gingerbread & eggnog tres leches cake

While my wife was doing her annual holiday baking for work parties she had a great idea – transform a gingerbread cake into a gingerbread tres leches cakes using egg nog. While I’m not a baker, the idea was too good to not at least give it the old college try. So, we set out to do a little research and figure out the best way to bring her idea to life.

The first thing we needed to do in our efforts to mash up a holiday staple with the Latin American favorite was to figure out how to lighten up the gingerbread, as it can be quite a dense cake thanks to the molasses. With only one egg in the recipe my wife uses I knew that simply separating it and whipping the egg white wouldn’t be enough. I sought out instructions for a way to turn it into a sponge cake and was quite pleased when I found a Gingerbread Chiffon Sponge Cake recipe on Food.com.

The next thing on the list was to figure out the formulation of milks. I reviewed a number of recipes to determine the appropriate ratio between the three milks and how best to substitute the egg nog for the heavy cream. In the end I just winged it.

Finally, we decided not to frost the cake like a traditional tres leches and instead made a quick nutmeg scented whipped cream to serve with the cake.

A few hours after assembling the cake we got a chance to try it. One word: Amazing.

Gingernog Tres Leches Cake

Software*

140 g (2/3 cup) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
4 eggs, separated
110 g (1/2 cup) sugar
85 g (1/3 cup) melted unsalted butter
55 g (1/4 cup) molasses
1 tablespoon rum
55 g (1/4 cup) evaporated milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz – by weight)
1 cup egg nog
1/2 cup evaporated milk

Assemblage

• Grease and line a 9×9 baking dish. Preheat oven to 320°F.
• Sieve flour, ginger, soda together and set aside.
• Beat egg yolks and sugar till very pale and fluffy.Gradually add in melted butter. Add in molasses, rum and milk. Mix well with electric mixer. Pour in sifted dry ingredients and mix.
• In a clean bowl whisk egg whites and the 1 tsp of sugar till foamy. Add in cream of tartar and whisk till stiff peaks form.
• Fold egg whites into cake batter and incorporate well. Pour into tin and bake for around 20-25 minutes (depending on your oven) or till a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• Cool for 10 to 15 minutes, then use a fork to perforate the cake
• Pour the milk mixture over the cake about a third at a time allowing for absorption.
• Cover, then refrigerate for at least six hours or even overnight

Nutmeg Scented Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons fresh ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt

Add all ingredients to a medium sized bowl and with a whisk or a hand mixer beat it until stiff peaks form.

* = the original recipe was detailed by weight in grams. The grams to cups conversion has not been tested and are an approximation. They may not be entirely accurate due to the differences between weight and volume measure. Whenever possible you should bake using units of weight rather than volume.