Tres Leches Cake

I have been fascinated with Tres Leches Cake since moving to Austin. It has a wonderful flavor, and unfortunately tons of calories.

My mother's birthday is November 2, so we discussed the kind of birthday cake she wanted. I mentioned Tres Leches and she had never heard of it...so I thought it would be a good occasion to introduce her to it. We are celebrating this weekend, so I purchased the cake (you can see it on the left) from Whole Foods.

I associated this cake recipe with Mexico, but now I have discovered that it is common in many parts of Latin America, not just Mexico. In Austin, it commonly has the meringue frosting that you see in the pictures, but in Latin America it is topped with fruit and many other flavorings.

I found a wonderful article about the history of Tres Leches Cake at http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:196888. These cakes are quite popular in Austin these days, and once you taste one you will understand the reason!!