When it comes to South Asian desserts, rasmalai is one of my favourites. When it comes to cake in general, tres leches cake is one of my favourites.
So I’ve been seeing a lot of dessert shops do rasmalai tres leches cake….YES. That’s all i have to say. The idea is genius, so I wanted to try making it!
What flavour is rasmalai?
To make this I wanted to make a tres leches cake that has the same flavours that rasmalai typically has.
The main flavours of rasmalai usually come from cardamon, saffron and pistachio. So for this, I infused the milk mixutre with some cardamon and saffron, and then I added chopped pistachios on top.
I have seen that some rasmalai that has rose water in them too. From the rasmalai I grew up eating, I’ve never gotten a strong rose flavour from them so I didn’t add it into this.
But if you wanted to, you could add some rose water into the milk mixture or also into the whipped cream on top!!
Video Tutorial
A few tips:
- This cake has lemon juice in it. This is optional but sponge cakes can sometimes have an eggy taste. The lemon juice helps remove this taste, so I recommend adding it. But you can leave it out if you want.
- When adding the milk mixture onto 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 flavours 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.
Rasmalai Tres Leches Cake
Ingredients
- For the milk mixture:
150ml milk
7 cardamon pods
8 strands of saffrons
350ml evaporated milk
380g condensed milk
- For the cake:
6 egg whites
75g granulated sugar
6 egg yolks
75g granulated sugar
50ml any flavourless oil (I use vegetable)
50ml milk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
120g plain flour
- For the whipped cream:
480ml double cream
100g icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Plus some crushed pistachios to sprinkle on top
Directions
- Making the milk mixture:
- Start by adding the milk into a pot and placing this over medium-low heat. Let this come to a simmer. Once it starts to simmer, take if off the heat, you don't need it to start boiling.
- Break the cardamon pods open a little so that the seeds are exposed, add these into the milk along with the saffron. Cover the pot and leave this for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, add in the evaporated and condensed milk. Put this mixture back onto the heat and let it come to a simmer. As soon as it starts simmering, take it off, cover and leave aside.
- Making the cake:
- Pre-heat your oven to 180c/350f.
- In a bowl, add in the egg whites and the first 75g of sugar. Whip these on high speed until stiff peaks form. Leave this aside.
- In a separate bowl, add the egg yolks and the second 75g of sugar. Whip these until the mixture lightens in colour and increases in volume slightly.
- Add the oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla into this, mix this in then mix in the flour.
- Add half of the whipped egg whites into this bowl, gently fold them in, then add the rest of the egg whites and fold these in too.
- Pour this into a 9x12 inch baking dish, you don't need to grease this dish.
- Bake for around 1 hour. After 40 minutes, I like to add some tinfoil on top of the dish, just so that the top doesn't burn.
- Once baked, leave to cool completely.
- Making the whipped cream:
- Add the cream, sugar and vanilla into a bowl and whip until you get soft peaks. Leave this in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
- Putting everything together:
- Once the cake has cooled, get your milk mixture and pour it through a sieve to get out the cardamon pods and saffron.
- Poke holes into the cake and then start pouring the sieved milk mixture over it. Add a bit at a time, let the cake soak this, then add more. Keep repeating this until most of the mixture is finished. I like to save around 1/4 cup of it just to pour on top when serving.
- Add the whipped cream on top, smooth this out then sprinkle the crushed pistachios over this.
- Cover and leave in the fridge. It tastes much better if you leave it in the fridge overnight but 1 hour is also good!
Hello. I was wondering the tres leeches ingredients doesn’t have baking powder was this on purpose or a mistake
Author
Hey, no the cake doesn’t need baking powder. The whipped eggs is what makes it rise!!
Hi can’t wait to make this, would you use heavy cream or whipping cream to substitute for the double cream. I’m in Canada can only find the two / thanks 🙏🏼
Author
Yesss heavy and double cream are pretty much the same, we just call it double cream here!!
hii thanks so much Ash! making this tomorrow! are the pistachios meant to be raw or roasted?
Author
Either works, I used raw ones!!
Hi, is the saffron required in this recipe?
Author
No, you can leave it out if you want!
Appreciate it for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting info .