Tres Leches Cake

A strawberry tres leches cake soaked with a milk sauce and chilled overnight, built from a two-layer white cake mix — a family recipe reassembled here from two ruled cards that turned out to be one continuous recipe.

Ingredients

Cake: - 1 two-layer-size white cake mix - 3/4 cup butter, softened - 6 eggs - 1/2 cup water - 2 Tbsp shredded lime peel - 1 recipe Tres Leches Sauce (see below) - 3 cups fresh strawberries, chopped - 1 cup whipping cream - 3/4 cup granulated sugar - 1 tsp vanilla

Tres Leches Sauce: yield stated on the card as 7-1/2 cups, serving 12–16 — ⚠ not stated in this transcription: the sauce's own ingredient list and step-by-step method were not captured beyond the yield and serving count. See Open questions.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 10" springform pan.
2. Mix cake mix, butter, eggs, and water. Beat on low, then high 2 minutes (batter will be thick). Stir in lime peel. Spread batter in the pan.
3. Bake 50 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean.
4. Cool the cake 10 minutes (it may sink). Loosen from the sides, remove the sides, lift from the pan with a wide metal spatula. Cool completely — should be cold to the touch.
5. Line an 11" straight-sided Dutch oven with plastic wrap, overhanging the edges. With a serrated knife, cut the cake in half horizontally.
6. Put the top half, cut side up, in the Dutch oven. Top with berries. Place the other half (cut side down) on the berries. Press down lightly.
7. Poke holes in the cake with a long-tined fork. Slowly pour 4 cups of tres leches sauce over the cake. Cover and chill 8–12 hours or overnight; also cover and chill the remaining sauce separately.
8. About 1 hour before serving, pour 1 cup of tres leches sauce over the cake. Cover and chill the cake and remaining sauce again.
9. To serve, in a chilled bowl whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla. Beat cream until stiff peaks form.

(Step 9 continues directly from the card headed "Tres Leches continued," which picks up mid-method with "Beat cream until stiff peaks form" — see Notes on the artifact.)

Notes on the artifact

This recipe was assembled from two scans that are two cards of one recipe, same hand, same ruled cards throughout. The document is now three pages: the cake recipe, its method, then a continuation card headed "Tres Leches continued" that picks up mid-method ("Beat cream until stiff peaks form"), followed by the Tres Leches Sauce sub-recipe (stated yield: 7-1/2 cups, 12–16 servings). No author, date, or source is attributed anywhere on either card.