Whipped Cream Tres Leches Cake

I am slightly embarrassed to admit that as a dessert person, and more specifically as a cake person, I hadn’t spent much time getting to know tres leches cake, a beloved Latin American dessert, prior to this book. But, as tres leches is a sponge cake soaked liberally with three kinds of dairy (usually sweetened condensed and evaporated milks, and one other), I knew we’d be a good match. At the time I developed this recipe, I’d been playing around with the idea of a sponge cake lightened with whipped cream rather than egg whites. The whipped cream contributes butterfat as well as air, producing a sponge that is light but firm—absolutely perfect, as it happens, for tres leches cake, which needs sufficient structure to be able to absorb all that liquid. When I tasted my first test, the delicate flavors of cinnamon and cream called out for a toasted nut, so I added finely chopped toasted hazelnuts to the batter. The result is a slightly unusual but very special cake.