A Dessert That Never Fails to Comfort: Tres Leche Cake

An estimated 80% of Puerto Rico’s crops were destroyed during hurricanes Irma and Maria in September. Puerto Rico will be without staples like plantains and coconuts for the better part of a year, while new coffee plantings will take three years to harvest. Though the island has always relied heavily on imported food, these estimates are staggering.

My husband is from San Juan and my in-laws live there and throughout the main island of Puerto Rico. It took several frustrating days of not being able to get in touch with friends and family to ensure their safety after Hurricane Maria. The island, a frequent, less-than-four-hour flight away, suddenly seemed remote and inaccessible. We did as much fundraising as we could, but the only real antidote to our sense of helplessness was to head down and aid in hands-on recovery.

We spent three weeks volunteering with homegrown relief efforts: clearing a ravaged nature reserve; distributing supplies in neglected towns; feeding children in barrios without power; rewarding hardworking electrical crews with freshly-made pasteles, the Puerto Rican version of tamales. Those experiences, and the work that still needs to be done in Puerto Rico, consume us now that we are back in New York.

For the displaced relatives who have come to stay with us since the hurricanes, recreating familiar island dishes has provided as much comfort as a bed and a hot shower. We have cooked and shared rice and beans; picadillo, made with spiced ground beef, olives and tomatoes; and the warming beef stew carne guisada. I even boiled up the last batch of pasteles I had in the freezer from last year’s holiday season. We wondered as we ate: Would there be pasteles on Noche Buena and Three Kings Day this year in Puerto Rico? And we were grateful to have them, well aware that many on the island are still languishing without power and other basic comforts.

Yet as much as I adore these savory island dishes, I feel one rich and luscious dessert evokes Puerto Rico more aptly than any other food, in ways I’ve come to appreciate all the more in recent months.

A sponge cake lavishly drenched in dairy products and topped with a fluff of whipped cream, pastel de tres leches (“three milks cake”) did not originate in Puerto Rico. According to Lourdes Castro, a cookbook author and New York University adjunct professor of nutrition and food studies, “While many Latin American countries like to claim ownership to the origin of the tres leches dessert, it belongs to Nicaragua—although some claim it started in Mexico.” An adoptee, like so much of Puerto Rican cuisine, this cake fits right into the pastry cases of the island’s panaderias, alongside creamy island classics such as flan and tembleque (coconut pudding). For Puerto Ricans far from home, the simplicity and accessibility of the ingredients—eggs, flour, sugar, fresh milk, evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk—ensure that the recipe can be faithfully replicated.

The Puerto Rican chef Mario Pagán speculates that tres leches was a more modern replacement for a waning-in-popularity dessert known as bienmesabe (“tastes good to me”), another sweet sponge cake, used to soak up a coconut crème Anglaise. Mr. Pagán also credits the “commercialized” Mexican restaurants that became popular in Puerto Rico in the 1980s with spreading tres leches around the island.

Whatever the trajectory, tres leches cake has become firmly entrenched in the Puerto Rican dessert pantheon, a favorite everywhere from homes to high-end bakeries. Mr. Pagán created a pistachio version that has become such a destination dessert at his eponymous restaurant in San Juan that he cannot take it off the menu.

To me, the sweet, comforting cake tastes of Puerto Rico itself. Its thoroughly drenched texture calls to mind the island’s humid climate. The use of canned milk—imperishable, no need for refrigeration—speaks to the stamina and grit of the people. But what really resonates with me is the use of three milks. The power of three reflects the triad of cultural influences: Africa, Spain and the U.S. mainland. The trinity also signifies a complete life cycle—beginning, middle and end—needed before rebirth.

I add three special ingredients to my version: coconut, a nod to bienmesabe; coffee, an icon of Puerto Rican agriculture; and rum, in homage to the island’s steadfast, and economically vital, distilleries, which were operating at 100% capacity within a few weeks of the hurricanes.

The result, light and creamy, moist and a bit boozy, tastes of celebration and happy times. It never fails to transport me to the place I’ve considered my second home for 30 years. Until our next trip, our thoughts will be there.

Tres Leches Cake

ACTIVE TIME: 20 minutes TOTAL TIME: 3 hours (includes baking and chilling) SERVES: 12

For the cake:

• Butter, for greasing pan
• 5 large eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ⅓ cup milk
• 2 teaspoons coffee liqueur such as Kahlua
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 (14-ounce) can condensed milk
• 1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons aged Puerto Rican rum, such as Don Q Gran Añejo

For the whipped cream:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Ground cinnamon
• Freshly grated nutmeg

1. Butter bottom and sides of a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat egg whites on high until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and gradually beat in sugar. Then beat in yolks one at a time. Sift together flour and baking powder, and fold into wet ingredients. Mix in milk and coffee liqueur. Pour mixture into buttered baking dish.

3. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into center of cake emerges clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes. After cooling, use a toothpick or skewer to puncture cake’s surface at 2-inch intervals.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together all canned milks and rum until well combined. Carefully pour onto cooled cake. Cover cake pan with foil and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

5. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together heavy cream, confectioner’s sugar and vanilla on high until stiff peaks form, 4-5 minutes. Spread whipped cream on top of chilled cake. Finish by sprinkling with ground cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg. Serve immediately.