Make the milk crumbs (optional)

• Preheat your oven to 120° C - 250° F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
• In a small bowl, mix all dry the ingredients together except for the 4 T - 55 g of melted butter, 1/4 c - 20 g of milk powder and 3 oz - 90 g of white chocolate.
• Now add the 4 T - 55 g of melted butter and stir until the mixture comes together in small clumps.
• Spread the clumps out onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes until dry and sandy and leave to cool completely.
• Once the clusters have cooled completely toss with the remainder of the 1/4 c - 20 g of milk powder.
• Melt 3 oz - 90 g of white chocolate and toss to coat. If you toss this every 5 minutes or so until dry the milk crumbs should develop a nice even layer of white chocolate.
• Store in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container until ready to use.

Now make the pastel tres leches

First, make the cake

• Preheat your oven to 180° C - 350° F. Line the bottom of the cake pan with parchment and grease the sides with a little butter.
• Run 2 1/2 c - 275 g of flour and 1 T - 15 g of baking powder through a sieve into a bowl and set aside.
• In a separate bowl, whisk 8 egg yolks with 1 1/2 c - 230 g of extra fine sugar and 1 T - 15 ml of vanilla extract until ribbons form.
• Now, in small portions, gently fold the flour and baking powder mixture through the yolks and sugar, alternating with 4 T - 60 ml of milk.
• In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold these egg whites into the egg-sugar-flour mixture. This is best achieved in small portions with a metal serving spoon, taking one scoop of fluffy egg whites at a time, folding them in until almost fully incorporated, before folding in the next scoop. You really want to be gentle here so you don't knock the air out.
• Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the cream

• Place all the ingredients for the cream into a food processor or blender and blend until thoroughly mixed. If you are planning to feed kids, please use 1 T - 15 ml of vanilla essence instead of 1-2 T - 15-30 ml of liquor.

Back to the cake

• Once a toothpick has come out clean from the center of the cake, remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.*
• Cut the cake in two layers while it's still warm and slice the outer top crust off the top layer of the cake, this will make for easier soaking (if you zoom in on my photo you'll see the top layer is relatively dry.
• Place the bottom layer on a rimmed plate or cake plateau (I say rimmed because this cake will leak) and divide 2 c - 450 g of strawberries and the milk bar crumbs (if using) across the bottom layer before placing the top layer of cake back on top.
• Pour the cream all over the cake, making sure you hit all the areas of the cake. Ideally the cake is still a little warm when you do this.

Now make the meringue

• Place the whites of 3 eggs, 1/2 c - 100 g of extra fine sugar, the juice of 1/2 lemon and 2 T - 30 ml of golden (corn) syrup in a heat proof bowl and place on top of pan with barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water.
• Whisk vigorously using a hand mixer until the mixture becomes fluffy. Remove the bowl from the pan and keep going until a meringue forms, this should take 5 minutes or so. It'll still look a little floppy but will hold fine on the sides of the cake.
• Use a spatula to cover the cake in whatever look you fancy. slapdash, prim and proper, what have you, and burn the meringue with a blowtorch to your desired level of browning. Dig in.