Dessert in a jar – Tres leches

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Bakeathon 2016, Day 3

I am getting better at cutting the cake and serving the slices without everything getting messy. The trick to cut a fondant cake is to use a serrated knife. I wish I knew that when I started out or remembered to ask for one at a party an year back.

I cut a circle (about the size of a bangle) in the middle of the cake using a knife, cutting vertically down all the way to the bottom.Kind of trying to make a donuts shape out of the cake, but not taking the cut middle portion out. Now that the middle is a separate ring, its easier to cut the outside donuts ring into equal slices. For a three layer cake, its a lot easier to go this route. For smaller cakes, I wouldn’t bother with all this.

But even though I am comfortable with cutting the cake, I like it better when dessert is served out in portions. Like these mason jar layer cake here. Mind you, these are ‘couple portions’ as its too much for a single serving. Somehow I don’t mind that element of sharing at all.

Read on about putting this cake together, the individual layers can be made over a couple of days if you are making them ahead.

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Ingredients:

  • Cake of your choice cut into circles to fit a mason jar
  • 1 cup fresh cream, whipped with 2-3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
  • tres leches syrup – 1 can condensed milk, 1 can evaporated milk, 1 cup cream
  • choice of fruit – chopped mangoes, berries, strawberry topping (optional)

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I pretty much bake only hot milk cake now whenever I need a yellow cake. But, any base cake would do. Cut the cake using a cutter that’s a little bit smaller than your bottle.I used the evaporated milk can as the cutter here.Cut each cake circle into two. I used three discs per mason jar.

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Prepare the tres leches syrup ( mix well 1 can condensed milk, 1 can evaporated milk and 1 cup heavy cream). Set aside.

Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, whip 1 cup heavy cream with 2-3 tablespoons of powdered sugar until it holds peaks. The syrup and the whipped cream can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated until the time of assembling.

To assemble, carefully slide the cake circle inside the jar. Soak it generously with the syrup.

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Layer with whipped cream and chopped fruit, if desired. Repeat the layers again (cake, syrup, whipped cream, fruit) until the jar is full. Finish off with a layer of fresh cream and top it with fruits. Each bottle serves two. Its too heavy for single serving.

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This is part of the Bake-a-thon 2016


15 thoughts on “Dessert in a jar – Tres leches”

  1. I need to make 50 of these. Can I put the cake batter into 50 4oz mason jelly jars and bake and then add the toppings after they have cooled? thanks

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    1. I have never tried baking in major jars, So I really don’t know. You can try baking a sheet cake and then cutting out rounds using a cutter. There won’t be any wastage since even crumbled layers look beautiful here.

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  4. Wow Rajani, you are making me drool here..such pretty pictures yaar!..and what a dessert to indulge in..I will skip all the course and jump into these…

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  5. It’s super yummy just need a clarification,shd all ing ie condensed milk evaporated milk n heavy cream whipped together with sugar?
    Kindly reply

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    1. Sorry about the delay in replying. The whipped cream with sugar is separate. For the syrup, it’s just mixing the 3 different milk components until it’s homogeneous. Sorry about the confusion, I will rephrase it soon.

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  6. That is an amazing cake in a jar. Tres leches cake is on my list for a long time but just the amount of calories is scaring me from making it at home.

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