Help....My friend is getting married and wants me to make her wedding cake. She says I can decorate it any way I want...free reign...The problem is that the only thing she cares about is that it's a Tres Leches cake, which is a cake that is soaked in a mixture of condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream, so it's super wet. Do you think there is any way possible to make a "traditional" 3 layer stacked cake covered in fondant using this type of cake?

Thanks for helping!

I don't think it would work at all...when you press on a tres leches cake, liquid comes out. Imagine trying to cover that with fondant...you smooth, it leaks, you put the dowels in, it leaks, you stack, it leaks...you get the idea.

I remember reading that Jenna Bush's wedding cake was a stacked tres leches, so I looked for a picture of it to see how they decorated it http://www.celebritybrideguide.com/jenna-bush-henry-hager-wedding-photos/?pid=329 looks like it was done with buttercream, which might help seal in the liquid and would behave better in the fridge.

How many hours will your friend have the cake on display? Will tres leches hold up that long?

I think if I were doing it, I would use styrofoam cakes for the display cakes and then make tres leches sheet cakes to serve. It's usually served cold with whipped cream on top...that way the sheet cakes could be kept in the cooler until time to serve.

I know that Tres Leches cakes are traditionally baked in flat pans, like 13x9". But, I have a great recipe that is actually meant to be in layers. I'll post it here. I will say, though, that I've never tried to stack multiple cakes. Good luck!

Tres Leches Cake

2 ½ cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
7 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
¾ cup whole milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 container (1/2 pint) whipping cream
¼ cup brandy (optional, but it adds great flavor when used)

Meringue

6 egg whites
¼ tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup water
Zest of 1 lemon

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl; set aside.

2. Beat the 7 egg whites and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes. Beat in the yolks one at a time. Beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture and 1/3 of the whole milk; repeat twice, beating until smooth. Add vanilla.

3. Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured 10 round cake pan. Lower the oven to 350 degrees; bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Cool in the pan 15 minutes; unmold. Cut the cake into 3 horizontal layers; place on wire racks set into shallow baking pans.

4. Combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk, cream and brandy in a medium bowl. Prick the top of each cake layer with a toothpick. Ladle 1/3 of the milk mixture over each cake layer; set aside. (It will seem like a lot of liquid, but it really does sink in if you ladle it on slowly, kind of pressing down as you go.)

5. For the meringue, beat the 6 egg whites, cream of tartar and salt with an electric mixer on medium-high speed in a large bowl to form stiff peaks; set aside. Combine the sugar, water and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. Heat to a boil over medium heat; cook until temperature reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer, or until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage. Remove from heat. Carefully add the syrup in a thin stream to the egg whites, beating on medium speed. Beat until firm, 5-6 minutes. Restack the cake layers; cover the sides and top of the cake with meringue. Refrigerate until serving time.

JGMB, thanks!!! That sounds awesome!

Thanks JGMB for the recipe. Will be trying soon. Now, I think it was Jenna Bush, when she got married her cake was Tres Leches and it was like 6 tiers. The sucker was huge! I say find a recipe that willl work and use SPS, so you have the least amount of pressure on the cake.

I wouldn't risk trying to stack them. Too many factors could come in to play and jeopardize the stability. If you search for Jenna Bush's cake, you'll also see that it was leaning. The cake started to settle and caused it to start to fall. Not worth the time or money put into it. I've done a butter base cake and made a dulce' leches mousse filling and they have LOVED it. And I've had some that I've made a liquid mix of the milks and they allow their guest to pour some on their slice.

You could use a cake stand,http://cakestandsonline.com/tiered-cake-stands/
so you would have no stacking issues.

Yes I would like the mousse recipe too, please.

Here's another thread about stacking tres leches. There's a post from Cuatro Leches Bakery that gives some advice.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-665970-0-days0-orderasc-.html

Heres an article on the cake decorator that did jenna bush's cake. Whipped cream icing is the no. 1 icing. This person tells how delicate the cakes are, etc. If you change the recipes(leaving out a lot of the milk, etc, then you are taking away from it being the true version of this cake. Again, you can see how it had started to lean. I hope you good luck.P/m a c/cer by the user name Frankola or even toneedna a c/cer and ask their opinion. I think i did Frankola once, she is nice to p/m back




http://www.1weddingsource.com/blog/wedding-anniversary/she-made-the-cake-for-jenna-bush/

I agree with what everyone. Its way too unstable to try to stack the cakes. Occasionally I'll stack a butter based cake on top of a tres leches cake with sufficient support and even that is tricky and a variety of things could go wrong. However, we do use cake stands for tre leches cakes where each tier is lifted above the previous (the highest tiered cake stand being 6). That's the only way we do tiered tres leches for weddings since you can't stack them.