Martha “Lisseth” Castellon Cerda knows the value of hard work. That’s why she and her husband left their home in Nicaragua to find jobs in Costa Rica, where she worked in a bar and a restaurant.

But she also knows the value of home and family—and that’s why, after they’d saved enough money, she and her husband returned to Nicaragua to raise their children. With good jobs harder to come by in Nicaragua, Lisseth decided to start her own business, a bakery. Each morning, she and her husband start baking at 6 a.m. and they keep working until 9 p.m.

That strong work ethic—along with her talent for baking, good business sense, and several loans from FINCA—has made her bakery one of the most successful in the area, not only providing her family with a good life but also providing good jobs to four of her neighbors. And it’s an ethic that she’s passing on to her children as she prepares them for university.

But to get an even better sense of why her bakery is doing so well, try out one of her holiday specialties, Three-Milk Cake!

Three-Milk Cake

Cake

• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup sugar
• 5 eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup sweetened, condensed milk
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk

Whipped Cream Frosting

• 1 ½ cups whipping cream
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour an 8 x 11 inch baking pan.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.

Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time, allowing each one to get incorporated before adding the next. Finally add the vanilla and continue beating until foamy.

Remove the bowl from mixer and fold in the sifted flour until it is well incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 30 minutes, or until done. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Pierce cake all over with a fork, toothpick or skewer. Mix the whole, sweetened, condensed, and evaporated milk together and pour the mixture over the cake.

Refrigerate cake for anywhere from 2 to 8 hours, or until liquid is completely absorbed and cake is well chilled.

Beat the cream, sugar, and vanilla together until the cream holds soft peaks. Frost the cake with the whipped cream and serve.

Because of the milk ingredients, pastel de tres leches is perishable. Leftovers should be refrigerated.

Fair warning: this dessert is addictive! And so is the feeling you’ll get by helping even more hardworking entrepreneurs like Lisseth build a better life for their families—lease support FINCA with your tax-deductible gift this holiday season.