 My husband and I are huge fans of the show Worth It. We always wanted to go to Los Angeles to try some of their photo cakes, and when we were there, we really had to stop by and try, what does, they are things for their milk and berries cake, which is a tres leches cake with some berries added in. We went to their original location in Los Angeles, and we learned it so much. We only had to recreate it when we got home. But I didn't know anything about making a tres leches cake, so in a way to learn about that, I actually made five of you treats. I used to view tres leches in the other, and from that I was able to learn everything I needed to know to confidently make my own version to have the milk and berries cake, and that's what you see here today. While we were lucky enough to be able to try portes in person, if that's not an option for you, you can actually get the milk and berries cakes shipped directly to you. Here you can see that we had two cakes shipped from Los Angeles to Arkansas. We were so surprised at not only how good these cakes looked, but also how good they tasted, despite being shipped from across the country in the middle of the summer. And before you go thinking this is super expensive, I have to tell you, it was only $65 including shipping to get one of these cakes to us. I'm still a little shocked about the whole thing. If you'd rather make this cake fresh at home, let's get into what you'll need to do. First, we're gonna start with making the cake. Today we'll be making a three layer sponge cake. What makes a sponge cake different from a regular cake is the fat content. A sponge cake has no fat like butter or oil added, aside from the fat in the eggs. It also has a higher egg content than a regular cake does. You'll see here that this sponge cake uses five eggs, which are separated. We'll start by whisking the egg whites and once they've doubled in size, slowly add a fourth cup of sugar and whisk until we get stiff peaks. Go ahead and set those aside for a moment. Next, starting with a fresh mixing bowl and whisk, whisk together the five egg yolks with one cup of granulated sugar until they reach a pale and fluffy consistency. You'll want to scrape down the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl about halfway through mixing to prevent any lumps from forming, which is super important. Go ahead and whisk again until the mixture is super pale and fluffy before adding room temperature milk and a few teaspoons of Mexican vanilla. Using room temperature ingredients allows them to combine better and will achieve a smoother batter and a cake that has a more even texture when baked. Once this mixture has come together, we're going to whisk it into our flour mixture, which consists of all-purpose flour, baking powder and kosher salt. These ingredients have been whisked together before the liquid ingredients are added in. When a smooth batter comes together, it's time to gently fold in the egg whites. You'll do this in two additions to make mixing easier. Now, it is super important to be very gentle when folding in the egg whites if not, you'll knock out all the air whipped into them and it will ruin your batter. Now, I'll be honest and let you know that this bit is rather tedious and it always makes my arms hurt, but it is okay to take breaks. Just keep being patient and gentle and I promise the batter will come together. You will know that the batter is finished when you don't see any more lumps or white streaks in it. We're aiming for a smooth, fluffy batter that still has lots of air in it. Next, we're going to pour our cake batter into the prepared cake pans. The pans I used are eight inch rounds that are about three inches tall. As you can see here, I've prepped these pans by fully greasing them with butter, but I mean any nonstick spray will do. And I've lined the bottom of the pan with parchment paper to prevent any sticking. As evenly as you can, pour the batter into the three pans. I like to weigh my batter just to make sure that I'm getting an even bake across all three, but you don't have to do that. Go ahead and tap the cakes on the counter to release any air bubbles before placing in an oven that's been preheated to 350 degrees. These will bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. While the cakes are cooling, we're going to go ahead and start making the syrup mixture. The syrup mixture for this recipe will be condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream. You'll see me here double checking the measurements on my measuring cup because unlike most tres leches recipes, I actually don't use full cans of evaporated and condensed milk, and this is to avoid oversaturating the cakes with liquid. Following in Porto's footsteps, I'm also adding brandy to the syrup mixture. After making so many tres leches cakes recipes, I can assure you that this simple addition makes a huge difference in the flavor. Moving on to soaking the sponges. While the cakes are still slightly warm, we're going to poke them all over with a fork before pouring the syrup mixture on top. Each cake will take about one cup of the syrup mixture. And I like to slowly pour about half of that syrup over the cake before stopping and rotating the pan around to really help the syrup evenly soak through the cake. Once it's been mostly soaked up, I'll go ahead and add the rest of that one cup of mixture. Now, it may look like too much liquid for such a small cake, but it's going to be chilling in the fridge overnight, which will give it plenty of time to really soak up all of that liquid. After the cakes have chilled in the fridge overnight, we'll get to working on prepping the fruit. Porto's uses a mix of summer berries, which consists of sliced strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, so that's what we've used here today. For our cake, I made a stabilized whipped cream, and I really wanted this whipped cream to hold its shape well, especially for the piping on top. So the way I did this was by adding a few tablespoons of cornstarch in with the heavy cream and powdered sugar. I promise it doesn't affect the flavor or texture at all. Now that all of our elements are made, it's time for the assembly. My first tip would be to try to be as gentle as possible when getting the cakes out of the pans and onto the cake stand. Since they are soaked with liquid, they are very fragile and are prone to breaking when moved. Because of this, Tres Leches cakes are typically not made into layer cakes, but it is possible. One more thing we noticed when we were comparing Porto's version to ours is that we used a lot more fruit than the original. Porto's cake has a lot of berries around the outside edges of the layers, which makes it look super full of fruit, but it is not. Ours is, and we prefer it that way. I would say definitely be sure to let the cake rest in the fridge for a few hours before serving to really allow the fruit to soften and settle into the cream. This will prevent your slices from falling apart when you try to eat it. I used an open start tip to pipe these swirly little dollops on top for a cute finish, but you can simply spread the whipped cream on top if you prefer. Here you can see a little side-by-side comparison of our homemade version next to the Porto's original milk and berries cake. Proud. I like my butter. Sorry, Porto's. That one's really good though. Oh, though, and they're defense. Okay. Shit. Across country. Yeah. Frozen. I'm just so proud of what I was able to create. So maybe that's why I like it better. It's very good. I'm proud of you. Thanks.