pastel de tres leches with a holiday twist

it's a holiday here, and i'm up to no good. it's not worth telling you about. and i would love to tell you i slaved, slaved, SLAVED over this cake, but i didn't.

pastel de tres leches, or "three milks" cake, is a dessert found in central america that many countries claim as their own, but most probably was just a promotional recipe on the back of a can of evaporated milk. yellow cake (sometimes pound cake, sometimes sponge) is soaked in a mixture of milks and topped with either whipping cream or meringue. reid at ono kine grindz has a lovely cuban-based recipe here, but if you are lucky to live somewhere where bakeries make beautiful sponge cakes akin to giant mamon like they do here on island, just buy one of those and soak it in a mixture of evaporated milk, condensed milk, and cream, then top with more whipped cream.

i happened to have some eggnog about, so i decided to make this cake with a twist by substituting the heavy cream with the holiday libation. i heated 2 parts egg nog, 1 part condensed milk, and 1 part evaporated milk just to a boil, then added a healthy dash of nutmeg and rum (optional). i poured the warm mixture over the pre-bought sponge cake until it was mostly absorbed, poured a bit more, and stuck the whole thing in the refrigerator to absorb the excess overnight. i then topped it with a bit of whipped cream.

if you are from guam and remember the classic fiesta dessert latiya(lah-tí-jah), which is a sponge cake topped with a vanilla pastry cream, this cake is like a richer, tastier version of that. waaaay better tasting, imo. hey, maybe we should make like latin america and claim it as our own.