--- See Pati Jinich make her latest take on tres leches cake and much more in Pati's Mexican Table S8, Monday to Friday 3.30pm, 22 July-7 August on SBS Food and then on SBS On Demand ---
“Oh my god, that cake is insane! It’s like a tres leches cake but gone over the top," says Pati Jinich. She’s talking about her cuatro leche (four milk) cake, a two-layer, milky, fruity, messy glory of a dessert she shares in the latest season of Pati’s Mexican Table.
Tres leches cake is a much-loved dessert in Mexico, where Jinich grew up. It’s most commonly a single layer of sponge or butter cake, with holes poked in the top after cooking so it can be drenched in a mixture of milk, evaporated milk and condensed milk. And if you love caramel, Jinich’s new take on the classic is for you.
“This one is really festive and fresh, and it's packed with fruit. I make it with fresh plums and apricots, and so it has a super chunky layer of fruit that is soaking in the milk inside of the cold cake. So think of it like a tiramisu that has fresh fruits in the middle, and just incredibly delicious,” she says when we chat to her, just as she was preparing to start shooting the kitchen segments of the next series of her show. As well as the traditional three milks soaking into the cake, this version gets a layer of caramel - the fourth milk - in the middle. 
As Jinich explains in an article on her website where she shares a recipe for the basic version, a tres leches cake is a “sweet, practically wet, homey cake”. Most commonly, it’s a single layer of cake soaked in milk, but there are variations: some of the three-milk mixtures use cream instead of milk, some cakes have a layer of whipped cream on top or chocolate in the recipe somewhere.
Patri's cuatro leches cake oozes with milky caramel Source: Pati's Mexican Table
Like the sound of all this rich milky goodness? Here are seven versions of this Latin American and Cuban favourite, including Jinich’s “insane” cuatro leches dessert and very Australian take, our caramel tres leches lamingtons!
This pastel de tres leches uses the classic mixture of full cream milk, evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. After the rectangular butter sponge cake is cooked, a skewer is used to prick holes in the top of the warm cake and the milk mixture poured over the top. It takes about five hours for it all to soak and settle, ready to serve (you can also chill it overnight).
Three milks cake (pastel de tres leches) Source: Alan Benson
This version layers sponge cake, custard and meringue; the bottom cake layer sits in a pool of three milk mixture, this one made with cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk, the rest is poured over the top of the cake and custard stack. After two hours of chilling, an Italian meringue goes on top.
Source: Alan Benson
This marbled tres leches cake is another of Jinich’s twists on the classic. The recipe used the classic milk combo, and a single cake layer; the twist lies in adding cocoa to half the cake batter and swirling them together in the pan, to create a marbled chocolate and vanilla cake.
Marbled tres leches cake Source: Pati's Mexican Table
It’s not traditional, but drenching a chocolate slab with a mixture of cream, evaporated milk and condensed milk creates a wickedly rich dessert.
Chocolate three milks cake (pastel de tres leches con chocolate) Source: Feast / Ben Dearnley
This Cuban take on tres leches uses two milks and rum in the soaking mixture. There’s also milk in the cake batter and thickened cream dolloped on top, along with roasted pineapple and fresh fruit, for a vibrantly fresh take.
Cuban three milks cake Source: Brett Stevens
Jinich’s “incredibly delicious” four milks cake is created by baking two rectangular cakes, and layering fruit and cajeta – a rich, nutty Mexican caramel – or dulce de leche in the middle, along with a tumble or fruit pieces. Both layers of cake also get poked and soaked during construction, to create a messy, juicy, dessert. Another great thing about this one? “It’s a very forgiving cake, because you can cut the fruit however you want, but also after you add the second layer of the cake and you soak it in the milks, you know, you cover it with whipped cream, so it looks gorgeous,” Jinich tells us.
“The dulce de leches gives that sticky layer of caramel that's delicious too … it's almost the ultimate variable easy dessert.”
Cuatro leches cake with caramel and fruit Source: Pati's Mexican Table
Yes. These caramel tres leche lamingtons are a next-level take. The condensed milk is caramelised before it’s mixed with evaporated milk and cream to create the three-milk mixture that soaks into the sponge cake before its cut into squares and coated in chocolate icing and toasted coconut flakes.
Caramel tre leches lamingtons Source: Alan Benson
