Portland Summertime IS SYNONYMOUS WITH berries, trips to the Columbia River Gorge, and stops in Troutdale at Sugarpine Drive-In—and we have a recipe to bring that summer sweetness to your kitchen.

Berry tres leches cake is a signature of pastry chef Victoria Ascencio, who joined the Sugarpine team last August. She's known for balancing nostalgia with fine-dining twists and local ingredients like topping soft serve sundaes with matcha-filled mini cream puffs and pandan kaya macarons. On her own, she's also heading up a new microbakery, Pink Goose Bakery, which will sell her rainbow-sprinkled macarons, cookies, and cake creations every other Saturday this summer at the St. Johns Farmers Market. (Baking-phobes: Yes, you can special order a tres leches cake.) 

Her tres leches recipe exemplifies her Mexican American heritage, and was the first dessert she sold as a high schooler at her father’s restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, amped up with amaretto-soaked cherries and toasted milk powder. After studying pastry in college and working at high-end restaurants, including the now-closed Michelin-starred restaurant Spiaggia on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, she headed to Portland. “I wanted to spread roots in a new city that is more aligned with my core values, which I really felt weren't being emulated in the restaurant culture in Illinois,” says Ascencio.

At Sugarpine, she found a progressive restaurant culture, including automatic gratuity policies—plus room to create. “I don’t have to be in fine dining to enjoy the creativity of what I’m doing,” she says. Portland has enjoyed having her here, too: last fall for Día de los Muertos, she created a sundae with cereal milk–soaked tres leches cake bites, honey hot fudge, crispy chocolate churro pieces, and Mexican hot chocolate dust, garnished with marigold petals. 

Her tres leches cake stays true to the classic version in texture but adds an unusual twist of fresh fennel. 

Tres Leches Cake with Summer Berries & Fennel

By Victoria Ascencio

Serves 12

Sponge Cake

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp fennel seed, toasted and ground*
• ½ tsp coriander seed, toasted and ground*
• 6 egg whites
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 3 egg yolks 
• 2½ tsp vanilla extract 
• ½ cup milk
• 6 tbsp milk powder

*Toast spices in a 325-degree oven for 8–10 minutes, then grind with a spice grinder, mortar and pestle, or blender.

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Add 6 tbsp milk powder to a heatproof pan and put in the oven. Stir and rotate every 5 minutes until powder is the color of sand. 
3. Increase heat to 350 degrees. Line a 9-by-13-inch cake pan with parchment paper; grease parchment well with spray or oil. 
4. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, fennel, and coriander into a large mixing bowl, and whisk. 
5. Put egg whites and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with whisk attachment at medium speed until frothy. Continue beating until fluffy and the whites hold soft peaks. 
6. Slowly dust the granulated sugar into the running mixer, and continue to beat until the whites form medium peaks.
7. While the mixer is running, stream in egg yolks one at a time, and then the vanilla, mixing until incorporated.
8. Whisk 2 tbsp of the toasted milk powder into the milk. Set the remainder of the milk powder aside for later use.
9. Remove meringue from the mixer, and fold in half of the dry mixture with a rubber spatula. 
10. Pour in half the milk mixture and continue to fold, rotating the bowl and folding clockwise from the center into the edge. 
11. Add remaining dry ingredients and continue to fold. Add the remaining milk mixture and fold until combined, being careful not to overmix. 
12. Deposit batter into prepared pan, and smooth into corners using a spatula. 
13. Bake 10–12 minutes, rotating every 5 minutes to ensure even baking. Remove from oven when cake is evenly browned and edges pull away from pan slightly. 
14. Allow to cool to room temperature. 

Tres Leches Soak

• 1 cup whole milk
• 4 tbsp milk powder, toasted (reserved from sponge cake recipe)
• 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 14 oz can condensed milk 

1. In a blender, add the milk, remainder of the toasted milk powder, evaporated milk, and condensed milk. Blend to incorporate. 
2. Pour over cake and refrigerate soaked cake until ready to serve.

Macerated Berries

• ½ cup water
• ½ cup sugar
• Fennel fronds from 1 bulb, divided
• 18 oz berries of your choice, such as marionberries, huckleberries, or blackberries, divided in half
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

1. In a saucepan, bring water to a boil, then add sugar. Whisk to combine. 
2. Add a generous handful of bright-green fennel fronds, reserving some for garnish. Remove from heat, and let infuse until syrup has cooled to room temperature. 
3. Strain syrup.
4. About 30 minutes before serving, macerate half the berries in the syrup and the lemon juice. Reserve remaining berries for garnish.

Whipped Cream

• 1 cup heavy cream 
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp buttermilk
• Pinch salt

1. In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, add the heavy cream, sugar, buttermilk, and salt, and mix at medium speed until medium peaks form.
2. Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Assembly: Cut tres leches cake into slices. Dollop each slice with whipped cream, then garnish with fresh berries, macerated berries, and fennel fronds.