Tres Leches Cake

Tres Leches Cake a must try Mexican dessert! It's a deliciously rich and moist, milk-soaked cake that always gets compliments every time it's served. It's sweet and refreshing, and even picky eaters love this Mexican cake!

Tres Leches Cake Recipe

Tres Leches Cake has got to be one of the world's best kinds of cake! Maybe I'm just biased because I'm a huge fan of sweetened condensed milk and cream, and you get both in this cake. I love to serve it in the summer since it's a chilled and amazingly refreshing cake, but of course people will crave it year round!

It's a perfectly sweet and decadent and just amazingly satisfying. Plus this version has butter!

If you search for tres leches recipes on the web, you'll find about half contain one stick of butter the other half container no butter. Zero. Zilch. Nada. That's just offensive. I'm totally kidding, but when there's a choice I say butter all the way!

Butter makes everything better. It adds a wonderful richness and flavor.

This is an authentic Mexican cake that's perfect for birthdays, parties and holidays and it's just as good as what you'll get at your favorite Mexican restaurants!

Another thing you'll love about making tres leches cake at home is that it's a lot cheaper. Why pay $8 dollars a slice when you can make a full cake at home for about the same price?

What Does "Tres Leches" Mean?

The spanish words "Tres leches" translates to "three milks" in English, so it's just a simple (dry) cake, which is baked then soaked in a generous milk mixture.

Tres Leches Cake Ingredients:

• Cake flour - you can usually find this by the all-purpose flour at most grocery stores.
• Baking powder - this gives the case lift and makes it fluffier.
• Unsalted butter - salted butter can be used to just omit the salt from the recipe since there is generally 1/4 tsp salt per 1/2 cup of salted butter.
• Vanilla - regular vanilla or Mexican vanilla are great in this recipe.
• Salt - this will bring out the flavors in the cake.
• Granulated sugar - this obviously sweetens up the cake but did you know sugar also makes cake tender?
• Eggs - these are crucial to the recipe as they bind the ingredients together.
• Sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream and milk - these make the cake deliciously rich and give it that traditional soaked texture. Here we actually use three milks and cream for maximum flavor.

How to Make Tres Leches Cake

Warm oven and prepare baking dish: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13 by 9-inch or 12 by 8-inch baking dish, set aside.

Whisk dry ingredients: sift cake flour into a medium mixing bowl. Add in baking powder and salt and whisk 20 seconds, set aside.

Cream butter and sugar: in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy.

Blend in eggs and flavoring: Mix in eggs one at a time, blending until well combined after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

Mix in flour mixture: Add in flour in 3 additions mixing just until combined after each addition. Remove mixing bowl from stand mixer and scape down sides and bottom of bowl and fold until evenly incorporated.

Spread into prepared pan: pour batter into prepared baking dish and spread into an even layer (it will seem like a thin layer).

Bake until set: bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 24 - 28 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack, about 45 minutes. Once cool pierce cake many times all over with a long-pronged fork.

Make milk mixture: In a large mixing bowl whisk together milk, 1/2 cup heavy cream, the sweetened condensed milk and the evaporated milk until blended.

Let cake rest: pour milk mixture evenly over cake then cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours (or up to 3 days). This allows time for cake to soak up the liquid, don't skip resting time.

Prepare topping: In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer (or using the stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment) whip heavy cream until soft peaks form.
Add in sugar and vanilla and whip until stiff peaks form. Spread over chilled cake.

Garnish cake and serve: cut cake into slices and serve cold garnished with strawberries or dust with cinnamon if desired. Store cake in refrigerator.

What Type of Milk Should I Use?

The recipe calls for regular dairy milk and for that ingredients any dairy milk other than skim will work. You don't want to use skim milk because it's fat-free, meaning it's not as rich and has less flavor.

Can I Substitute All-Purpose Flour?

Cake flour is best for this tres leches cake recipe, as it offers a better texture and more absorption. But if you are having a hard time finding it you can use the cake flour substitutions which is to replace 2 Tbsp of 1 cup of flour with 2 Tbsp cornstarch, so here you'd be replacing 3 Tbsp with cornstarch.

Do I Have to Use All Three Types of Milk?

Yes, it wouldn't be three milk cake otherwise! The three types of milk work together to create a sweet, moist cake. You need all three to create the perfect tres leches cake.

How Long Does it Keep?

It should keep well in the refrigerator for about 3 days. Just keep in mind the whipped topping may not be as fluffy, if you'd prefer you can make stabilized whipped cream with gelatin (which holds up well for days) as noted in the dialogue of this recipe.

Tips for the Best Tres Leches Cake:

• Sift cake flour after you've measured it out. Cake flour is super fine so it clumps easily and sifting will break those up.
• Use room temperature eggs otherwise the mixture doesn't blend as well.
• Don't skip the 6 hour soaking time. Otherwise the cake may be dry and spongy if it hasn't soaked up the milks yet.
• Keep it cold. This cake is always best served well chilled, plus those milks need to be refrigerated anyway.
• Top with fresh strawberries or cinnamon for even more deliciousness!

More Mexican Dessert Recipes You'll Love:

• Churros
• Cheater Fried Ice Cream
• Mexican Wedding Cookies (AKA Snowballs)
• Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Sugar Chips
• Alfajores (Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies)
• Horchata

Tres Leches Cake

Tres Leches Cake is one of the best Mexican desserts! It a deliciously rich and moist, milk soaked cake that always gets compliments every time I make it. It's sweet and refreshing and even picky eaters love this tempting cake!

Cake

• 1 1/2 cups (200g) cake flour* ( (scoop and level to measure))
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
• 5 large eggs, (at room temperature*)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Milk mixture

• 1 1/4 cups (295ml) milk ((anything but skim))
• 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

Topping

• 2 cups (473ml) heavy cream
• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• Fresh sliced strawberries or cinnamon, (for garnish)

1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13 by 9-inch or 12 by 8-inch baking dish, set aside. 

2. Sift cake flour into a medium mixing bowl. Add in baking powder and salt and whisk 20 seconds, set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy.

4. Mix in eggs one at a time, blending until well combined after each addition. Mix in vanilla. 

5. Add in flour in 3 additions mixing just until combined after each addition. Remove mixing bowl from stand mixer and scape down sides and bottom of bowl and fold until evenly incorporated. 

6. Pour batter into prepared baking dish and spread into an even layer (it will seem like a thin layer).
7. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 24 - 28 minutes. 

8. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack, about 45 minutes. Once cool pierce cake many times all over with a long-pronged fork.

9. For the milk mixture: In a large mixing bowl whisk together milk, 1/2 cup heavy cream, the sweetened condensed milk and the evaporated milk until blended.

10. Pour evenly over cake then cover and chill at least 6 hours** or up to 3 days.

11. For the topping: In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer (or using the stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment) whip heavy cream until soft peaks form. 
12. Add in sugar and vanilla and whip until stiff peaks form. Spread over chilled cake. 

13. Cut cake into slices and serve cold garnished with strawberries or dust with cinnamon if desired. Store cake in refrigerator.

• To bring eggs to room temperature quickly place in a medium mixing bowl, cover with warm tap water and let rest 5 minutes.
• Cake flour offers a better texture here and better absorption. You can generally find it by the all-purpose flour in the baking isle.
• Be sure to allow at least 12 hours for the milks to soak into the cake otherwise it won't have enough time to soak in.
• Note that this makes a shorter style cake, but it works because cake is very rich so a taller slice may be too much.
• Recipe source: adapted slightly from allrecipes.

Recipe originally shared May, 2017. Step by step photos have been added and it has been noted to use room temperature eggs, I've found this works better. Read More »