"Healthified" Tres Leches Cake - My Yom Kippur Dessert!

I decided to host the Yom Kippur feast for my parents and brother-in-law- again this year like I did last year for the first time. Last year was only 4 of us (my BIL didn't come), so I added one more this year. Last year I also had the day off before the feast so I had a lot of time to cook and prepare, therefore I made 4 dishes that I had never made before.

This year, I asked my parents to come over when we were eating with them on Rosh Hashanah and I thought I would be okay. Despite the fact that I hadn't cooked more than small things in months, I figured if I cooked one dish every night after work the following week then I would be able to pull it off. Well, then I developed a horrendous cold after getting my flu shot (thanks to my immune system being ridiculously low thanks to being pregnant - that's the reason my blog has been MIA all summer actually), so my husband helped tremendously to make sure we were ready to feed 3 people last Friday night. I made a main dish that is a staple here and is my father's FAVORITE dish, my hamburger pie, and I made the parsnip pancakes that my husband and I discovered that we liked in the spring. I tricked my father into trying them by saying they were potato pancakes and what a shock - he LIKED them. Of course, after he learned they were parsnips he was like, "oh, they have a funny taste." Thanks, Dad.

I also made a new chicken dish and that will be posted later this week. This dessert is also new. Thanks to my friend Lynda, who introduced me to the Eat Better America website last year around this time (when I made my mini Irish Cream Cheesecakes for Yom Kippur), I found this delicious looking recipe for Tres Leches cake. My husband and I recently were watching something on Food Network that featured a Tres Leches cake and we really wanted to try one so I thought, well, here is my dessert.

It wasn't that hard to make, though I made a minor mistake in using a pan to bake the cake that was a LITTLE too small so the middle of my cake didn't cook fast enough and I had to leave the cake in the oven for an extra 20 minutes. Luckily, the rest of the cake didn't burn and thanks to the milk mixture that gets poured over it, the cake would end up being nice and moist anyway.

The other snafu was that I was going to top it with raspberries, but somehow in the 3 days between when I bought a fresh box of raspberries and when I went to put them on the cake, they ALL molded. I was so pissed. Luckily I had some leftover blackberries from my snacking during the week and I threw those on the cake instead.

The edges of my cake turned out a lot better than the middle - the middle was just a tad too mushy in the end with the milk mixture, and because it took so much longer to cook. So we didn't save any of the middle of the cake - it just tasted a little too mushy to eat. But the edges, which were dryer, took the milk mixture very well and the result was pretty good according to my BIL and husband. (My poor mom got a piece of the middle by mistake so she said it was mushy. Oops. Well, I tried!)

I would definitely make this recipe again though, now that I know how to fix my mistakes. It's a sweet (really sweet) dessert so you really need to like sweets.

It takes about 2 hours total, but that is with an hour of "resting" time in the fridge after pouring the milk mixture over the cake. The full recipe states that it would serve 15 people, but those are very generous portions so you can definitely serve more people with this recipe. I didn't change anything about the recipe at all, except the fruit i was going to top it with at the end.

And now, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 box SuperMoist yellow cake mix (I used Pillsbury but most brands have a super moist line - made with "extra pudding")
1 1/4 cups water
1 tablespoon canola oil (I used vegetable, but if I had apple sauce in the house, I would have used that instead. I almost always substitute apple sauce for the oil).
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 whole eggs
3 egg whites
1 can (14 oz) fat-free sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
1 can (12 oz) evaporated fat-free milk
1/2 cup fat-free (skim) milk or fat-free half-and-half
1 container (8 oz) frozen reduced-fat or fat-free whipped topping, thawed
Sliced fresh strawberries, if desired (I was going to use raspberries)


Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.

In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil, vanilla, whole eggs and egg whites with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.

Bake 29 to 35 minutes or until edges are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes. Poke top of hot cake all over with fork or wooden skewer, wiping fork occasionally to reduce sticking.

In medium bowl, stir condensed milk, evaporated milk and skim milk until blended.

Slowly pour evenly over top of cake. Cover; refrigerate about 1 hour or until mixture is absorbed into cake.

Spread whipped topping over cake. Refrigerate until serving time. Garnish with strawberries.

Store in refrigerator.

Enjoy!