Trilece (Turkish Milk Cake with Caramel)
A feather-light sponge drowned in a three-milk soak, topped with cream and a glossy caramel layer. Turkey's favourite patisserie dessert, made at home.
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Ingredients
4 medium eggs, at room temperature
150g caster sugar
160g plain wheat flour
1 sachet (10g) baking powder
1 sachet (5g) vanilla sugar
A pinch of salt
750ml cold whole milk, for the soak
200ml double cream, for the soak
150g Turkish clotted cream (kaymak), whisked into the soak
1 pack whipped cream powder, prepared with cold milk, for the topping
250g trilece caramel sauce, for the top
Instructions
- 1
Preheat the oven to 170C fan and line a deep 20x30cm baking tin with parchment.
- 2
Whisk the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla sugar and salt with an electric mixer for 5-6 minutes until pale, thick and tripled in volume.
- 3
Sift the flour and baking powder over the egg foam in two additions, folding gently with a spatula so you keep as much air as possible.
- 4
Pour into the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden and springy. Let the sponge rest in the tin for 10 minutes.
- 5
Meanwhile whisk together the cold milk, double cream and clotted cream until smooth to make the three-milk soak.
- 6
Poke the warm cake all over with a skewer, then pour the soak over it slowly in two or three stages, letting each pour absorb. It looks like too much liquid; it is not.
- 7
Cover and chill for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, until every drop is absorbed and the cake is cold and quivering.
- 8
Prepare the whipped cream with cold milk until stiff, spread a thin even layer over the cake, then chill for 20 minutes.
- 9
Spread the caramel sauce gently over the cream in a thin glossy layer, chill for another 30 minutes, then cut into squares and serve cold.
Trilece arrived in Turkey from the Balkans, itself a cousin of the Latin American tres leches, and promptly conquered every patisserie counter in the country. The formula is simple but irresistible: an airy sponge that drinks up a rich milk soak, a thin blanket of cream, and a mirror-shiny caramel top that cracks gently under the spoon.
The sponge must be light and slightly dry when it comes out of the oven, because its whole job is absorbing the soak. Whisk the eggs and sugar until genuinely thick and pale before folding in the flour; that trapped air is what lets the cake hold litres of milk without collapsing. Pour the cold soak over the warm cake and it will disappear like rain into sand.
For the signature top you can make your own caramel, or do what most Turkish patisseries quietly do and use a ready trilece caramel sauce, which spreads evenly and sets to that perfect glossy sheet. You will find the caramel sauce, Turkish clotted cream and everything else for this recipe at Turkish Online Market, delivered across the UK. Serve it well chilled with Turkish coffee or a glass of black tea.
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