE DOESN’T SOAK THE MILK?

If your tres leches cake is not absorbing the milk after several hours, it is possible that the batter was overmixed. Overmixed batter loses its airy, spongey texture, which makes the cake heavy, dense, and non-absorbent. Be sure to poke the cake all over with the skewer to help it absorb the mixture

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