tres leches banana cake

This weekend we had a little get together for Neil's birthday.  Neil is the social type and loves to entertain.  I am not all that social but the party was fun. I am happy we did it.

In honor of Neil's birthday - I made all of his favorite foods.  Needless to say, there was a lot of meat and potatoes and grease {his three favorites} on the menu.  

We had sausage rolls, beef stew, barbecue chicken, brussels sprout and bacon skewers, stuffed mushrooms, and cheese and crackers.

For dessert I made mini cheesecakes and a banana tres leches cake.  I have never made a tres leches cake but I saw this recipe on how sweet it is {which, btw, one of my favorite food blogs - if you don't read it, you need to do so} and it looked amazing.

I followed the recipe almost as is but made a small substitution with one of the "tres leches."  Instead of using sweetened condensed milk, I used International Delight Caramel Macchiato creamer.  Caramel goes so well with bananas. Same with chocolate, peanut butter, ice cream, etc.  Bananas are the best.

This cake turned out really good but it was really dense.  Like super duper dense.  The recipe I followed mentioned that it would be dense but I was expecting a lighter texture.  If you are looking for a super light cake, this is not the one for you.  But if you are in the mood for a dense, banana flavor explosion, gooey sweet milk type of dessert - then this is your cake.

Banana Bread Tres Leches Cake {recipe found here}
-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup butter, browned
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-2 eggs, separated
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-4 bananas, mashed 
-2/3 cup milk {I used 1%}
-1/2 cup coconut milk
-1/2 cup International Delight Caramel Macchiato Creamer
-1/2 cup evaporated milk

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Separate the egg whites and set aside {save the yolks}.
3. Brown the butter by heating the entire stick in a saucepan over medium heat until it melts.  Once the butter is melted, stir until brown bits appear and immediately turn off the heat.  Pour the brown butter into a small bowl to cool. Set aside.
3. Measure the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and whisk together in a bowl.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugars and egg yolks until fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and mashed bananas and mix until combined. 
5. Add half the dry ingredients, then the 2/3 cup milk, then the rest of the ingredients until just combined.
6. Using and electric mixer {or a whisk if you're up for the arm workout} beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. I used my hand mixer for this so that I didn't have to clean out the bowl of the electric mixer.

7. Use a spatula to fold the egg whites into the cake batter and pour the whole thing into a greased pan.  I used a nine inch spring form pan but a square or rectangle baking dish would work too.
8. Bake for about 35 minutes - test with a toothpick and continue baking if need be.
9. Wait for the cake to cool for a little bit and then poke it with a fork making lots and lots of tiny holes.  Whisk together the coconut milk, evaporated milk, and International Delight Caramel Creamer and pour over the cake.  My cake was on a serving platter with slightly raised edges so the milk wouldn't run all over the place.

10. Let the cake soak in the milk for about an hour before serving.  You can frost with any type of frosting you like or use whipped cream.  I caramelized two bananas {1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and two bananas, sliced....saute all in a pan until the banana pieces are gooey and slightly browned} and spread them over the cake then piped whipped cream around the edges just before serving.

I just ate a piece of this cake and it was SO much better.  Maybe the trick is to make it the day before and let it soak in the milk all night.....

If you try it - let me know what you think and if you have any tricks to make it lighter!

This Valentine’s Day, share the love with recipes and homemade gift ideas! Don’t miss the International Delight Valentine’s Day Twitter Giveaway. Enter by following International Delight on Twitter and by tweeting your favorite ID flavor  with the hashtag #IDLove. Winners will be contacted on February 15th and will receive ID Valentine’s Day Sampler Packages!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.