Vegan Tres Leches
Cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup nondairy milk (I use almond)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 tablespoon red wine vinegar Cream:
1 (14 ounce) can full fat coconut milk, cooled in fridge overnight
1/2 cup nondairy milk (I use soy)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and spray an 8x8x2" square baking dish with cooking spray. Thoroughly mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Create a well in the center, and add 1 cup nondairy milk, oil, vanilla, and vinegar in the center. Gently mix until homogeneous (do not over mix).
2. Pour the batter into the pan a bake for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool for an hour. After cooling, use the end of a spoon or something with a bit of girth, and stab the cake to create holes or wells for the milk to soak into later.
3. For the milk, with a spoon, gently remove the heavy fat/cream from the coconut milk can being careful not to include the non fatty and more watery coconut milk. Place the fatty cream in a bowl in which you can whip it. Set the bowl of cream in the fridge to whip later.
4. Measure out 1 cup of the leftover coconut milk. Mix it with 1/2 cup nondairy milk and sugar. Pour this into the cooled cake that has been prepped with wells to soak up the milk. Be sure to turn the pan or use your spoon to ensure that enough milk falls into all of the wells. This will ensure a true tres leches moistness.
5. Remove the coconut fat from the fridge. Whip it with a whisk to your desired consistency. Pour over the top of the cake once most of the milk has absorbed.
Enjoy the best tres leches you've ever had; yes, it's better than the original (I think so at least)!
Source of recipe: This recipe is from my blog: http://thewitchykitchen.blogspot.com/2010/06/vegan-tres-leches.html
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This came out pretty good. However, it definitely needs A LOT more sugar. Non-vegan tres leches cakes are always extremely sweet, due to the addition of sweetened condensed milk. I did add about 3-4xs more sugar to the milk mixture, and a bit of sugar to the coconut cream. Even then, this cake is only very subtly sweet.
Next time, I'll either add more sugar or make a soy-based sweetened condensed milk to pour on top.
Thanks for the recipe though! I'm sure my husband will enjoy it when he tries it later today :) His sweet tooth isn't quite as big as mine.
Hi Katiepope86! Hmm, you know, if you used 3/4 cup of sugar, it certainly should have been pretty sweet at least?! And did you put 1 cup of almond milk in the actual batter and then, once baked and mostly cooled, pour on 1 cup of the coconut milk mixed with 1/2 cup of soy milk (the cake should have holes poked into it, so that the milk absorbs into all parts)?
Mine always turns out perfectly, and my sisters (who are carnivores) didn't know it was vegan the first time I served it to them. I'm perplexed as to why it didn't turn out right for you, especially if you did everything mentioned above. Hmm...the only thing that comes to mind is that maybe your flour is high protein (very absorptive)??!
Well, if you do try it again, I hope it works out. You can look at my site to see photos of how mine always looks (The Witchy Kitchen).
XO, Stella Witch
I must have made this incorrectly. The cake didn't taste very sweet and I had to make extra "milk". Also, I found the cake to be dense. I'll definitely try this recipe again though!