Directions
This delicious milk cake with aroma and taste of saffron is a unique variant of tres leches cake from the Middle East. A soft texture of dough that soaks up the saffron milk syrup, covered with whipped heavy cream and topped with a silky yellow syrup with a unique taste and smell. I tried this cake for the first time in a restaurant in the Emirates and I must admit that it is not only a delicious dessert, but the intense aroma and taste of saffron make this cake so special, even more beautiful than the standard tres leches cake.
The main ingredient in this cake is saffron and it is best to use good quality saffron. I decided on this recipe after I received a few grams of crocus sativus saffron as a gift, which gave a wonderful end result and, apart from the aroma and taste, as a final touch on the syrup, it also fit in nicely as a decoration.
A super easy cake to prepare in three steps, a quick preparation of the sponge cake, a short preparation of the saffron syrup which has a silky yellow color and finally decorating with a layer of whipped heavy cream.
Ingredients for the sponge cake
5 eggs
150 grams of all purposes flour
150 grams of granulated sugar
5 grams of baking powder
1 g of saffron
2 tsp of water
Prepare the egg whites with stand mixer, separately with the gradual addition of the sugar, by adding at three times and mixing for about 6 minutes until nice peaks are obtained and the sugar is completely dissolved. Then add the egg yolks one by one and mix to smooth the mixture.
Separately prepare 1 gram of saffron by adding to 2 tablespoons of hot water and left for a few minutes to melt and get a nice yellow color.
Then add the baking powder to the flour, mix together and add dry ingredients to the prepared eggs. Mix well with a spatula to combine out the mixture completely and add the melted saffron at the end.
The mixture prepared in this way transfer to a pre-greased pan with oil and flour and bake at 180 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.
After baking, leave the dough covered with a towel to cool down for a few minutes (it should be lukewarm). Then flip the dough, so that the lower part is upper, and pierced with a fork so that the syrup can be absorbed more easily. Cold syrup is added to a lukewarm cake.
Preparation of Saffron Syrup
600 ml of heavy cream
200 ml of condensed milk
300 ml of milk
1 gram of saffron
Add the milk in a pot on the fire to boil and add the saffron to it. After milk boils, reduce the temperature to medium-high heat so that it does not overflow, and boil like this for about 5 to 7 minutes with constant stirring, so that it does not burn. By boiling, part of the water evaporates and a beautiful yellow color and aroma is obtained. Leave to cool completely. A tip for faster cooling – you can put the milk on a plate of ice and cool it faster.
When the yellow milk will completely cool down, add the heavy cream and the condensed milk, which should be cold from the refrigerator. Mix all ingredients and use half of this syrup to pour over the cake, while keeping the other half as syrup for serving each slice of cake.
After pouring the syrup over the cake, cover the cake with foil and let it soak for a few hours or overnight.
Decoration with heavy cream
500 ml of heavy cream
Whip the cold heavy cream from the refrigerator and decorate the cake with a thicker layer.
Cut into slices and serve with the silky yellow syrup and pinch of saffron.
Have a good appetite !
The preparation of condensed milk is easy and from only two ingredients (milk and sugar), if you decide to prepare it and preserve it, you can follow the recipe and details of condensed milk at the link: